“It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
Executive Summary
The creation of an insurance product is not an easy task. With the collaboration DNA, product development will be difficult. Without collaboration, the development process will be close to impossible to accomplish, writes veteran insurance and technology analyst Barry Rabkin in this article inspired by a section of his recently published book, "From Stone Tablets to Satellites: The Continued Intimate but Awkward Relationship Between the Insurance Industry and Technology." Here, he explains why and some solutions to the challenges of pulling together insurance professionals from different functions, companies and geographies working in different time periods. FIFTH IN A SERIESThere are several customer-facing facets an insurance company shows its customers about itself. These include the agents and brokers who interact with customers, the various administrative service communications which respond (or don’t) to customer queries, the internal and third-party claim adjudicators working with clients to manage loss events, advertisements on traditional and social media, and insurance products which carriers offer (or remove from) the marketplace.
Although listed last, insurance products represent a very critical facet that customers see of the carriers with which they decide to conduct commerce. For both customers and insurance companies, insurance products represent a tangible expression of a carrier’s willingness to accept, or reject, various types of risk at a point in time.
As viewed through the lens of the product mix it offers the market, an insurer’s risk appetite should always be in a state of constant redefinition. The flux of products should be shaped by the continually shifting risk landscape—the changing needs of customers, producers and the company itself. Product development succeeds when the new, or enhanced, product simultaneously gets and keeps customers, satisfies the expectations of producers, but most importantly, generates profit for the insurance company.
