Defining the driver experience
The Novo Driver App is the policyholder's core experience. Telematics data tracks real driving behavior, hard braking, rapid acceleration, speeding, and feeds a live Safety Score that influences the premium.
The app also handles onboarding, document upload, insurance documents, claims filing, and personalized engagement. I own the end-to-end design.
Enabling self-service everywhere
The core principle is self-service first: instead of customer service reps shepherding users through each step, in-app flows let customers complete critical tasks themselves, on their own time.
Document & Photo Upload
New customers need to provide supporting documents: vehicle photos, proof of prior insurance, driver license. Previously a rep collected them by email or phone after signup, and completion hovered in the low forties.
Building upload directly into onboarding, surfaced immediately after the app download, moved the task to when attention and motivation are highest.
- CSR contacts customer post-signup by phone or email
- Customer manually sends documents on their own
- No in-app prompt or guidance
- Momentum lost between signup and outreach
- Upload step presented immediately after app download
- In-app guided flow with clear instructions
- Task completed while intent is highest
- No dependency on CSR scheduling
Timing is a design decision. The right task at the right moment often matters more than the task itself.
Multi-Driver Policy Setup
Every driver on a policy must install the app and pair it to a vehicle. For multi-driver households, completion collapsed, because you can't control what other people do: under 10% of multi-driver policies finished setup.
My redesign gated the value: the primary policyholder can't access their insurance documents until every driver completes setup. That one change put direct, personal motivation to follow up exactly where it belongs.
When you need multiple people to act, find the one with the most to lose and make sure they feel it. Peer accountability does the rest.
In-App Claims Filing
Filing a claim is one of the highest-stress moments a customer has with their insurer, and there was no in-app path: call or email, then wait.
I designed an end-to-end claims flow covering collision, glass, and comprehensive damage. It opens with an emergency triage step that confirms the customer is safe, then routes to a CSR or self-service.
The self-service flow captures all necessary information:
After submission, customers track claim status and an estimated resolution timeline in the app. The feature is designed and ready for launch.
In design reviews, customer service reps consistently reported these features cut their inbound volume of routine requests, freeing them for the issues that genuinely need human expertise.
Results that speak for themselves
Each metric reflects a fundamental redesign of how customers move through a step.
What pulls users back?
There's no inherent reason to open an insurance app every day; most are opened reactively. The safety score creates a pull-based engagement loop: it updates with every drive, so customers have an ongoing reason to return. Did that commute help or hurt?
Personalized coaching reinforces the loop. The more driving data accumulates, the more targeted the feedback, a habit grounded in genuine usefulness rather than manufactured urgency.
A score that changes every time you drive is a variable reward. Real stakes, real feedback, and a visible number to improve: a retention mechanism that doesn't feel artificial, because it isn't.
What worked (and what I'd revisit)
The self-service model produced step-change improvements every time it was applied, consistent enough to become a design principle: if a task can be completed in-app, it should be. The safety score loop worked too, but mostly for customers who already drive safely.
Known Limitation
The experience is optimized for drivers who score well. For those who don't, it risks feeling punitive: a constant record of what they're doing wrong, pushing out the customers most in need of improvement.
The business model self-selects: better drivers stay, worse drivers churn. Workable short term, but not the vision. That's the challenge behind Good Miles: using positive reinforcement to retain the drivers who are struggling instead of letting the product push them away.