There are a host of questions that insurance executives should ask themselves concerning product development. Here are a “baker’s dozen” product development questions that could form a beginning set for executives responsible for product development to ask themselves and their colleagues.

1. Does our company have a product development strategy?
2. What are the sources of our company’s product ideas?
3. Is there a specific time of year when our company begins to develop products?
4. Does our company develop products continually throughout the year?
5. What criteria does our company use to enhance existing products?
6. What criteria does our company use to remove existing products?
7. Which departments and functions are involved in the product development process?
8. Do departments and functions involved in product development remain in the process from ideation to market, or do they get in and out throughout the process?
9. When do our agents and brokers get involved in the process?
10. Where do our clients, specifically commercial P/C insurance clients, get involved in the process?
11. Which technologies—and their applications—does our company use throughout the product development process?
12. How does the intrinsic inclusion of technology within an insurance product or services (e.g., IoT) impact our company’s product development strategy (and process)?
13. When do participants of various firms in our company’s ecosystems get involved in the product development process, if ever?

Related article: The Missing Link in Your Product Development DNA

The content in this checklist and the related article were influenced by and excerpted from Rabkin’s recently published book, titled “From Stone Tablets to Satellites: The Continued Intimate but Awkward Relationship Between the Insurance Industry and Technology.” The book was published on June 28, 2022 by Wells Media Group.