Meet the People and Projects in Progressive's Innovation Center
April 22, 2015 2:03 PM
Business Innovation Garage: Open for Business
Progressive Insurance provided an opportunity to check out its Business Innovation Garage last week. "Mechanics" will work with employees to improve the claims process, understand driving patterns better and improve the Progressive customer experience, explains Erin Baginski, IT Director, Enterprise Architecture Services and Edison Process Leader. Read on to meet some of the 'mechanics' and view projects they're working on in the Garage. photo: Chris McMahon
The Challenge: Making Progressive Customers' Destination Location for Insurance
Our current challenge is how to make Progressive the customers destination location, says Claudia ONeal, Edison Process Consultant. The customer destination challenge will see more than 200 ideas whittled down to 10 that will be presented at an exposition in October. Thats where we take that idea and turn it into an experience, she says. photo: Chris McMahon
An Opportunity to Shine
Sarah Camden, Edison Process Manager, works with the Edison team to design challenges to help people and help achieve business goals. Anyone at Progressive can join the challenge," she says. "It's great for our people; it gives our employees an opportunity to shine and develop their skills. To me, thats really powerful. photo: Chris McMahon
Virtual Reality Claims Experience
One recent idea was create a three-dimensional model of damaged cars when they come into Progressive service centers and be able to view them in a virtual reality, explains Mark McElroy, solution architect and Business Innovation Garage manager.McElroy says the group welcomes all ideas, even bad ones. "You can build experiments around bad ideas," he says. "They can provide valuable feedback to make future ideas better." photo: Chris McMahon
Customer Claims Kiosk
The claims kiosk was intended to offer customers a machine to pay their insurance bill, service their policy, make changes, file a claim or play a game while getting their cars fixed at a Progressive service center."We learned a lot about what we cant do, McElroy says, adding that due to security reasons, an outside computer wouldnt be allowed to connect to the corporate network with a non-employee operator. By knowing what I cant do, Im closer to figuring out what I can do, he says. photo: Chris McMahon
Non-Traditional Experimentation
The claims service kiosk also provided a great example of a non-traditional experiment, says John Stroble, developer mechanic. Working closer with the customer, working with hardware and the maintenance and security constraints, those are things I wouldnt ordinarily see as a developer. photo: Chris McMahon
A Little Less Conversation
The Action Factory brings the right people into the room to get things done, says Jarrell McAlister, Action Factory Lead Facilitator. Its a day long workshop that helps us get alignment on a particular topic and make decisions, McAlister says. We go through a structured but flexible process and at the end of the day you come out with a group of business people who have alignment, theyve made decisions and have a set of action plans to get things moving faster. photo: Chris McMahon