Streamlining a D2C Insurance Marketplace

Background

As a Business Analyst at Sendero Management Consulting, I was selected to join a national health insurance marketplace clients' digital transformation initiative to evolve their Direct-to-Consumer platform. This project aimed to revolutionize how consumers shop for insurance by creating an intuitive digital experience optimized for both desktop and mobile devices with two key components:

• A guided "Health Wizard" specifically designed to simplify the complex insurance selection process during the critical annual open enrollment season

• A comparison tool that allowed consumers to evaluate different insurance options outside of open enrollment periods

Challenge

The client needed to extend their agent-focused tools to serve consumers directly through their website, requiring:

• Creation of an intuitive Health Wizard optimized for the critical open enrollment season when most consumers make insurance decisions

• Development of a complementary year-round comparison tool to maintain engagement outside of open enrollment

• Responsive design implementation to ensure seamless experiences across desktop and mobile devices

• Development of quote and enrollment functionality integrated with backend systems

• User experience design that reduced the complexity of insurance shopping on screens of all sizes

• Agile delivery of features within tight market timelines, particularly to meet the open enrollment deadline

• Translation of business requirements into actionable development tasks

• Differentiated user journeys for time-sensitive open enrollment vs. exploratory year-round shopping

• Consistent data and functionality across platform versions

  
  

Solution Approach

Discovery & Requirements Gathering

• Led requirement gathering sessions with business stakeholders to define user stories and acceptance criteria for both the open enrollment Health Wizard and the year-round comparison tool

• Collaborated with marketing/UX teams to align business requirements with optimal user experiences, accounting for different user mindsets during open enrollment vs. other periods

• Developed a systems approach to visualize the entire user journey through both the Health Wizard and comparison tool

• Created detailed user flows and process documentation that accounted for seasonal variations in consumer behavior

• Identified key integration points between the time-sensitive Health Wizard and the evergreen comparison functionality

• Ensured requirements addressed the unique constraints and opportunities of both mobile and desktop experiences

• Documented platform-specific considerations to ensure consistency across device types

  
  

Agile Implementation

• Functioned as a Business Analyst within an Agile development framework

• Wrote comprehensive user stories that translated business needs into technical requirements for both mobile and desktop platforms

• Facilitated backlog refinement sessions and worked with developers to estimate effort across platform versions

• Created a visual workflow tracking system that was adopted team-wide and displayed prominently to track project progress

• Participated in daily stand-ups and sprint reviews to maintain momentum

• Coordinated with front-end developers to ensure responsive design principles were implemented correctly

• Collaborated with QA to develop testing scenarios for multiple devices and screen sizes

Quality Assurance & Launch

• Transitioned to a QA role to validate functionality against requirements

• Wrote regression test plans to ensure platform stability across desktop and mobile experiences

• Executed test cases on multiple devices and screen sizes to verify responsive design functionality

• Documented results with high attention to detail, including platform-specific test outcomes

• Collaborated directly with developers to troubleshoot and resolve defects on both platforms

• Supported successful launch of the consumer-facing platform with consistent experience across devices

  
  

Results

• Successfully delivered a consumer-facing insurance shopping platform with dual functionality: an intuitive Health Wizard for open enrollment season and a year-round comparison tool

• Created a responsive design that delivered consistent experiences across desktop and mobile devices

• Developed a transparent requirements tracking system that improved team communication across seasonal and evergreen product components

• Facilitated cross-functional collaboration between business, design, and development teams

• Supported seamless knowledge transfer to team members through comprehensive documentation

• Delivered the Health Wizard in time for the critical open enrollment period, maximizing business impact

  
  

Skills Demonstrated

• Product Thinking: Translated complex business requirements into user-centric features

• Stakeholder Management: Facilitated requirements gathering with diverse business units

• Technical Communication: Created clear user stories that bridged business and development teams

• Systems Thinking: Developed comprehensive flow charts and process documentation

• Quality Oversight: Ensured product quality through thorough testing and validation

• Agile Methodology: Applied Scrum practices to drive iterative development

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Worked effectively with UX/UI, development, and business teams

  
  

Lessons Learned

This project reinforced the importance of systems thinking and transparent communication in product development. I discovered my ability to visualize complex user journeys and translate them into actionable requirements—skills that directly apply to product management. The experience of supporting a product from conception through launch provided valuable insight into the full product development lifecycle.