A Growing Demand for Digital Self-Service
Overview: As a Digital Product Manager at Gallagher, I am responsible for guiding the development and implementation of new features on our new self-service client portal to support many different divisions, markets and segments to keep our clients engaged, streamline operations, support business growth and position Gallagher for future success in an increasingly digital marketplace.
Challenge: In today’s competitive market, customer experience is a key differentiator. Gallagher’s clients and prospects expect consistent experiences across all touch points. Currently, our interactions with our clients are fragmented across many different channels and applications, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of a cohesive experience. This has resulted in increased service costs, lower client satisfaction and retention, and missed opportunities for engagement.
As the portal expands across multiple divisions, markets and segments, it is imperative that we maintain a scalable architecture, create an efficient design system supported by clear governance and embrace Agile development and ways of working.
Key Objectives:
Consolidate multiple platforms into a single, user-friendly portal.
Offer 24/7 self-service access to policies, documents and support resources.
Implement a design that is globally adaptable, supporting multiple regional requirements.
Ensure seamless integration with existing systems and data sources.
Reduce client dependency on support teams.
Create a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and customer focus.
My Role: I am responsible for guiding the entire development process from concept to launch, collaborating and building partnerships with key cross-functional teams, stakeholders and senior leaders in a highly complex, matrixed environment. I leverage my technical understanding of front-end web development, APIs and databases to define scope and delegate feature work across two fully staffed Agile teams, while also evangelizing across the enterprise in support of expansion. I am laser-focused on understanding customer needs, identifying opportunities and driving outcomes vs. outputs.
Some of my key contributions to the portal are:
Research & Discovery: Conduct research to identify pain points and opportunities, and gather insights from clients, support teams and stakeholders to create a clear problem definition.
Defining the Product Vision: Develop an outcome-based product roadmap that aligns with both customer needs and the company’s strategic goals. I prioritize features that would deliver the highest value while staying within scope and timeline.
Collaborating with Cross-Functional Teams: Work closely with Engineering, Design, Operations, Marketing, Change Management, and Legal/Compliance to ensure smooth execution. I create outcome-based backlogs (user stories, features and epics) and facilitate sprint planning, feature prioritization, and product demos to keep the project on track and aligned with the broader vision.
Design and User Testing: Partner with UX/UI teams to ensure the portal is intuitive and user-friendly.
Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Regularly communicate with senior leadership, regional teams and key stakeholders to align on progress, provide updates and adjust priorities as needed.
Data-Driven Decisions: Utilize analytics and customer feedback to make informed decisions. I introduced OKRs and KPIs such as customer satisfaction scores and portal usage metrics, to measure success.
Leading Agile Transition: Applied Lean-Agile principles to business processes, practices, tools, operations and culture.
Outcomes:
Increased client retention by launching the product to two new retail segments, Small Business and Personal Lines
Increased the average number of active Middle Market client accounts on the portal by 122% in one quarter/program increment (PI)
A 20% reduction in customer support requests within the first year
The portal’s flexible architecture allowed for future feature expansion into new regions, including Canada, New Zealand, UK and LatAm
Reflection: This global client portal underscores the importance of maintaining a clear product vision while staying adaptable to changing needs. By prioritizing client feedback and collaborating across departments, we were able to deliver a product that not only met immediate business objectives but also laid the foundation for future expansion and innovation.