12 Month Contract
Designing Complex Services
Over a 12-month contract at Admiral, I worked as an Associate User Researcher and Service Designer, exploring complex customer journeys within the highly regulated insurance industry. My work spanned research, facilitation and service design, looking beyond individual touch points to understand the wider service.
12 Month Contract
Designing Complex Services
Over a 12-month contract at Admiral, I worked as an Associate User Researcher and Service Designer, exploring complex customer journeys within the highly regulated insurance industry. My work spanned research, facilitation and service design, looking beyond individual touch points to understand the wider service.
Overview
Home insurance has a lot going on behind the scenes
During my 12 months at Admiral, I got to explore that complexity, contributing to projects that aimed to make the home insurance customer journey clearer and easier to navigate.
The challenge (and the part I really enjoyed) was making sense of how everything connected: customer needs, products, services and the demands of a large, highly regulated business. It stretched my research and service design skills and deepened my appreciation for the thinking and collaboration it takes to make something complicated feel simple.
A note on confidentiality
Some project details, internal processes and research artefacts have been omitted or adapted to protect confidential information. Some artefacts are available on request, email hello@amycolville.design to find out more.
Challenges
Bringing the whole picture into view
Different teams saw different parts of the customer journey. My challenge was to connect those perspectives, making sense of the systems, processes and product requirements shaping the experience. I enjoyed getting into the detail, uncovering the connections and helping teams see how their work fit into the bigger picture.
Making space for service design
Introducing new ways of working meant understanding how things already worked, and why. I had to balance a focus on customer needs with business priorities, established processes and regulatory requirements. The interesting challenge was making service design practical and relevant, giving colleagues a reason to engage with it.
Understanding what people need in difficult moments
Insurance can be complicated, particularly when people are already dealing with stressful or uncertain situations. I had to look beyond a single “customer journey” and understand how needs changed with people’s circumstances. That meant exploring where clarity, reassurance and support could make the biggest difference, while remaining grounded in operational realities.
Working through complexity
Understanding customers
First we needed to understand the customers and the area.
Research ranged from desk research to studies, to interviews with real customers, who were experiencing complex home insurance journeys in real time.
Co-creating with stakeholders
In a large organisation, if theres no buy in, it doesn’t matter how good the idea is.
We brought our stakeholders from different business areas along the journey with us during in person workshops.
Testing ideas
The next step was analysis and synthesis, turning our research findings into actionable insights.
To build confidence in these insights, we validated them with customers and stakeholders across the business, strengthening the evidence behind our recommendations.
Starting with the people behind the policy
Someone might have been insured for years and still be making a claim for the first time. They hope they never have to but suddenly, at a stressful moment, they’re navigating an unfamiliar process. They’re unsure what happens next or whether they’ll get the help they need.
For me, that was an important starting point: understanding what someone was dealing with when they arrived at the service. It meant looking for ways to make the next step clearer, reduce uncertainty and build trust throughout the experience.
Three example projects
The claims tracker
Challenge - Customers don’t know what’s going on during their claim and it makes them anxious.
Business problem - There’s no shared record of customers due to disconnected systems.
Project outcome - Changed the customer journey, to create a shared source of truth for the business, and customer visibility.
Reducing complaints during storm claims
Challenge - Customers don't understand what storm damage is covered or why their claims are rejected.
Business problem - Inadequate communication throughout the claims process drives complaints and disputes.
Project outcome - Delivered solutions to four key problem areas, addressing gaps in communication during the claims journey.
Service blueprinting
Challenge - Customers have to wait for updates, receive repetitious information, and experience further delays during claim.
Business problem - No centralised view of the customer and the claims journey, resulting in duplication and errors.
Project outcome - Shared understanding built through insights, captured in co-created service blueprints covering multiple claim types, to help establish ownership and remove disconnection.
Three example projects
The claims tracker
Challenge - Customers don’t know what’s going on during their claim and it makes them anxious.
Business problem - There’s no shared record of customers due to disconnected systems.
Project outcome - Changed the customer journey, to create a shared source of truth for the business, and customer visibility.
What I’ve learned
1. Embracing complexity
You can't design what you don't understand.
Working in a large, complex organisation taught the importance of understanding the entire service; from customer experiences to how that experience is delivered operationally, before considering opportunities for improvement.
Key learning: Look beyond individual touch points and consider how interconnected systems, teams and processes shape the experience.
2. Building shared understanding
Without building shared understanding of the experience across teams, collaboration will fail.
In large organisations, navigating stakeholders with differing priorities, perspectives and limited visibility of the wider service can be challenging.
Key learning: The importance of aligning stakeholders and creating shared understanding between teams in order to deliver improved experiences for customers and staff alike.
3. Embedding while learning
Joining Admiral at an exciting time for service design meant introducing new ways of working while developing my own practice.
As service design continued to evolve within Admiral, advocating its value became integral to the role across the organisation.
Key learning: Hands-on experience, collaboration and professional development opportunities, including UX London, increased my confidence and developed my skills as a researcher and service designer.