Project Overview
The Product
Awakening Financial Group is a life insurance company based out of South Jordan, Utah. They partner with independent insurance agents and major insurance companies, allowing their agents to sell policies for those insurance companies.
Project Duration
August 2022 – September 2023
The Problem
New insurance agents need to have an insurance license and active contracts with insurance companies in order to be able to write policies. However, for independent agents, navigating these steps can be a confusing process. As a result, many new agents quit before they are able to get into the field because they get confused by the paperwork.
The Goal
Design a web application where insurance agents can learn how to get an insurance license, how to get contracted with insurance carriers, and how to ask for help if they run into questions.
My Role
- Researcher
- UX Designer
- Developer
Responsibilities
- Understanding user needs and requirements
- Conduct interviews
- Design site hierarchy
- Establish style guidelines / visual design
- Build website
Understanding the User
Pain Points
I spoke with stakeholders and insurance agents and identified the following pain points:
Communication
Agents did not know who they could ask questions to. They would run into an issue and would not be able to finish their paperwork.
Inconsistency
The process of getting contracted with the carriers, changed over time. As a result, new agents would be told wrong information by agents who were already in the field
Cost
Awakening Financial Group would pay for each new agent to get licensed and contracted. As a result, they lost money every time an agent left and they would have to hire a new one.
Designs
Userflows and Requirements
I created userflows for a design that would:
- Allow Managers to easily add new team members to the company CRM without needing to navigate to another site
- Walk new agents through the steps to get their insurance license
- Walk new agents through the steps to get contracted with insurance companies
Design
I sketched low fideity designs using paper and pencil and then moved on to building the project. Because I was using a WordPress builder which is easy to use and update, I designed directly in WordPress instead making a high fidelity mockup in Figma.
I created interactive checklists that agents could reference as they go through the onboarding process. These checklists include videos, screenshots, links to relevant websites, and links to additional support articles and resources I created. Here are some screenshots from the website:
Usability Studies
I am in the process of gathering user feedback. I am conducting user interviews with agents who go through the process to identify additional pain points. I have also installed heat mapping and analytics with the goal of identifying patterns in user behavior and opportunities for improvements.
Going Forward
Impact
Every agent who joins the company will need to go through onboarding. Because confusion around licensing and contracting has been one of the biggest reasons agents have quit, we hope that updates to this process will have a direct impact on company growth. Prior to the updates, portions of the onboarding process were taking some agents weeks to complete. With the new website, we hope to simplify the process so those steps could be completed in as little as an afternoon.
What I learned
I learned about requirement gathering and working independently. For most of my projects, I have been able to work with a large team and often with a project manager. However, for this project, I was asked by the client to find a way to improve the process. Although it was challenging for me, I was able to reach out to various stakeholders and users to learn about the process and to find ways to improve it. As a result, I gained a deeper appreciation for project management.
Next Steps
My next steps are to focus on user research. I hope to be able to conduct interviews and usability tests to look for new opportnunities to improve the onboarding process.