Your client is everything! Are you delivering the right output to them? In the insurance field too, everything can happen and as long as the consumer demand doesn’t get constant, it is preferable to architect a path to reach them better.
This blog inspired by Mckinsey & Company aims to equip you with a timeline where you evaluate by yourself what you are missing in striking your client’s needs.
In Agile terms, two main building blocks are necessary for a better flow: cross-functional tribes and self-managing teams.
- Cross-functional tribes: trust on what the clients want as a project’s goal. Plus, allows you to deliver change even after work for effectiveness. Nevertheless, it’s not recommended to run for day-to-day operations.
- Self-managing teams: unlike the ones above, can run everyday operations by distributing the work within itself.
How it is divided will be determined in the level of satisfaction will receive the client on its need and how motivated the team will be by giving them the authority to make decisions.
Once the objectives have been clearly defined, it’s time to make the desired organizational architecture more objective. We can reach those by following the next questions:
- Will the tribes be built on product lines, customer journeys, customer segments, or sales channels?
- How will we approach digital channels and digital transformation?
- Will we incubate them as separate tribes or embed them into existing ones?
- How will we design the link between “change” tribes and “run” self-managing teams? Should we directly link corresponding units or group all “run” elements under a single umbrella for efficiency benefits?
- How will we organize our sales self-managing teams? Will we assign them by channel, region, or product?
- How do we keep our functional edge while distributing functional elements into permanent tribes?
Once answered these questions, the insurer should take into consideration two key aspects. The avoidance of handovers and repetition to allow economies of scale.
Where and how to begin?
- Build up a committed vision and keep aligned to it.
- Begin with a single front-runner tribe, a great reference to take into account is covering an end-to-end business, for example a home insurance product line, which comprises functional areas including among them product management, pricing, marketing, engineering, data, design, operations and sales. A good front-runner shouldn’t be considered as a pilot. Instead, must be adjusted with the leadership team.
- As the process goes by, learning from the front-runner tribe could help the design have a better fit or prepare the agile units to be launched at once or in parallel with a time frame. Remember when tests are improved a proper output is inevitable.
- In order to have a different path of action to opt for, rapid upskilling and top talent hiring should be the focus for fuel tribes. So a diverse talent to the tribes are needed, such as banking, telecommunications and technology propellers for agile organizations.
- Last but not least, to encourage specific behaviors in the agile team a culture program should be developed to align culture transformation and build up proper performance management by hand with communications strategy. By that an agile operating model will be significantly effective.
Once applied, a rigorous follow-up is mandatory to check effectiveness. Did it work for you? Would you consider an extra-step? Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to share.
