The team "Adventurers" is responsible for improving Aegon's digital support for advisors. They used design thinking methods like user research and prototyping to identify advisors' needs and map potential features to those needs. Key features were categorized using the Kano model to determine development priority. A minimum viable product was identified but was still too large, so the team planned an iterative rollout in releases, starting with a pilot of high-value features to begin delivering value sooner and gain insights. They will continue experimenting and involving users and the business to refine their vision.

1. UXSTRAT16
how experience strategy is changing Aegon
into a customer-centric digital organisation
Michel Jansen
@dawuss

2. I work at cXstudio, a small studio founded
between two giants; Aegon and HCL.
Our mission is to improve Aegon's customer
experience.

3. (we are here)

4. Aegon is one of the oldest and largest
financial services companies in the
Netherlands, dating back to the late 1800s.
They offer insurances, mortgages, pensions,
investment products and more.

5. It was founded as a life insurance
company in a time when life insurances
still looked like this.

6. For more than 100 years, their business model
was to sell these products through
intermediaries.

7. Every step of the customer journey is moving online
DISCOVER PURCHASE USE
80%researched their
purchase online in 2014
60%purchased directly from
insurer in 2015
80%prefer to ask questions
about their life insurance
via Internet / email.
over over
“Digitaal, het nieuwe normaal”, IG&H Consulting & Interim | Financial Services 2014
IG&H Trendonderzoek 2015
But the world is changing,

8. Preference Reality Preference Reality Preference Reality Preference Reality
78%
20%
0%2%
13%
38%
21%
27%
Fully self
service
Fully digital
advice
Cross-channel
advice
Fully face-to-
face advice
Providers aren’t keeping up with what customers want
How customers prefer to resolve their living-related affairs vs reality. Source: “Digitaal, het nieuwe normaal”, IG&H Consulting & Interim | Financial Services 2014

9. @
The ecosystem is changing rapidly, with
new direct and online channels

10. Senior
management
Project
managers
Development
teams
But Aegon was still working in a very traditional
way, with digital projects defined top-down and the
work commissioned to a range of third parties. This
was slow and did not use the knowledge of those
closest to the customer effectively.

11. Organising for Innovation
1 So the first step was to change a few things.
Firstly, a new studio focused on CX was
founded to take over all the digital work.
Secondly, Aegon moved away from projects as
the main construct for work.

12. If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men
to gather wood, divide the work and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and
endless sea.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–1944)
“

13. Acquisition marketing Retention marketing
Life Event: Moving House
DISCOVER CONSIDER PURCHASE USE
App
www
Web
@
Email
Mail
Phone
Advisor
Social
TV
Identity & Access
Insight, (Self-)Service & Digital communication
Advisor tools & support
App
Business lines
Purchase funnels
STAY / LEAVE
We created a number of autonomous teams and
made each of them responsible for a specific part
of the Aegon customer experience.

14. We took the old list of projects planned for the coming year and
reverse engineered their goals, targets etc. We then clustered the
output by affinity and captured the output in "theme canvases"
that we made up for this purpose.

15. theme & mission
business
goals
metrics
journeys solution space
dependen-
cies
IT
components
customer
segments
stake-
holders
constraints &
frameworks
The canvas is a starting point for a team and
consists of a mission plus context.

16. Now we have a bunch of teams ready to go. They know
what to achieve, but they don't yet know where to start.

17. what to work on
when to work on it
how much effort to invest
They essentially need to know three things...

18. what to work on
when to work on it
how much effort to invest
value
...and all three boil down to value
(for customers and the business)

19. Finding value
a case study
2

20. `
Team “Adventurers”
Mission:
Make Aegon the best digital partner for advisors in offering help
and advice to customers.
Advisor Support
Goals:
• Advisors are always informed about all customer affairs
• Aegon collaborates efficiently with advisors
• Our digital services facilitate sales
• Offer reliable, uninterrupted and future-proof service.
Initial Metrics:
• Advisor Satisfaction Scores.
• CES on advisor tasks
• Customer satisfaction score

21. The canvas has the business goals,
but we start with the user.

22. finding value for users

23. We used research to find user needs
and define personas

24. We then generated feature ideas based on the
needs, using user journeys as a structure.

25. inzicht in zijn klantenbestand met
polissen en correspondentie
gemakkelijk een offerte-, aanvraag-
en mutatieproces kunnen uitvoeren
De adviseur wil...
inzicht in status van onderhanden
werk
contact leggen met de
medewerkers van AEGON
productinformatie ophalen inclusief
impact van algemene wet &
regelgeving op AEGON beleid
hoogwaardige verkoopkansen
aangeboden krijgen
AIP biedt…
Klantbeeld met overzicht klantgegevens, contracten, documenten, kansen,
lopende zaken, communicatie etc.
zoeken op klant of contract en vanuit daar direct een offerte, aanvraag of
mutatie etc. starten.
Contactgegevens van en live chat met Aegon medewerkers – zowel account
manager als medewerkers die bezig zijn met lopende zaken.
Statusinformatie over lopende zaken
Advieskansen, bestaande uit zowel vragen van (potentiële) nieuwe klanten
als kansen binnen portefeuille.
Een app voor de buitendienst
Aegon.nl integratie waarbij adviseurs in de kijker worden gespeeld bij
klanten
Een ROA flow waarbij je soepel kunt doorklikken van berekening naar
offerte naar aanvraag.
Productinformatie met overzicht van (historische) productvoorwaarden etc.
Nieuws en marktontwikkelingen, met mogelijkheid tot inzien advieskansen /
impact op portefeuille.
user needs propositions
And clustered features into 10 main promises of
functionality..

