{"id":558,"date":"2026-02-28T17:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T17:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/?p=558"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:24:00","slug":"easyfix-an-innovation-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/?p=558","title":{"rendered":"Easyfix: Innovation and Insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>\n<strong>Industry:<\/strong> Insurance\n<\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong>Project Type:<\/strong> Responsive web app design\n<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\n<strong>My contribution:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Complete UCD process<\/li>\n<li>UX Research<\/li>\n<li>Branding<\/li>\n<li>Interface Design<\/li>\n<li>User testing<\/li>\n<li>Presenting and persuading for funding<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Situation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My innovation team was investigating problems in the homeowner space with the goal of creating products that would meet user needs and connect with new customers. Following the design process and conducting market research and focus groups, we hit upon real needs in the marketplace and shipped several web apps to test those ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Easyfix-whiteboard-session-smaller.jpg-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Easyfix-whiteboard-session-smaller.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of hand holding phone with EasyFix app open to toilet repair flow\" class=\"wp-image-888\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">My Role<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Lead UX Designer responsible for research, leading workshops, ideating, branding, user interface design, presenting to stakeholders and user testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Constraints<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Diverse group of stakeholders who were new to the design thinking process<\/li>\n<li>Shallow, scrappy technical infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>Reluctant Claims experts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What I Did<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Intentionally guiding our Travelers business partners through the Design Thinking process, my UX Research teammate and I collaborated with the Claim business and dscout, a user research company based in Chicago, to uncover pain points in the home ownership space. We watched a number of users go on &#8220;missions&#8221; to figure out repair projects within their homes: a broken screen door, clogged disposal, malfunctioning refrigerator, chipped dry wall. Most homeowners are not experts in home repair, but many will attempt home repairs with the help of Youtube, or advice from friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, we talked to many people within the company, trying to determine, among the vast wealth of expertise and knowledge, if there were already systems in place that we could use as a kind of knowledge database to help users. I connected with Claims U &#8211; an education center within the company that trained new Claims officers assessing home damage and working with homeowners. These were the experts we needed to connect our users to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also:<\/p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Built initial, scrappy prototype to test<\/li>\n<li>Refined design and crafted logo, tag lines, branding<\/li>\n<li>Designed and ran social media ads to test the concept<\/li>\n<li>Built marketing materials and promo pages<\/li>\n<li>Designed final interactive prototype and worked with the dev team to build responsive web app<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\" src=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide-1024x574.png\" alt=\"Easyfix mini branding style guide\" class=\"wp-image-782\" srcset=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide-768x430.png 768w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide-1536x861.png 1536w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/easyfix-brand-mini-guide-2048x1148.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How I Built Alignment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting to know our partners and understanding their concerns, I shared designs often and early with stakeholders and engineering to get feedback and build a send of community and excitement around our vision.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/demo-5-1280x720-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/demo-5-1280x720-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of hand holding phone with EasyFix app open to toilet repair flow\" class=\"wp-image-888\" srcset=\"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/demo-5-1280x720-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/demo-5-1280x720-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/demo-5-1280x720-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/demo-5-1280x720-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Outcome<\/h2>\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Shipped 6-month beta pilot, reaching 1,500+ registered users<\/li>\n<li>Connected with those users and served 2600+ text and video chats to solve home repair issues<\/li>\n<li>Secured several rounds of funding from executive leadership at Travelers and continued support from the Claims team<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reflection<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>\nThere were a lot of problem-solving opportunities in the midst of launching this app. We were moving very fast and technical challenges were sometimes a hurdle to connecting with users. Troubleshooting software and hardware issues across mobile devices required us to connect with the wider team and get everyone testing, which really helped socialize what we were doing. One of the big takeaways from this project was that each hitch in the plan was an opportunity to come together and brainstorm next steps which helped us develop trust and move more quickly together.\n<\/p>\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:embed {\"url\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/E0jzOVaMek8\",\"type\":\"video\",\"providerNameSlug\":\"youtube\",\"responsive\":true,\"className\":\"wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"} -->\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"EasyFix website and app walkthrough\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E0jzOVaMek8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:embed -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travelers has been in business for over 160 years and are now competing in a marketplace with startups like Lemonade and advertising heavy-hitters like Progressive and Geico. My role was to help find inroads to new markets and customers through design thinking and innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurieannwalker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}