Core Policy System Modernization

ASSA Compañía de Seguros — Central America
Product Designer → Product Owner–oriented Role
⏱ 3.5 years | 🌎 Multi-country platform

🧩 Product Overview

Product: Core Policy Administration System
Users: Technical users, underwriters, operations, supervisors, managers
Markets: Multiple countries across Central America
Type: Internal, mission-critical enterprise platform

What this product does:

The core policy system manages the entire insurance policy lifecycle, including:

  • Policy issuance

  • Renewals

  • Endorsements

  • Cancellations

It is a backbone system used daily by multiple departments with different business rules per country.

💡 As a Product designer, I focused on aligning user needs, business rules, and technical feasibility across markets.

🎯 Problem Definition

Business & User Problems

  • Legacy workflows were slow, error-prone, and hard to scale

  • High learning curve for new users

  • Inconsistent experiences between countries

  • Limited visibility into user pain points and system performance

Business Risks

  • Operational inefficiencies

  • Increased support and training costs

  • Resistance to adoption

  • Difficulty evolving the platform

🧠 My Role

Although my title was Product Designer, my responsibilities strongly aligned with Product Owner / Product Manager functions.

I acted as the bridge between users, business stakeholders, and development teams, owning the problem space and solution definition.

I collaborated with:

  • Technical users across multiple business departments

  • Users from different Central American countries

  • Managers and supervisors defining operational priorities

  • Developers and engineering teams defining feasible solutions

🔍 Discovery & Requirements Definition

What I did as a PD:

  • Gathered and synthesized requirements from multiple countries and departments

  • Identified shared vs. local needs to avoid fragmentation

  • Prioritized problems based on business impact and user pain

  • Translated complex insurance rules into clear user workflows

Research & Discovery Tools

  • Surveys & structured feedback → Microsoft Forms

  • Usability testing & task success metrics → Maze

  • Discovery workshops & journey mapping → FigJam

  • Behavioral insights & friction analysis → Hotjar

Output: Clear problem statements, validated workflows, and prioritized feature improvements.

🗺 Defining the Solution

Core Product Decisions

  • Standardize workflows while allowing regional flexibility

  • Reduce cognitive load in high-risk tasks

  • Improve clarity in decision points and validations

  • Design for scalability and future insurance products

Key Workflows Redesigned

  • Policy issuance

  • Renewals

  • Endorsements

  • Cancellations

Each flow was redesigned end-to-end, from input logic to edge cases.

🧪 Validation & Iteration

Before and after implementation, I ensured solutions were validated through:

  • Usability testing with real users

  • Task completion and effort measurement

  • Continuous feedback loops with supervisors and managers

  • Close collaboration with developers during implementation

This reduced rework and increased adoption at launch.

📈 Outcomes & Impact

Product Metrics

  • ~80% user satisfaction

  • Customer Effort Score (CES): 4.5 / 5

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): 50

Business Impact

  • Increased adoption across regions

  • Reduced errors in critical policy operations

  • Faster onboarding for new users

  • Improved alignment between business rules and system behavior

These metrics validated both product decisions and prioritization strategy.

Siguiente

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