The insurance industry is at the cusp of digital disruption. We must satisfy the quickly evolving needs of the young through simplification and intuitive content structures, while retaining Marshall & Sterling’s heritage of white-glove service to the legacy client.thesis defined in discovery
The Story
Marshall & Sterling is a confident, trusted, proven company that existed long before my little punk ass was ever alive, and will likely still be here when I’m gone. You have to know this when contracted to do a full site redesign for a client like M & S. You bring that reverence, because they earned it, and in this project you haven’t earned shit. Not yet. But while I respect your elders, I have a rebellious streak (my dad can verify). Revolution was vital to the Marshall & Sterling engagement.
Two weeks into the project all the important people were around the big glass conference table as we described our intentions for the new website. The questions were challenging and pointed. There’s a tendency in that situation to say what you think people want to hear. Understandable. It’s a friggin’ tense environment. But companies like Marshall & Sterling, with a board made of people with decades of experience, are wise to falsehoods. The greatest value you can give them is to tell it how it is.
Me: “Marshall & Sterling has an opportunity here to change the way they’re perceived. That good ‘ol boy thing, being the stuffy patriarch, it has to go. There’s a new game in town ruled by tech and speed. I’m not saying abandon your legacy. But dust it off, make it young again. There’s no more excuses for being the old white dude in the room anymore.”
Prologue: M&S has since rebranded and while the site structure I designed remains largely the same, some notable changes have occurred. I’m glad the company keeps pushing for change.
What was done
Again I solo designed a new custom website, from initial discovery through conceptualization, wireframing, hi-fi designs, into production with the Volum8 dev team. As is the case with most large financial sites such as this, the heaviest lift was reorganization of the site content and redesigning the information architecture.
I’d like to think that my conversations with the board of directors challenged them to think differently and adopt a mindset they are still forwarding today. If so, that’s the greatest value I brought to the table.