Pacific Life | Online Health History
Accelerating life insurance underwriting for a new market.
THE CHALLENGE
The current medical underwriting process at Pacific Life can take 2-3 months to complete.
The underwriting process typically requires a lengthy telephone interview with an underwriting specialist and an in-person visit from a paramedical examiner. If you’ve ever applied for life insurance, you know how time-consuming, redundant and tedious this process can be.
While creating the Online Health History platform, we explored the following question:
How might we accelerate the underwriting application process through an improved digital experience?
My Role & Responsibilities
CX Strategy
UX Design Research
The Process
UX Research
Insight Articulation
UX/UI Design
THE PROCESS
We compiled a list of assumptions and business requirements necessary to launch a new online health history platform.
Original user flow map, created in collaboration with engineers, business analysts and the product owner
UX RESEARCH
I facilitated a month-long UX research plan, ranging from empathy interviews to initial lo-fidelity prototype testing, with individuals who could provide insight in the following areas:
UI/UX Experts
Financial Advisors
Potential Life Insurance Customers
Life Insurance Underwriting Specialists
Hi-fidelity prototype testing for chatbot feature
Hi-fidelity prototype testing for underwriting script question
Notes and key takeaways from user research interviews
After leading our UX team through qualitative research synthesis, we identified 4 key insights.
Take advantage of digital interactions. Online Health History isn’t just an online form; it must be an intentional and unmistakable digital experience.
Be reassuring. Reassurance is key to encourage honesty and trust in the process, especially in areas where responses are commonly misrepresented.
Make it simple. Deliver radical simplicity, in spite of the company’s complex technical infrastructure and organizational ecosystem.
Prioritize progress. Design momentum so it feels like we’re always moving the process forward.
Insight articulation workshop
These insights directly informed the UX/UI approach we took for the design prototyping phase. In a large stakeholder share, I refined our insights and recommendations to share with the business analysts, engineers, and UX design team.
I complied the research findings for stakeholder groups and illustrated examples of our UX recommendations.
Rewrite underwriting interview questions to be more user-friendly and reduce cognitive burnout.
Illustrate progress at every step of the customer journey to set expectations and anticipate questions.
Leverage iconography and illustration to engage users and increase question comprehension.
Integrate with autofill, autocomplete and auto lookup to accelerate completion rates.
THE SOLUTION
A mobile-first health history questionnaire.
THE PROCESS
We created an updated user flow, showcasing key moments of the questionnaire while integrating our CX insights.
Sample of initial wire flow
I partnered with the underwriting and compliance departments to rewrite the highly technical medical forms.
I spent a significant portion of this project partnering directly with the underwriting specialists to rewrite the original medical history questions, adapting the tone, voice, and length for digital media.
EXAMPLE OF AN ORIGINAL UNDERWRITING QUESTION
Except for HIV, have you taken medication, been diagnosed, treated, tested postive for, or been given medical advice by a member of the medical profession for any of the following conditions: tumor, leukemia, lymphoma, malignant melanoma, cyst, lipoma, lump, mass, or polyps?
EXAMPLE OF RE-WRITTEN QUESTION + RESPONSES
Finally, we illustrated an improved customer journey, spotlighting key features and benefits for both the client and the financial advisor.
Through robust customer experience research, actionable insights, and an updated (and compliance-approved) script, the UX team developed an end-to-end customer journey. This asset was distributed across the life insurance teams and departments to educate and align stakeholders on key features, value, and desired outcomes of the Online Health History platform.
Customer storyboard walk-through featuring Alex Fernandez, our user persona
Want to learn more about this project?
Contact me at lucy@darbydesignco.com to schedule a conversation.