Insurance appears in people’s lives at moments when uncertainty is high and decisions are critical.
From taking out a policy to managing a claim, the relationship with the insurer is deeply tied to protection, trust, and responsiveness.
In recent years, digitalisation, the emergence of new risks, and changing customer expectations have transformed how insurance services are designed and experienced.
In this context, the challenge for insurers is not only to offer coverage, but to design services that support people, provide clarity, and respond effectively in the moments that really matter.
Strategic design helps address this complexity by enabling organisations to improve customer experience in insurance, design clearer insurance services, and develop new propositions in insurance innovation contexts.
Challenges and pain points in the insurance sector
Insurance companies operate in an environment where product complexity and moments of use shape the experience:
In insurance, experience is not built only at the moment of purchase, but in how the service responds when the customer truly needs it.
What can strategic design bring to the insurance sector?
The main challenge in insurance today is not only to offer coverage, but to make the value of insurance tangible in people’s lives.
Strategic design makes it possible to address this challenge through an integrated approach, connecting research, strategic definition, and solution design.
We help organisations to:
Understand how people perceive risk and what they expect from an insurer in times of need
Translate complex products into services that are clear, understandable, and useful
Design experiences that support customers in critical moments such as claims
Identify opportunities beyond traditional coverage
Align strategy, operations, and experience to deliver coherent responses
Build trust-based relationships that endure over time
Rather than simply designing products, we approach insurance as a service that must prove its value in the moments when it matters most.
If you are working on any of these challenges in the insurance sector, we can help you analyse them in more detail and identify where the main opportunities lie.
When an insurer needs strategic design
An insurance company typically needs this kind of approach when it:
Needs to improve customer experience in insurance at key moments such as claims
Wants to simplify complex products or coverage
Is looking to innovate beyond the traditional policy
Detects inconsistencies across channels or touchpoints
Wants to design new insurance services
How we work
We address challenges in the insurance sector by combining research, strategy, and design as part of a continuous process, not as isolated phases, especially in contexts of high complexity, regulation, and critical customer moments.
Our process is structured around five key moments:
01
Understanding the context
02
Research
03
Strategic definition
04
Solution design
05
Iteration and implementation
How this work takes shape in the insurance sector
In our work with insurers, these approaches translate into projects that directly address the relationship between customer, service, and moments of need.
For example, we work in contexts such as:
Each of these projects is approached with the understanding that the value of insurance lies not only in the coverage itself, but in how the service is experienced.
We have worked on these kinds of challenges through strategic research, service design, and value proposition definition across different insurance contexts.
Our approach
At Ikigai, we work from a strategic and systemic design perspective, understanding that insurance is part of a complex ecosystem involving multiple actors, processes, and moments.
We apply Life-Centered Design principles, expanding the focus beyond the user to consider the impact of solutions on:
People and their relationship with risk
Organisations and their operating model
The environment in which they operate
This allows us to design services that are more relevant, understandable, and aligned with real needs.