26. We visualised the functionality using
conceptual mock ups.

27. And invited users for a focus group to
talk about their needs.

28. We showed them the mock ups, but we also asked
them to rate each high level feature on paper for
quantitative feedback.

29. Satisfaction if present
Dissatisfaction if absent
For each feature, we ask what they think if we
include this, as well as what if we don't.

30. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
App
Advieskansen prospects
Nieuws & marktontwikkelingen
Advieskansen uit portefeuille
Aegon.nl integratie
Contact met Aegon medewerkers
Statusinformatie
Klantbeeld
Soepel doorklikken in ROA
Acties vanuit klant of contract
Productinfo
4
Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
4
Satisfactionifpresent
Dissatisfaction if absent
So we can plot them

31. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
App
Advieskansen prospects
Nieuws & marktontwikkelingen
Advieskansen uit portefeuille
Aegon.nl integratie
Contact met Aegon medewerkers
Statusinformatie
Klantbeeld
Soepel doorklikken in ROA
Acties vanuit klant of contract
Productinfo
4
Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
4
Satisfactionifpresent
Dissatisfaction if absent
undesired must have
one-dimensional
perfomance
attractiveAnd use the Kano model to
categorise each feature.

32. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
App
Advieskansen prospects
Nieuws & marktontwikkelingen
Advieskansen uit portefeuille
Aegon.nl integratie
Contact met Aegon medewerkers
Statusinformatie
Klantbeeld
Soepel doorklikken in ROA
Acties vanuit klant of contract
Productinfo
4
Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
4
Satisfactionifpresent
Dissatisfaction if absent
1
23
undesired must have
one-dimensional
perfomance
attractive
The Kano model helps decide the order in which we need to do stuff.
Attractive features can wait, because there is little dissatisfaction if absent.

33. Absent Basic Best in class
Execution
Dissatisfied
Disappointed
Neutral
Satisfied
Excited
Satisfaction
undesired
must have
one-dimensional
perfomance
attractive
indifferent
Based on: Kano, Noriaki et al. (April 1984)."Attractive quality and must-be quality". Journal of the Japanese Society for Quality Control (in Japanese) 14 (2): 39–48. ISSN 0386-8230.
The Kano model also
informs the effort we need
to put into things. For must
haves, more than basic
execution does not pay off.,
whereas for one-
dimensional performance
features, more = better.

34. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
App
Advieskansen prospects
Nieuws & marktontwikkelingen
Advieskansen uit portefeuille
Aegon.nl integratie
Contact met Aegon medewerkers
Statusinformatie
Klantbeeld
Soepel doorklikken in ROA
Acties vanuit klant of contract
Productinfo
Satisfactionifpresent
Dissatisfaction if absent
We used both quantitative and
qualitative information to plot our
features in the model.

35. business value
Now it's time to circle back to
business value.

36. Map features to goals.

37. Knowing how much effort we will put into each
feature allows us to build a business case.

38. Defining the roadmap
3 Purpose: knowing when we want to
achieve what.

39. we started with the
minimum viable product

40. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
4
businessvalue
user value
In theory, this is simple...

41. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
4
businessvalue
user value
least important
most important

42. Ontevredenheid bij ontbreken
Tevredenheidbijaanwezigheid
2
1
3
4
businessvalue
user value
what we do last
(or not at all)
what we do first

43. user value
business
value
strategic
importance
complexity
of work
amount of
work
risk
uncertainty
internal
dependen-
cies
external
dependen-
cies
But in reality, lots of factors matter.

44. 1 2 3 4 5
So we end up knowing the MVP consists of
6 major components.

45. 1 2 3 4 5
The Kano model helps size up the total
effort for each.

46. 1 2 3 4 5
?
But it is still a lot of work

47. THE MVP
IS TOO DAMN BIG
So we have a problem.

48. We need to slice some features up

49. 1 2 3 4 5
?

50. 1 2 3 4 5
?
3 3 44 5

51. 1 2 3 4 5 ?
R1
3 4
R2 R3 …
MVP
?
…
6
And find the true MVP, which we can then
iteratively build out in future releases.

52. The roadmap says what we want to
achieve by when, not how we do it.

53. Making it happen
4
Now we are ready to go

54. moment when value is added
1 2 3 4 5 ?
R1
3 4
R2 R3 …
MVP
?
…
6
minimum viable feature execution
Except there is still a problem: we don't know what the smallest feature slice looks
like yet. Also, the MVP is still quite large and will take some time to complete.
Meanwhile, we don't deliver value and more importantly, we don't learn.

