Markel | Underwriter Workbook
Underwriter Workbook
Markel, Spring 2018 - Present
UX Design / UX Research / Contextual Inquiry / Service Design / Process Efficiency / Information Architecture / Wireframes / Mockups / Usability Testing / Full Stack Web Development
Outcomes
Designed a responsive web portal that consolidates data from and integrates with various source systems, delivers transparent statistical & actuarial-backed decision-making guidance from leadership, enhances underwriters’ ability to track renewal status and actions taken, & continues to be iterated upon to house new features & launch new business initiatives
Cut renewal information gathering time in half & has become a key tool in the daily workflow of nearly 900 underwriters across the US
Quotes
“We really appreciate the work that your team has put into the Underwriter Workbook. In my personal opinion, it is one of the best technology driven underwriting resources we have at Markel Specialty. Integrating claims information into this makes it basically a one stop shot for our underwriting teams to manage the renewal book. It truly acts as the bridge between all our disparate systems. Thanks for the great work!”
“Overall, great tool to use. Very user friendly and gives you just about all the information you need for a renewal.”
“I keep a tab with the workbook open all day.”
Brief
Markel is a global Fortune 500 insurance company based in Richmond, Virginia. As a sprawling enterprise that’s grown largely through acquisition, their data is all over the place, hiding in disparate systems that underwriters need to flip between to understand the full story of a policy and its loss history. I was hired because this piecemeal approach was increasingly inefficient, monotonous, and even misleading, leading to questionable decisions on renewals because of data blind spots. Markel needed a portal that consolidated that data for its employees, rather than expecting them to have 5 tabs of different systems open at all times.
Simultaneously, leadership was beginning to prescribe more rate guidance and other suggested actions to underwriters, and they wanted to deliver that effectively and gauge how it was being implemented. Of course the only tool they had at their disposal to do so was spreadsheets. The number of enormous spreadsheets filled with potentially stale data being emailed back and forth constantly was astounding, and another side of the same coin - a distinct source of insights that needed to be weighed in the renewal decision-making process.
Design Question
How can we consolidate data and insights to provide underwriters with everything they need to make decisions on policy renewals in one place?
Process
Identified our first key stakeholder in leadership who was disseminating rate guidance via emailed spreadsheets, and convinced him of the value potential of the portal with his rate calculation rules engine and feedback mechanism as the first feature.
Performed a contextual inquiry to observe how underwriters in his product approached the renewal and rate consideration process. Formed a list of necessary fields to present in the table and time ranges of expiration dates. Learned that transparency into why a rate is being suggested is key or they don’t trust it.
Performed a contextual inquiry to observe how he was using rate guidance action taken feedback in reporting and decision-making to inform the design of a companion QlikSense monitoring report to track portfolio health and guidance.
Created wireframes of initial thoughts and demoed them for Matt, iterating until we reached a consensus, then demoed them for the underwriters from the prior contextual inquiry to confirm their needs were being met.
Constructed a material design system for Markel based on brand color and font guidelines.
Collaborated with data engineers to design the database and information architecture.
Developed the web portal (Python Flask backend, Vue.js frontend, SQLite database) and a caching process to refresh the data each night. Integrated with Markel AD for authentication and locked down security by product line.
Conducted usability testing with a handful of underwriters and launched in beta, validating that it was intuitive to use, iterating on any visible pain points, and developing low-touch user training based on their questions.
Successfully launched for the first product line and quickly received requests to expand to other products, implement new guidance delivery features, integrate with more systems, create alerts to keep underwriters proactively aware of new claims and notable expiring policies, utilize AI search capabilities, and much more. Regularly check-in with users via annual surveys to guage pain points and desired new features and manage customer relationships and maintenance via the tool’s mailbox. Approach each new feature from a user-centered lens, starting with co-design to ideate solutions with users, demoing early and often for stakeholders, and prioritizing usability and low-touch onboarding. Will expand with more in-depth case studies eventually, but it’s admittedly daunting - the majority of my work at Markel for the past 5 years has been adjacent to the Underwriter Workbook. The goal was to become the one-stop shop and it was certainly achieved.
** Design artifacts to come - figuring out data security & ability to share publicly **