© Summary सारांश
(WDX® — 01)
User Metrics
Outcome
Here is how the final solution moved the needle for the business
Retention
Adoption
Satisfaction
Time Reduction
© Introduction परिचय
(WDX® — 02)
The tata experience
Context
Old
Portal
We needed to Design Bolt from the ground up a portal that fits how agents actually work, validated by research, and scalable enough that its design language (the Bolt Design Library) could serve other TATA AIG products including Nova.
IPDS V2- The Old Portal
A legacy portal built around the insurance company's internal data requirements. not around how agents actually work. It issued policies. But it made agents jump through hoops to do it.
Agents weren't using it the way it was intended. When asked what they use to generate quotes, the answers told the whole story Agent AUX, M-Connect, Excel spreadsheets,
and the portal itself used only for final policy issuance, not for the quote generation it was built to support. Agents had built their own workaround ecosystem because the portal didn't fit their workflow.
© User Research अनुसंधान
(WDX® — 04)
Custom Quotes
User Research
More than 85% of the people in India buy insurance policy from an insurance agent
I conducted approximately 8 interviews with practicing insurance agents across experience levels and business volumes from agents writing ₹62 lakh annual business to those writing ₹1.1 crore+
A deliberately mixed set covering product specialisations, geographies, and working styles.
A structured questionnaire was prepared ahead of each session. However, agents were more than happy to share experiences beyond its scope often the most valuable insights came from these unscripted moments. Every observation was captured, and several became defining design decisions in Bolt. These were the main insights that directly shaped Bolt
Agents use the portal for issuance, not quoting
Most agents had abandoned IPDS V2 for quote generation entirely. They used third-party apps like Agent AUX and M-Connect because those were faster and showed premiums across multiple companies. The portal was a last step, not a first one. Bolt had to earn back the earlier stages of the journey.
The quote input form was asking for too much, too early
Before getting to a product listing, agents were entering unnecessary data. Research revealed the minimum viable input set: number of family members and their relationship to the client, their ages, and their pincode. That's it. Everything else could wait until the proposal stage. This single insight defined the entire pre-listing experience.
Mobile number and email should not be required for quote generation
Multiple agents flagged this explicitly. Requiring contact details before a client has decided anything creates friction at the wrong moment and erodes trust with prospective policyholders.
A bug disguised as a feature
A 5-minute OTP before sending a payment link in a real-world scenario where an agent is on a call with a client was causing form data loss and re-entry. One agent noted this had been partially addressed (proposal number retrieval), but the root experience remained fragile.
Payment journey needs rethinking
The label "send link to customer" was functionally misleading. What agents needed was "generate payment link" something they could copy and send via WhatsApp, SMS, or any channel they were already using. A labelling and flow problem masquerading as a technical one.
Alternate contact details for payment are a real workflow need
In many cases, the person paying isn't the policyholder it's a family member. The portal had no field for an alternate email or phone number for the payment link. Agents were working around this manually.
DigiLocker-style auto-fill is the benchmark
One agent specifically mentioned a competitor portal (Care Health) that auto-fills all fields from a PAN card number and date of birth via DigiLocker. This set a clear expectation benchmark for what effortless data entry looks like.
Quote output needs to be shareable directly
The current portal showed only premium on the quote screen — no sum insured, no product summary. Agents were taking screenshots to share information with clients. A shareable, formatted quote output was an unmet need with immediate business value.
Summary
After interviewing 6+ insurance agents, three distinct personas emerged. Anjali is a socially savvy, full-time agent who blends networking with lead generation, using WhatsApp Business, Canva, and Instagram to build her brand and manage clients. Saanvi is a steady, relationship-driven agent who keeps things simple phone calls, WhatsApp, and internal tools are all he needs to maintain his loyal client base. Kabir is a young, part-time agent treating insurance as a side hustle, casually pitching to peers through Instagram and WhatsApp, and engaging with the platform mainly for quick quotes and commission tracking.
Shreya seamlessly blends her personal and professional life by turning community networking into organic lead generation, while enjoying financial podcasts. She uses WhatsApp Business serving as her absolute lifeline for client communication and Truecaller helping her efficiently screen daily leads. To build social proof and project a reliable image, she designs personalised quotes and festival greetings using Canva and shares them across Facebook and Instagram. For her ongoing development and daily operations, she relies on YouTube for quick micro-training on sales techniques, uses UPI apps for seamless premium collections.
