Emanuel, you are the Platform Product Manager at esurance. Could you quickly explain your role?

As a Platform Product Manager and Product Owner of the Core Services I’m constantly developing our overall platform and shaping our vision. The functional platform capabilities must meet both current and future requirements without becoming too complex. This gives me a somewhat special role among the product owners, because I have to ensure that the various parts of our platform – owned by different product owners – are coordinated with each other.

You’ve been working for esurance for more than 2 years now. What was your motivation to join esurance back then?

As part of my doctoral thesis I conducted a structured analysis of the InsurTech market https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12525-018-0304-7 esurance was actually one of the many InsurTech innovations which I looked at during this study. The main goal of this research project was to gain a systematic understanding of how InsurTechs change the value creation logic from linear chains towards value networks. My motivation was and is to use this knowledge to shape an InsurTech platform in practice.

What were the biggest challenges you faced from a product perspective?

First, the design thinking mindset and approach is a big concern for me. Through the projects I did using this approach, I clearly realized that no technical system makes sense without the social perspective. That is to say: First and foremost, it is always about creating value for specific users. To do that, you have to think your way into their problems and goals and into their context. Without this perspective, no sustainable technical system can be built.

Another key challenge is the path we have taken with our product. Our platform was initially designed as a standalone solution for an individual use case. Gradually, other use cases and customers were added through projects. The design of platforms differs from individual standalone solutions in that it is thoroughly based on modularity to increase variety and reduce complexity. That, in essence, demands a mindset shift from a project to a product company whose product is a configurable platform. The challenge here is to find a good mix between rapid development times and long-term scalability: It can sometimes seem tempting to build a quick solution for an individual case. However, the long-term view must not be forgotten, and this is where the longer or more complex path sometimes pays off. This decision is not always immediately obvious. But that’s exactly what makes it so interesting! If you are interested in this topic you can read more about it in my recent book chapter https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-90594-1_12

In your daily work, you are collaborating with colleagues from the Zurich hub and with team members located in Ukraine and in other countries. How is it to work in a hybrid (remote / offline) environment?

The collaboration often online, with physical visits taking place as well. Corona has certainly shifted our way of working even more towards remote, also in terms of the team in Zurich. 

Like everything in life, this shift has two sides. On the one hand, I really appreciate the flexibility this setup gives me. I prefer to work at home for intensive conceptual work. If I’m looking for an exchange, I’m in the office at Hardbrücke – or in another environment that makes sense. 

On the other hand, face-to-face meetings are of course important for quick exchanges, and some collaborative work is perhaps a bit easier to do together in front of a physical whiteboard than in front of a screen.

All in all, however, the advantages of this flexible setup outweigh the downsides for me.

What is it you like about working at esurance particularly?

The dynamics! When I think back on how much has changed in the time since I’ve been here, it’s great. As I said, we started with a single use case. From that, we developed a configurable sales platform that is used by different sales partners. Of course, certain change processes and projects take their time, and sometimes I’d like to have a magic wand at my fingertips in order to ship one or two increments even faster.

But something is perhaps even more important: esurance is a scale up, which means that everyone here can actively shape and influence where the journey goes. This freedom and the feeling that I can make a big contribution are particularly important to me personally.

How do you see the future of esurance, where would you like to see improvements/change?

As a platform we bring together multiple sides of stakeholders such as end customers, product suppliers and distribution partners to facilitate value creating interactions between them. The easiest example is a consultant which together with his customer conducts a checkout interaction in one of our shops to order products from two insurance companies. However, the possible meaningful interactions are not at all limited to product orders. 

First, we enable new forms of collaboration between end customers, product suppliers and distribution partners by extending our platform with additional interaction potentials. For example, many pre-sales, sales, and post-sales situations include various needs for meaningful advisory interactions between consultants and end customers. Second, engaging in such interactions must become easier and more seamless for our users by integrating the offered interaction possibilities directly at the point of demand (e.g., in software which is regularly used). Third, our platform will become more proactive and data-driven. For example, given that insurances are complex low engagement products we can support our partners and end customers with interaction recommendations.

Thank you for your time Emanuel!