Overview
Voice of advisor is Sun Life's approach to listening, co-creating & co-innovating with third-party advisors to solve the problems that matter to them: to make it easier to do business with us and better serve their clients.
In short it's Sun Life's private version of usertesting.com
Problem
- We typically launch products without advisor input
- Advisors felt unheard and excluded from the product development process
- We were typically prescriptive & reactive vs empathetic and proactive
- Regional Sales Directors were the gatekeepers of any advisor feedback
- Product and design teams couldn't interface directly with advisors
- Product and design team were making decisions without enough data
- No proper system for tracking, collecting and monitoring feedback after launch
Outcomes from problem
- Product launch fails
- Lost, forgotten and scattered research
- Frustrated clients
- Poor experiences for advisors
Purpose
- Co-create with advisors
- Co-innovate with advisors
- Develop signature & remarkable client and advisor solutions
- Have a disciplined approach to collecting feedback & data
Objectives
- Have a database or panel of advisors ready to provide feedback at a moments notice
- Increase collaboration between SLF & Advisors by having a direct relationship with them
- Single source of truth for all research (repository)
- Repository should be centralized & organized efficiently
- It should also be searchable, scalable and shareable across teams,
- Democratize research within the organization
Goal
- Prove this solution is needed to get more funding to scale even larger.
Users & Audience
- 3P advisors: these are independent business owners who can sell Sun Life products as well as competitor products
Roles & Responsibilities
UX Architect & Lead Strategist
- Visionary, pioneer and creator of this platform
- Responsible for providing strategy, direction, and roadmap for the future of the Voice of Advisor program.
- Responsible for research and getting executive buy-in
- Designing journey, wireframes and prototypes
Design & research toolkit
- Research Methods: Competitive and client research
- Design Thinking
- Wireframing
- Figma
Scope
- English & French platforms
- MVP to prove this works
Process
1. UX Research & Strategy
Observation
Having been at Sun Life for 2+ years at this particular moment (2019), I had observed and seen where the short comings were. Having witnessed launched product fail and complaints from advisors, I had a pretty good idea of the problem and was in position to put a hypothesis in place to test through research. My first action was to map our current state against the design thinking model, and then grade us accordingly.
The purpose of this was:
- To give everyone a clear visual of what the design innovation cycle looks like and how we rank against it.
- To get an immediate reaction from leaders to see if this was true - they agreed
2. Research
The purpose of doing research were as follows:
- Hear from key internal partners to make sure i wasn't being biased
- Prove or disprove my observations and current state mapping
- Draw common themes from the research with my hypothesis
- Come to a place where we can define the problem and solve
Interviews
I interviewed key leaders who were responsible strategic areas that were impacted by these problems.
- AVP Product development
- VP Product distribution
- Director Sales
- Regional Sales Director
The following responses are direct quotes from my interviewees.
Challenges/Barriers
- "SLF isn't listening - they think everything is great but it's not"
- "We've burnt that feedback bridge over and over again"
- "They don't feel heard and listened to"
- "We don't have a formal process for gathering feedback"
- "We don't have a method for prioritizing feedback"
- "There's no way to quantify feedback into insights"
- Disconnect between distribution, process and product
Root causes
- "We have a prescriptive culture"
- "We suffer from the attitude that we know better"
- "There is a stigma that advisors are just sales people. Thats not true."
- "There is no natural connectivity between departments
- "Product will only talk to distribution, if distribution asks"
3. Getting Executive buy-in
It was important to get executive buy-in to get this project moving. The reason for getting executive buy-in were as follows:
- Bring alignment between leaders, internal teams and sales teams
- Certain barriers cannot be overcome unless executives push it
- Show the importance, effect and impact this could have on the business
- Get funding to implement this project.
In order to get executive buy-in, I put all the research, insights and strategy into a clear story that gives them an accurate picture of how this will work and how we will achieve our goals. This worked and eventually got us 100K+ in funding to implement the project.
4. Mapping out a high-level solution Journey
Refined high-level solution journey
4. Defining Metrics
- Number of signups
- Engagement rate for studies
- Peer to peer engagement
- Advisor satisfaction
- Number of solutions launched
5. Bringing in a third-party platform
Once I defined metrics, designed journey and got executive sign off, it was time to find a third-party software that had the features to help us provide this solution to advisors and our teams. We worked with out tech stack teams, compliance, risk etc and finally chose Alida to move forward with.
6. Challenges
Shifting culture within a legacy institution
Perhaps, this was the biggest challenge. Picture a 150 year old organization used to doing things in a particular way. RSD's were the only ones allowed to interface with advisors. Changing that in order for teams to have direct access was no small feat. Nevertheless, we prevailed and made it happen.
Not enough budget to build our custom platform.
One of the challenges was that, we didn't have enough budget to build our own custom platform and so we went with a third-party app that provided us with the features we were looking for
Finding the right third-party platform.
