Bringing diversity and inclusion to insurance customers in Asia pacific

A worldwide insurance company approached MAKE with the vision of creating a more inclusive and customer-centred future for the insurance industry.

The insurance company’s noble mission was to ensure minorities and diverse people who were underinsured could find more suitable products and services, championing a progressive mindset and community accessibility for insurance. e Focused on  LGBTQ+ populations, people living with disability, the elderly and minority groups for this round, the insurance company sought MAKE’s help to improve access to insurance, create more inclusive insurance products, and foster comfortable service interactions for these groups. 

Together with the DEI team at the insurance company, we embarked on a project to apply Service Design and Design Thinking to help solve the question, “how might we help them become the preferred insurer for diverse communities and groups across Asia, thus creating a more inclusive insurance landscape?”

To take on the task of making insurance inclusive, we worked together with the insurance company to break down silos and collaborate across Asian markets for research, ideation and planning to imagine and map improved service experiences to five diverse communities in focus: LGBTQ+, ethnicity diverse, people living with disabilities, gender diversity and low socioeconomic status.

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To do this we modelled our approach using Design Thinking and empathy mapping tools to get a greater sense for each community’s challenges, barriers, pain points, motivations and desires. We engaged by listening and learning to give voice to these underrepresented groups, enabling us to empathise with their situations.

Together with their team we designed and created an innovative 11 week ‘Diversity in Action’ pilot programme, and invited 25 employees from 4 key Asia markets to work through and understand barriers and challenges to diverse communities. Together we explored their experiences with insurance to improve existing products and service, foster new  ideas and create a plan for how to iterate and introduce them.

Following implementation of the program, they saw a regional mindset shift to that of shared understanding and a positive attitude towards making changes, boosting the confidence and willingness of the team in making a difference to their new audience sets lives. Participants felt more connected and appreciated for who they are, as well as capable to apply Design Thinking and Service Design techniques in their own roles.

The pilot programme developed 482 different ideas to foster inclusion and a sense of belonging for their customers across their journey.

We worked with senior market leaders to choose one short-term, one medium-term and one long-term idea for each market, selecting a total of 15 ideas to progress into a detailed design and delivery phase.

To wrap up the program, these ideas were presented to a group of regional senior leaders to help build on them and showcase the insurance company’s vision to continue championing insurance access and inclusion for diverse communities.