QBE - Broker Experience & Product policy design
Research, product design and testing as part of the new broker experience
I was asked to work with QBE CX team to conduct a user research to improve the SME liability policy product and help brokers to use their policy more efficiently.
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Category:
User research, product design
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About this project
QBE is an Australian-based global insurance company. As part of their strategic objectives, QBE undertook research to find out about pain points with their broker experience and initiated a new project to redesign the experience.
The first initiative that came out from the initial research was to modernise the product policy design into one which is easier to understand for customers and practical to use for brokers.
The Goal
Working collaboratively with QBE’s CX team, my role was to assist and manage the research, new product design and testing activities to identify opportunity areas.
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Once the new product policy was tested with brokers and improved, the goal was to apply the new modern design to the other policies and create a new digital experience as part of the new broker experience.
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Challenges and Approach
My approach was to first understand the context and do desktop research to become familiar with the environment. Following the desktop research, I identified key stakeholders to interview in order to understand the challenges in the business and the work that has been done before. I then extended my research to outside of the company. As the product policy to redesign was a general liability product for Small Businesses, I needed to understand Small Business owner’s challenges, their decision criteria when choosing an insurance company and their interactions.
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After going through different product policies in the market and the previous designs of the policy done by QBE, I suggested conducting broker interviews and testing the product policy to would provide insights to help finalise the product design and enhance further the broker experience.
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I conducted 12 interviews of up to 90 minutes with brokers based in Sydney and Melbourne with another person from the QBE team. I tested hypotheses of whether the scenarios were helping brokers and if the new policy would improve their selling. I explored the needs of what would make a broker’s everyday life easier and improve further their performance and relationship with customers.
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We documented the findings and identified opportunity areas, such as quick wins, to improve the product policy with a more digital focus and proposed long-term initiatives to implement in the next 6 to 12 months to enhance the overall broker experience. I suggested a roadmap of initiatives to implement in three phases as part of the broader broker experience.
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The findings and the roadmap were shared with QBE stakeholders at a playback session and actions were approved for Phase 1.
Successful Outcomes
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QBE’s key stakeholders were very happy with the outcome and I received personal praise from the Chief Underwriter Officer.
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Brokers were pleasantly surprised with the modernised policy wording. They felt the ease of use of the policy wording would reduce the effort required to read and comprehend information.
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The majority of brokers recorded a positive impact on their everyday life with the new policy wording.
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Most brokers showed a digital appetite and willingness to shift to a paperless environment, which confirmed the need for a new digitised experience.
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Some brokers saw the potential of using the new policy wording as a training tool for junior brokers which was an unexpected outcome.
Parts of the final stakeholder workshop at the end of the research phase.