This wasn't easy to find. We looked at multiple platforms to figure out which one would provide us with the best features. This took months of work but, we finally landed on https://www.alida.com/
MVP
This was an MVP. The whole idea was also to test if this Voice of the Advisor program was viable and sustainable before throwing more money into it. We achieved that goal and demonstrated to the whole organization it works. This was made possible by the amazing outcomes we had in running this program for 2 years.
Outcomes
After running the program for 2 years, we had the following outcomes:
- Democratized user experience research and spurred a culture of human-centered design within Insurance Solutions
- 250 advisors are on the platform with a 40% engagement rate.
- 80% third-party advisor satisfaction survey score after 2 years of the program launch.
- In 2021 we ran 20 research studies (surveys, interviews & design thinking workshops) in 2021 which resulted in decisions that impacted the build of new and innovative products.
- Enhanced advisor experience
- Moved from gut decision making to data driven and informed
- 3 major solutions launched, 3 still in progress
Bringing the Experience in-house: Designing a custom App
Although we saw success in the last two years, there were still some issues we faced that made us consider building our own platform. They were as follows:
- We had to piece different technologies together as our needs for certain features grew
- Change in executive direction to make it more global - to serve the entire industry
In order to bring it in-house, i had to go back to the drawing board to see what our own app could look like.
Design principles
Sitemap
Once the design principles were established, it was time to map out the app to fully comprehend the user journey, flow and experience. This makes it clearer for both designers and devs to have a solid idea on the structure of the app. This allows for us to create an optimal user experience by reducing friction where necessary.
Wireframes
In order to know what to build, we first of all have to determine what it's going to look like and how its going to function. Wireframes helped me determine the look and functionality of keep screens before jumping into high-fidelity prototypes.
Onboarding flow templates
Home & studies screen flow templates
Screen Design: High-fidelity prototypes
High fidelity prototypes allow us to see how elements will be laid out visually and how they interact with each other to ensure we are communicating effectively. This stage of the process helps us to also prototype interactivity for usability testing before it goes into development. In order to do that, I first had to establish the basics. Color, type, patterns, components, buttons etc.
Advisor Onboarding
The first major benefit to call out during the onboarding process was the fact that, their voice is important, powerful and can be used to shape the future of the our products, experiences and even industry.
It was important to ask profiling questions that will allow us to know them better so we can push the right studies to them. This also doubled as a place where we could have the most accurate information on our advisors.
The purpose of this screen was to re-inforce and celebrate them for making the right decision to be part of this program. I also wanted to demonstrate that this is is a partnership that will benefit both parties.
Home Feed
I treated the home feed as a timeline of recent activities that took place on the application. This gave it a dynamic feel and made it more engaging. Again, i reinforced the message that their voices are important and needed. The home feed was designed to drive up engagement by completing or participating in studies. I opted for a card based ui to make it easier to read and digest.
Considering our audience it was important for us to make things very easy and simple as possible. At the tap of a button, their seat for an upcoming discussion has been reserved.
One of the biggest things i wanted the advisors to see was the impact they were making on our product and design decisions. As part of their home feed, i made it possible for them to see results from studies they had completed. This also acted as a way for us to have some leeway. If majority didn't want a feature, then those that wanted it had visibility into why the product teams wouldn't implement it.
Continuing on the theme of driving engagement, advisors can take studies instantly by tapping the yellow button or viewing more details about the study.
Studies interface
The studies interface is where advisors go to see all of the studies that are pushed to them. They can filter by the pill button at the top to help them esily find studies they are interested in. On this page, they get a bit more information to help them make a decision to start the study.
If the advisor should hit learn more, it will bring them to another interface where they can even see more detailed information like:
- which team is doing this research
- Who the team lead is
- what category it belongs in
Messaging
Notifications
Lessons
When given the chance, prove the value
With little budget, i learned to maximize the output of this program. I learned that trust is earned not given. Trust is also based on how much results you deliver. Therefore, being able to get more funding to take this program to the next level meant a lot.
2. Make Bold Moves
I learned not to be afraid to champion change where I believed it needed to happen. I believed removing RSD's from being gatekeepers so we could interface directly with advisors would help us build better solutions. Although it wasn't easy, I was bold enough to take the risk of making it happen.
Fear leaves the works undone. Be bold and proceed - Frederick Sappor
3. Collaboration
This probably is the most important lesson. Although I have written about just my part, it took a multidisciplinary team of marketers, writers, project managers to get this project done. Speaking the different languages of various stakeholders was key to the success of this project. For executives I had to talk about the impact on ROI, for marketers it was about awareness and lead generation. Understanding and appreciating what everyone brought to the table was a game-changer.
T’challa: 2 people in a room can get more done than a 100 people
King T’chaka: Unless you need to move a grand piano
- From the Black Panther movie