How I Tackled Insurance Complexity for Supporting the Daily Work of 300 Life Insurance Experts

How I Tackled Insurance Complexity for Supporting the Daily Work of 300 Life Insurance Experts

Category

Insurance - Heavy Data Management

Insurance - Heavy Data Management

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Year

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This admin panel design was an attempt to turn a complex, data-heavy system into a more structured and manageable experience for insurance agents, while supporting faster workflows and reducing operational dependency on the central insurance authority.

About this scrum-based collaboration

Year: 2023

Duration: 8 months

My Role: Junior Product Designer Generalist

Team: 4 developers,
1 product owner,
1 product owner assistant, 1 product designer,
1 customer support expert


Building an new admin dashboard for 300 life insurance experts

| Context |


Saman Insurance provides life, health, vehicle, travel, property, and other insurance services to 200k+ users in Iran.

Like many Iranian insurers, it relied on a platform provided by the Central Insurance of Iran, which limited its control over workflows and exceptions.


Standing out in a competitive insurance market

| Why did It matter? |


To gain more operational independence and flexibility, the company began building its own platform, starting with life insurance. The existing admin panel relied on large, data-heavy tables and complex approval processes, making policy management slow and difficult to learn.

The Purpose Behind The Request

| Business goals |


  • Making Large Amounts of Insurance Data Easier to Navigate

  • Reducing Reliance on the Central Insurance Authority Systems

  • Simplifying Workflows from Policy Registration to Exception Management

  • Supporting the Company's Long-Term Growth and Operational Independence


My Solution Had Two Parts:
A Dashboard & a Formula Space

| Design Solutions |


  • managing heavy-data tables without visual hierarchy of data through information hierarchy and interaction design

  • designing a new space for life insurance experts for inserting, editing and saving policy formulas and creating a formula library.


This project was originally designed in Farsi. To give my audience a clear picture of my work without the language barrier or exposing confidential insurance data, I created a simple prototype based on the original wireframes.


About this scrum-based collaboration

Year: 2023

Duration: 8 months

My Role: Junior Product Designer Generalist

Team: 4 developers,
1 product owner,
1 product owner assistant, 1 product designer,
1 customer support expert


Building an new admin dashboard for 300 life insurance experts

| Context |


Saman Insurance provides life, health, vehicle, travel, property, and other insurance services to 200k+ users in Iran.

Like many Iranian insurers, it relied on a platform provided by the Central Insurance of Iran, which limited its control over workflows and exceptions.


Standing out in a competitive insurance market

| Why did It matter? |


To gain more operational independence and flexibility, the company began building its own platform, starting with life insurance. The existing admin panel relied on large, data-heavy tables and complex approval processes, making policy management slow and difficult to learn.

The Purpose Behind The Request

| Business goals |


  • Making Large Amounts of Insurance Data Easier to Navigate

  • Reducing Reliance on the Central Insurance Authority Systems

  • Simplifying Workflows from Policy Registration to Exception Management

  • Supporting the Company's Long-Term Growth and Operational Independence


My Solution Had Two Parts:
A Dashboard & a Formula Space

| Design Solutions |


  • managing heavy-data tables without visual hierarchy of data through information hierarchy and interaction design

  • designing a new space for life insurance experts for inserting, editing and saving policy formulas and creating a formula library.


This project was originally designed in Farsi. To give my audience a clear picture of my work without the language barrier or exposing confidential insurance data, I created a simple prototype based on the original wireframes.


I changed working culture

| Design Impact |


This project didn't end with the kind of numbers we often hope to see, but I wanted to share this one because it taught me just as much through its challenges as through its achievements, and because I believe meaningful design is about more than metrics.


Impact on Product Culture

As the company's first in-house product team, we were still building our product and UX practices. Although the project was later discontinued, some practices I introduced stayed with the team.


One was bringing KPIs and success metrics into our product discussions, which later became part of the team's product management training.


Impact on Collaboration

I introduced regular brainstorming and feedback sessions where I shared user flows, sketches and wireframes early with developers, product owner, her assistant and a life insurance expert. It reduced misunderstandings and gradually shifted design from "my solution" to "our team solution".

I changed working culture

| Design Impact |


This project didn't end with the kind of numbers we often hope to see, but I wanted to share this one because it taught me just as much through its challenges as through its achievements, and because I believe meaningful design is about more than metrics.


Impact on Product Culture

As the company's first in-house product team, we were still building our product and UX practices. Although the project was later discontinued, some practices I introduced stayed with the team.


