Overview
In 2018, Polly Insurance implemented an in-dealership web application for car salespeople. It was a bare bones system with a mission to get car salespeople to connect their customers with Polly Insurance agents. If a car salesperson connected their customer with a Polly Insurance agent, they would earn a referral fee of $25. The car dealership feedback was positive and the proof of market fit was validated.
In 2020, Polly hired me as the Director of Product Design to lead the vision and strategy for the company’s product line. I worked as an individual contributor on this project, along with managing a small team of 1 other Product Designer and a User Researcher.
My Role
During my time as the Director of Product Design @ Polly, I contributed as the individual lead Product Designer on this project and saw it through from initial sketches to MVP to continuing iterations and new features.
Timeline
~ Q2 2022
Discovery & Research
~ Q3 2022
Design & Feedback
~ Q4 2022
Build & Launch MVP
Ongoing 2023
Iterate & Add New Features
Discovery & Research
The interface in 2020
A bare bones form with lots of fields for the user to fill in.
User Interviews
I worked with our in-house User Researcher to conduct interviews with 12 car salespeople and 4 dealership managers. We prepared an interview script with 8 open-ended questions, focusing on their motivation and typical sales routine. The interviews were recorded and uploaded to Dovetail so we could easily share them out with a larger audience and reference throughout the project.
Key Findings:
Primary motivation: Money
Secondary motivation: Competition with colleagues
Biggest hurdle: First time car buyers who do not currently have insurance
Everyone agreed: There is lots of room for improvement when it comes to car insurance & buying a new car
User Personas
Car Salesperson
Car Dealership Manager
Internal Polly Admin
Polly Insurance Agent
Car Buying Customer
User Flows
First time car buyer
Home owner car buyer
Car buyer with multiple vehicles
Car buyer with multiple drivers
Defining the MVP features
Enter customer info
First name, Last name, Date of birth, Parking address, Cell phone
Enter vehicle info
Year, Make, Model OR VIN
Send info to Polly Insurance
Get customer on phone with Polly Insurance
Mark deal as referral earned
Pay out referral fee
The ‘Minimum Viable Product’ is a challenging part of designing a product. Each team member and stake holder may have a different perspective on what needs to be in the MVP. Our team worked hard to keep the features in the MVP to an absolute minimum so we could launch quickly and get feedback faster. An integral part of the product plan is clearly & consistently communicating to the stakeholders which features will be included in the MVP. I accomplished this with clear, simple slides illustrating the MVP plan.
Feature 1: Compliance Training
Summary
The Department of Insurance requires Polly to track & store evidence that users have read & understand the legalities around insurance sales in their state.
Objectives
User should understand the legalities around selling insurance
User should understand how referral fees are earned