Booking Process Redesign

Timeline

4 months

My role

Product Designer

Team

1 Product Owner, 1 Scrum Master, 7 Developers and 1 UX Researcher

Market

Germany

Goals

The solution should enable a seamless, friction-free transition between pages, present relevant information clearly, and empower brokers to make well-informed decisions efficiently.

Results

A redesigned questionnaire, product page, results page and booking flow, used by thousands of brokers across Germany.

Website

Visit Thinksurance

Project summary

I led the redesign of Thinksurance’s core booking journey used by over 45,000 insurance brokers in Germany and supporting annual revenue of over €5.6M. The platform helps brokers compare policies, prepare proposals and arrange cover for their clients.

I led a four-month redesign of that journey, working with product, research and engineering. We addressed difficult questionnaires, inconsistent comparisons and unclear booking steps. The resulting experience covered the questionnaire, product page, results and booking flow, and was used by thousands of brokers across Germany.

How it works

In the real world, brokers search for insurance policies that fit their clients' needs. This often involves asking questions and collecting documents like inspection reports or property valuations.

For example, Nelson, who runs a catering business, needs insurance. His broker, Daniel, gathers details about the business—its age, number of employees, and specific requirements. Using this information, Daniel identifies the most suitable policy.

Our platform simplifies this process by allowing brokers to compare policies, book insurance, and manage documents in one place, reducing paperwork and streamlining communication.

Challenge and strategy

The Booking Process revamp took place during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 90% of the team working remotely across time zones in Asia and Europe. Continuous communication was critical to avoid gaps and ensure smooth collaboration.

The project began in August 2021 by identifying various insurance brokers to understand their workflows and use cases. I collaborated with the Product Owner, who provided a business perspective, and the UX Researcher to gather data and define requirements through brainstorming sessions.

I adopted the Double Diamond Model to guide the team in building, iterating, and delivering efficiently. My contributions addressed key challenges by:

Creating User Flow Diagrams: Ensured developers had a clear understanding and alignment on workflows.

Wireframing User Journeys: Provided engineering with a foundation to build APIs.

Designing High-Fidelity Prototypes: Enabled the team to visualise solutions, validate business requirements, and secure sign-offs for implementation.

Problem statement

How might we improve the experience for insurance brokers selecting the best policies for their clients?

Use cases and pain points

We identified three major use cases of brokers during our research:

1. Uses the platform for tariff comparison.

2. Uses the platform to generate a proposal document.

3. Uses the platform to book an insurance policy for a client. Below is a persona captured for a Broker detailing motivations and frustrations.

Discovering the problem

Along with the UX Researcher and the Product Owner, I conducted user interviews and held brainstorming sessions to:

1. Ask questions about broker processes and establish use cases.

2. Understand pain points in the current solution or daily processes.

3. Validate assumptions that we held about certain workflows and processes.

Research findings

Opportunity

Getting this process right was critical as it formed the foundation of the platform. Additionally, it presented a significant opportunity to drive business value by increasing GWP, the company’s key revenue metric. Addressing these challenges would also support customer growth, improve retention rates, and meet market demand effectively.

Areas of focus

Following discussions with product owners and executive management, we identified and prioritised key areas of the platform that balanced business impact with feasibility, considering available resources and timelines:

Harmonised results page: Redesign the results page to display calculator outcomes and tender offers more intuitively.

Revamped information architecture (IA) and design for product page: Improve structure and usability for better navigation and clarity.

Streamlined booking process: Split the booking process into two distinct flows: Cover Order and Proposals, and organise information into steps.

Introduction of a review page: Allow users to review and confirm details before finalising actions.

Improved success page: Design a more intuitive success page to enhance user experience post-completion.

Defining the flows

I collaborated with the team to translate all the requirements and processes into user flow diagrams. These diagrams gave us a clearer picture of how users move through the platform and let us spot inefficiencies quickly. They also let us check with engineering that the flows were feasible to build.

Explorations

I took an iterative approach to designing pages and flows, maintaining constant communication with the team to ensure optimal user experience. I collaborated with the UX researcher to conduct A/B tests, quickly validating assumptions and refining designs based on feedback. Each flow was detailed and evaluated with the team to weigh pros and cons before finalising.

Results page

After selecting one or more products, brokers reach the results page, where they can view the tariffs for the products they’ve selected and compare two tariffs side by side.

Risk questionnaire

To get to the results page, a broker fills in a risk questionnaire, which gives an accurate picture of the business they are trying to insure. The calculator then analyses the answers and presents a list of relevant tariffs on the results page.

Booking flow

The booking flow is the final piece of the puzzle. After selecting a tariff(s) brokers can either send this as a proposal to client for review (not legally binding) or they can proceed to actually book this tariff for the client (legally binding).

Success page

The success page presented several improvement opportunities:

Track abandonment rates to identify where users drop off.

Provide booking status updates with clear next steps for brokers.

Generate policy documents for brokers automatically.

Introduce tools to measure customer satisfaction.

Measuring success

As our platform continues to grow in popularity among brokers and insurance policyholders, here are some metrics used to track success:

1. Customer Growth (acquisition): # of new users

2. Activity: #active users, time between activities, active sessions

3. User satisfaction: NPS, Usability score

4. Customer Loyalty: Retention rate, churn rate

5. Revenue growth: Conversion rate, GWP

The analytics tools we used included Heap, Hotjar and Mouseflow.

Key learnings

Shifting scope and strict technical limits on a core insurance journey taught me three things that still shape how I scope and defend design work.