One was bringing KPIs and success metrics into our product discussions, which later became part of the team's product management training.


Impact on Collaboration

I introduced regular brainstorming and feedback sessions where I shared user flows, sketches and wireframes early with developers, product owner, her assistant and a life insurance expert. It reduced misunderstandings and gradually shifted design from "my solution" to "our team solution".

I changed working culture

| Design Impact |


This project didn't end with the kind of numbers we often hope to see, but I wanted to share this one because it taught me just as much through its challenges as through its achievements, and because I believe meaningful design is about more than metrics.


Impact on Product Culture

As the company's first in-house product team, we were still building our product and UX practices. Although the project was later discontinued, some practices I introduced stayed with the team.


One was bringing KPIs and success metrics into our product discussions, which later became part of the team's product management training.


Impact on Collaboration

I introduced regular brainstorming and feedback sessions where I shared user flows, sketches and wireframes early with developers, product owner, her assistant and a life insurance expert. It reduced misunderstandings and gradually shifted design from "my solution" to "our team solution".

I Had No Data, So I Built My Own Research Approach

| Design Approach |


With no existing data to understand user behavior or pain points, I had to build my own. I mainly did this by observing life insurance experts using the old platform and having regular check-ins with the Product Owner and her assistant to understand the workflows, context, and pain points.


By observing life insurance experts using the existing panel, I saw how much time they lost searching through long tables and large amounts of information. This helped me simplify the experience through clearer tables, better navigation, prioritized information, and progressive disclosure.

I Had No Data, So I Built My Own Research Approach

| Design Approach |


With no existing data to understand user behavior or pain points, I had to build my own. I mainly did this by observing life insurance experts using the old platform and having regular check-ins with the Product Owner and her assistant to understand the workflows, context, and pain points.


By observing life insurance experts using the existing panel, I saw how much time they lost searching through long tables and large amounts of information. This helped me simplify the experience through clearer tables, better navigation, prioritized information, and progressive disclosure.

How I learned to reduce complexity

  • Frequent meetings with the product owner and the life insurance expert.

  • Doing research: desk research, reading about other designers' experience in handling heavy-data tables, interviewing with experts and experienced designers in this area.

  • Finally, getting inspired by dashboard designs and by heavy-data platforms.

Sketches & Wireframing


I started sketching the formula space as the most important and the hardest part: faced the hardest part first.

Making a Difference Beyond New Screens

| Design Approach |

Making a Difference Beyond New Screens

| Design Approach |

Beyond designing new pages, I simplified several user flows within the project constraints, making everyday tasks easier for the people using the system.

Feedback from the Product Owner and check-ins with ،three life insurance experts helped me see that these changes were actually making a difference.

Each insurance policy is built around a complex formula that changes depending on different conditions. Like mathematical formulas, these formulas include different functions, rules, and calculations.

Beyond a Product Designer Role

| More Than a Designer |


The project started without clear KPIs or success metrics, which made it difficult for me to understand whether my design decisions were actually improving the experience.


I brought this up with the Product Owner, CTO, and other stakeholders and discussed how we could better measure the results. We never ended up with a formal KPI framework, but together we agreed on a few practical metrics that I could use to guide and evaluate parts of the redesign.

Designing in a low UX-maturity environment

| Learning |

01/ Lessons beyond design

I had to learn how people communicated, made decisions, and worked together to find ways to move the project forward. It made me realize that understanding the team can sometimes be as important as understanding the users.

02/ Involve developers early

A few times, I refined an idea with the Product Owner only to find out later that it wasn’t technically feasible. Bringing developers into those discussions earlier could have saved us time and rework.

Designing in a low UX-maturity environment

| Learning |

01/ Lessons beyond design

I had to learn how people communicated, made decisions, and worked together to find ways to move the project forward. It made me realize that understanding the team can sometimes be as important as understanding the users.

02/ Involve developers early

A few times, I refined an idea with the Product Owner only to find out later that it wasn’t technically feasible. Bringing developers into those discussions earlier could have saved us time and rework.

Designing in a low UX-maturity environment

| Learning |

01/ Lessons beyond design

I had to learn how people communicated, made decisions, and worked together to find ways to move the project forward. It made me realize that understanding the team can sometimes be as important as understanding the users.

02/ Involve developers early

A few times, I refined an idea with the Product Owner only to find out later that it wasn’t technically feasible. Bringing developers into those discussions earlier could have saved us time and rework.

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