thewave’s new focus on Digital Experience

Under the wing of thewave, Annelies and Lien have embarked on a mission to create digital insurance products that ooze a sense of security, convenience, and user-friendliness. But our UX experts are not just here for their digital and technical skill—they’re here to create a culture where Design Thinking and UX become a natural reflex and mindset for everyone.

In the past, insurance companies were used to consultants telling them what to do, plain and simple. Annelies and Lien prefer to get their hands dirty, collaborating with those insurance companies to co-create the right solution. They don’t claim to know it all, or even know it best. If the solution works, great. If it doesn’t, they’ll figure out what isn’t working and tweak it until it does. No long-winding PowerPoint-presentations, no complicated theoretical plans. Just getting the right people together, feeding off each other’s ideas, and experimenting from the very beginning.

It’s this pragmatic approach that lies at the core of our brand-new philosophy: Digital Experience. Digital Experience is all about putting people first. About developing quick solutions, allowing space for failure, and reiterating until it works. It’s about realising you have to design the right thing before you can develop the thing right. But what does that look like, in practice?

Three steps towards digital transformation

Annelies and Lien have developed a specific 3-step methodology to streamline the Digital Experience and ensure the best possible final product for both end users and business clients. Let’s have a look.

• First, there’s the research phase.
  Our UX experts dive into the world of the end user—what do people truly want and require from their insurance companies? — and compare these findings with the hopes, wishes, and expectations of the business client. They interview experts, define hiccups, and get acquainted with the different personas and their respective user journeys. Then, they formulate an action plan, considering the different objectives and risks, technical feasibility, and each party’s main requirements.

• Then, there’s the conceptual phase.
  Annelies and Lien sketch ideas and concepts, create wireframes, design interfaces, and pour the findings of the research phase into a tangible prototype. This prototype is a series of clickable screens that looks like a finished digital product, and is realistic enough to be tested with end users in the following phase.

• Finally, there’s the validation phase.
  Before the business client invests in the implementation of the product, Annelies and Lien ensure the usability of the prototype through usability testing, interviewing end users, and reporting their findings. That way, they can deliver a validated prototype that serves as the blueprint for the finished product. For team UX, "Go slow first, move fast later" isn't just a saying—it's a way of working.

For team UX, "Go slow first, move fast later" isn't just a saying—it's a way of working.

What connects us all

Annelies, Lien, and their rapidly growing team of digital talents have worked tirelessly to help insurance companies push into the digital age. Ensur and thewave have provided the perfect breeding ground for that push for innovation to fully develop and thrive.

“Empowerment is the key word,” they state. “thewave strongly believes that personal growth and company growth go hand in hand. That’s what attracted us. We both value the human touch, and we have found an environment here that lifts people up, that makes them rise above themselves.”

After all, what we all have in common is, without a shred of doubt, passion. Passion for what we do. Passion for pushing the needle within our industry. Passion for discovering uncharted territory. We’ll be ready for the future when it comes knocking, and we’ll make sure our clients are, too.