The Hartford
SMB Research & Service design
Reshaping the insurance story for small business owners
My starting line
The Hartford provides insurance coverage for small business owners, including protections like workers’ compensation. But their Net Promoter Score (NPS) was low, and they were wanting to understand the heart of the problem.
The Hartford was asking:
“What are the biggest challenges our customers face, and how can we simplify their lives?”
— The Hartford
My role
Sr. Service designer & REsearcher
I led:
Field research with SMB owners
Workshop facilitation
Persona creation and journey mapping
Future-state service blueprint design
My team
1 Service designer / Researcher (me)
1 Visual designer
1 Researcher
1 Project manager
Our goal
Understand small business owner pains and simplify the insurance process so owners could spend less time wrestling with paperwork and more time running their businesses.
My process
1
Research
To understand the real lives of SMB owners, I left the office and hit the road. Along with another researcher, I visited an ice cream shop in Wilton, a fitness center in Derby, and other small businesses across Connecticut. We conducted:
12
Stakeholder interviews
11
Customer interviews
4
Ride-along observations
5000+
Customer servey responses
Field research at a small ice cream shop in Wilton, CT where I learned that SMB owners juggle customer smiles, staffing, and back-office paperwork, often all in the same hour.
Visiting a local fitness center in Derby, CT where the owner balanced training clients with managing payroll, staff schedules, and insurance paperwork.
2
Personas
Understanding the pains of small business owners, allowed me to create 5 unique personas encapsulating their key behaviors, values, characteristics, and challenges: The Fire Fighter, Apathetic Administrator, Hidden Honcho, Cyber CFO, and the Juggler.
3
Current state journey
I mapped the typical journey of business owners throughout the year. It included the emotional journey, every touch point along the way, and a backstage systems map.
The majority of customer pain could be directly correlated with the antiquated and piecemeal technologies behind The Hartford infrastructure.
4
Target state service blueprint
I designed a future state customer journey to alleviate pains, and increase satisfaction. It included context scenarios for each stage of the journey along with digital touchpoints, staff support and backstage systems that need to be in place.
The problem
The biggest pain point was crystal clear: the annual audit.
It was time-consuming, opaque, and intimidating. Owners compared it to “doing taxes all over again.”
The process was built around The Hartford’s systems, not the customer’s reality.
Even the word “audit” scared customers.
My solution
Get rid of the audit!
Instead of a big once-a-year thing, I laid out a Policy Checkup journey spread out across the year with simple bite sized steps.
Features included:
Guided questions to ensure coverage stayed accurate
Simple integrations (e.g., connect payroll to avoid manual entry)
Helpful tips and content to reduce uncertainty
Progress tracking so owners always knew what was left to do
Predictive insights comparing business performance to peers, so owners could anticipate changes in premiums
The Checkup reframed the audit from an anxiety-inducing event into an ongoing, supportive partnership.
Marcus’ journey
Marcus has a guided experience throughout the year enabling him to come back at will and easily see his progress with:
Checklists (a)
Helpful tips (b)
Informative content (c)
Guided reflexive questioning (a) helps Marcus know his employees have the right coverage, and that his policy is accurate.
Simple steps (b) like connecting his payroll to the system avoids him having to manually enter all his employees and salaries.
At the end of the year, Marcus has no surprises.
He can even see business performance insights and predictions (a) based on other companies similar to his. As value goes up, premiums do too. Marcus can easily see what changed and knows what to expect.
And Marcus always knows his Checkup progress (b) so he never needs to guess about how much is left to do.
Impact
Customer value:
Reduced stress and surprises
Less time on the phone with support
Higher confidence and trust in The Hartford
Business value:
Decreased premium leakage
Reduced number of service-heavy audits
Fewer customer service calls tied to audit confusion
What I learned
This project gave me a deeper empathy for small business owners. Whether scooping ice cream or running a gym, they wear a dozen hats every day and have little patience for systems that waste their time. They want tools that are clear, respectful of their time, and human in tone.
This experience sharpened my ability to design for SMBs, a skill I carry into every project: solving for the customer, collaborating transparently, and building solutions that simplify life for real people.