01
/ 03
Anjali
Age
35
Role
Agency Firm Owner
(High yield agent)
Ways of working
Manages a team of Agents/ Data entry operators
Has years of experience
Knowledgable
Uses portals like Agent AUX
Choice of device: Laptop
Uses Whatsapp to send documents/ links to clients
Deals with other insurance companies as well
As a solo, medium-yield agent, Manoj builds his business on steady, long-term relationships. His digital routine is functional and straightforward, relying heavily on standard phone calls and WhatsApp to personally manage his loyal client base without the complexities of team coordination. He uses apps like Dailyhunt or Moneycontrol to stay updated on financial trends so he can confidently answer client questions. For daily operations, he occasionally turns to YouTube for product explanations, but relies primarily on internal company enablement tools for his own ongoing training, tracking his commission tiers, and independently resolving operational disputes.
02
/ 03
Saanvi
Age
45
Role
Self employed
(Medium yield agent)
Ways of working
Works alone
Has few years of experience
Knowledgable
Uses portals like Agent AUX
Choice of device: Android phone
Uses Whatsapp to send documents/ links to clients
Deals with other insurance companies as well
As a young student running a side hustle, Shiva pitches policies casually to his peer network between gaming sessions. Highly mobile-first, he relies on Instagram and Snapchat for leads, WhatsApp for quick follow-ups, and UPI apps to manage his gig income. Short on time, he consumes YouTube Shorts for financial tips and logs into company enablement apps purely for fast digital quotes, checking immediate commissions, and tracking short-term gamified rewards.
03
/ 03
Kabir
Age
29
Role
Student
(Low yield agent)
Ways of working
Works alone
Is a novice in insurance industry
Uses portals like Agent AUX
Choice of device: Mobile
Uses Whatsapp to send documents/ links to clients
Deals with only one insurance company
© Ideation विचार
(WDX® — 05)
Thinking
Architecture
IPDS V2 had no formal information architecture documentation. The diagram below was reconstructed from agent interviews and direct portal walkthroughs conducted during the research phase. What it revealed was a system organised around data collection requirements not around the agent's workflow or the natural rhythm of an insurance sales conversation.
Old Information Architecture
Quotation Retrieval was Hard
Before an agent could see a single product, IPDS V2 required name, date of birth, mobile number, email address, agent code, and policy preferences. The system was asking agents to do administrative work before it had done anything useful for them. In a real sales conversation with a client on a call or sitting across a table this sequence damaged trust before value had been demonstrated.
Extra Avoidable Hurdles
Fields that belong to the proposal stage appeared at the quote stage. Contact details, agent codes, and declared preferences were collected before a client had seen or chosen a product. This conflated two fundamentally different moments exploration, where a client is still deciding, and commitment, where paperwork begins. The portal forced commitment-stage friction into an exploration-stage conversation.
No Phase Separation
There was no architectural distinction between quote, proposal, and payment. These three activities which represent three entirely different conversations with a client, each with different stakes, timing, and information requirements collapsed into a single undifferentiated flow. Agents had to context-switch mid-conversation, re-enter data that should have carried forward, and navigate a portal that did not reflect how insurance is actually sold.
New Information Architecture
3-field quote input
The entry point asks for exactly three things number of family members and their relationship to the client, their ages, and their pincode. That is it. These are the first three questions every agent interviewed told us they ask a client before anything else. The system now starts where the agent starts, not where the backend needs data. An agent can be in front of a product listing in under a minute.
Extra Avoidable Hurdles, Avoided
Contact details, lifestyle information, PAN verification, and nominee details only appear once a product has been selected and the agent has explicitly begun the proposal journey. A client who is still exploring sees none of this. A client who has chosen a product and is ready to proceed provides this information in a structured, step-by-step sequence at the moment it is actually needed, in the order it is actually needed, for the purpose they already understand. The portal no longer asks for commitment before it has earned it.
Gap between product listing and proposal journey
The stepper and everything that comes with it only appears once a product has been selected and the agent is ready to begin the proposal. Before that point, the agent is exploring on behalf of a client who has not committed to anything. After that point, the client has chosen and the paperwork begins. The architecture makes this distinction explicit and structural, not just visual.
© Onboarding ज्ञानप्राप्ति
(WDX® — 06)
All aboard
© Selected Works. प्रश्न
(WDX® — 02)
Digital Designer
TATA Nova x IPL 2026
TATA Nova x IPL 2026
(01)
TATA Bolt
TATA Bolt
(02)