Movers: Keith, Product
In the evolving landscape of car insurance, companies are seeking innovative ways to streamline processes, enhance customer experience, and remain competitive – despite the “grudge purchase”. In this pursuit, a Product Manager is tasked with the responsibility of shaping and delivering products that cater to the changing needs of customers. Keith is Movinx’s Principal Product Manager, United States, who transitioned from an insurance carrier. He told us how ownership has been the answer to a question he didn’t know he had.
Having spent over a decade in the insurance sector, Keith was keen to “get his hands dirty” and “look under the hood” when it came to product development. After all, even when you work within the product department of a big insurance company, you don’t always understand all the decisions.
“I often got frustrated with the legal or tech departments because of things they couldn’t or wouldn’t do – and I couldn’t understand why! When I learnt that at Movinx I would own the end-to end product development, it really spoke to me, it seemed like a tremendous learning opportunity but also, I would finally get to do what needed to be done – without constraints – or that’s what I believed, at the time,” he reflected about why he made the switch to our insurtech.
End-to-end ownership: a product manager’s dream.
At Movinx, we are transparent with our people about our hands-off leadership approach. Movers are expected to have full ownership of their projects; what Keith didn’t expect was just how much ownership he would have.
“The product team sits at the center of the relationship between insurance carriers and OEMs during the implementation stage of our platform. What this means, is that we become really – and I mean, really – acquainted with contracts and legal reasoning,” Keith joked nervously.
“When I first started, I was quite overwhelmed – this was not what I thought I would be doing as a Principal Product Manager. But in what seemed like days, everything became really clear: being in these conversations was a game-changer. Suddenly I understood why we need to make certain decisions, and why certain product choices would not work in certain markets, particularly in the US, where there are significant complexities about how car insurance can be embedded as part of a consumer journey.”
“And you know what? It’s made my job easier to know this stuff! Now, when I think through communications and marketing, or what we should – or shouldn’t – pitch to a client, I have a much deeper understanding of what our legal or regulatory limitations are – and where we have most room to innovate now. It’s been really rewarding.”
“When you’re in a big company, you have a lot of depth in what you are doing, but you’re not exposed to the undertakings of other departments. Being in a company as hands-on as Movinx, and in a function as central as the one I’m in, has given me the breadth that I can truly take forward to do the things I’ve always wanted to achieve in this sector.”
Small and lean with diversity of thought.
One of the most striking differences coming from a large company, to a smaller startup is that Movinx has smaller, more diverse teams than Keith was used to.
“Our team is like a chameleon, we really adapt to the needs of each market depending on the stage that they’re in, before handing a customer over to their day-to-day Program Manager.”
“In some markets we focus squarely on the technical implementation, working closely with our engineers. Here, we identify the correct requirements between the insurance carrier and the auto manufacturer, prioritize them appropriately, explain them to the range of stakeholders we need to manage etc., so everyone is happy at the end of the day.”
“On the other hand, you have markets like mine, where we’re trying to rethink the way everything was done before, to rebuild it from the ground up. This takes more strategy work, revisiting the legal framework and ensuring regulatory compliance – before we even start to think about technical implementation. All of these things, at Movinx, sit with the product team: anything that enables a product to be designed, pitched, approved, and then ultimately built and delivered, comes through our people. As I keep saying, the learning opportunities here are truly, endless.”
Become a Mover.
Movinx is scaling up to transform the automobile insurance industry. If freedom and the ability to take ownership for your projects are important for you, check out our open positions or reach out to our Talent Acquisition team.
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Movers: Zy, Insurance
Keith is Movinx’s Principal Product Manager, United States who transitioned from an insurance carrier. He told us how ownership has been the answer to a question he didn’t know he had.