55. step 1:
pilot features in a beta track

56. 1 2 3 4 5 ?
R1
3 4
R2 R3 …
6
4
R1
5
R2
4
R3
5
R4
moment when value is added
Pilot
Product
By launching a subset of features in closed
beta, we deliver value sooner and learn
how well they work in the wild.

57. Envisioned: 9+ weeks of work Pilot: 5 days of work
We took some shortcuts to get to 80% of
what we envisioned in a fraction of the
time, since it's a pilot anyway.

58. step 2:
set up an experimentation track

59. Mijn adv
Kantoor
URGENT
14:30
A
Va
B
12:15
Lo
Va
N
ADVIESVERZO
EXPIRERENDE
HERSTELADV
RENTE MIDDE
Archief
DOOR MIJ OP
DOOR ANDER
VERLOREN
AFGEWEZEN
03:28
O
Va
N
Onderwerp
Vraag
Contact voorkeur
Gegevens berekening
Responsetijd verloopt bijna Resterend
Gisteren 13:12
Van: Pharetra Aenean
Nieuwe klant
03:28
Advieskans details
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We created mock ups of envisioned
scenarios to elicit feedback on the vision.

60. We asked feedback from real users, either
at their workplace or in our lab.
Testing in our lab is less valid, but allows
stakeholders to join, which is hugely
important.

61. step 3:
making it work with the business

62. Klant
Actie Via adviseur
product afsluiten
Line of interaction
Line of visibility
Line of visibility
Line of interaction
Frontstage
Action
Backstage
Action
Medewerker
Backstage
Action
Digitaal
AegonAdviseur
Klant helpen met
het afsluiten van
een product
Line of internal interaction
AIP ROA
Aanvraag
verwerken
Brief van Aegon
ontvangen over
mijn naderende
expirerende polis
Expirerende
Polissen Excel
sheet genereren &
uploaden
Vooraankondiging
expirerende polis
naar adviseur
sturen
Brief van Aegon
over naderende
expirerende polis
Expirerende polis
zichtbaar in AIP
“Later Oppakken”
T - 4 maanden T - 3 maanden
Aankondiging
expirerende polis
naar klant sturen
Expirerende polis
zichtbaar in AIP
“Nu oppakken”
+ kopie brief
Nieuwe notificatie
over expirerende
polis
markeren als “in
behandeling”
Bekijken in AIP
Contact opnemen
met klant
Telefoontje van
adviseur over
expirerende polis
Oppakken in AIP
Keuze doorgeven
aan adviseur
Klant helpen met
aanvragen van
uitkeringsvorm
Aanvraag
verwerken
AIP ROA
Feedback
achterlaten over
advies
Bevestiging
verwerkt +
verzoek om
feedback
X dagen na aanvraag
Happy flow: opgepakte advieskans
Resultaat
terugkoppelne?
Map the customer journey against
business processes. Maps are great for
discussing friction and changes.

63. final step:
closing the loop with
continuous discovery

64. Analytics

65. Satisfaction Scores

66. Customer feedback

67. Realtime dashboards
We are working on bringing it all together in
realtime dashboards based on customer journeys.

68. The ultimate goal is to create a learning loop, with serendipitous ideas based on insights
and multiple ways to act on them, either through experiments or by launching.

69. What we’ve learned so far

70. think big, act small
1
Have a vision, but don't try to execute all
at once. Slice, then learn.

71. Defining the vision as an ideal customer
journey helps ensure a consistent experience.
In this case we found 10 things that would
create the perfect journey.

72. 1
2
3 5
4
4
A quick round of research showed 3 have the biggest
impact, so we did those first and then re-evaluated.

73. a vision shared is a vision multiplied
2

74. Super important to define the vision together. Involve
marketing, sales, business development etc.
Customer journey is a good framework to elicit input.

75. Sharing back is also important.
Journey maps are highly shareable.

76. Shareable prototypes are even better, as they
tend to go viral.

77. At Aegon, we even use webinars to keep
everyone informed.

78. have an experimentation track
3

79. not here
but here
Experiment often to avoid ending up in local
maximum.

80. try the crazy stuff first
Not only in the beginning, but test biggest
assumptions first.

81. We tested some ideas we thought went too far,
but users said it was fine.

82. costs of changes
information
influence
time
experiment here

83. launch clumsy solutions
4
If you are not ashamed of the first version, you waited too long.
Our first release was powered by an Excel sheet instead of a
proper data pipeline. Nobody knew and we could validate more
quickly. Wizard of Oz is a powerful technique.

84. 5
There are a lot of great insights waiting to be found, but
you have to be paying attention to them.

85. thank you
Michel Jansen
@dawuss

86. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ravedelay/17224255506/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/66603656@N05/16657453073/
http://www.stadhuismuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/roompot-klein.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/9585503388/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/catsanchez/15951257277/
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