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FM Global Case Study
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FM Global Client Journey
FM Global · 2018–2020

A client portal
nobody used —
and what we
built instead

44 client calls. 33 internal interviews. One question: what do Risk Managers actually need?

Role
Lead Designer
Client
FM Global
Scope
Product Design · UX Research · Participatory Design

FM Global had a client portal. Nobody used it.

FM Global is a Fortune 500 commercial property insurer operating on the belief that most loss is preventable. They had a digital portal for clients. The problem was adoption was critically low — Risk Managers weren't engaging with it.

Before we could build something better, we needed to understand why. So we asked. A lot. 24 subject matter expert interviews. 19 Risk Manager interviews. 44 client calls. 33 internal calls. We didn't guess — we listened.

We didn't guess — we listened. 77 conversations that changed everything.

Vision workshop — FM Global 2018
Vision workshop — FM Global 2018
The Challenge

Help Risk Managers do their job

43+
Clients and internal stakeholders interviewed in research
3
Personas developed, focused on Renee the Risk Manager
My Role

Lead Designer · FM Global

Led visual design efforts Created concepts and design pages Maintained wireframes and clickable prototypes Information architecture Stakeholder updates User experience and testing
Process

How we got there

01
Research
24 SME + 19 Risk Manager interviews
We held 43 interviews to understand the client experience, pain points, and what makes Risk Managers successful. Research outputs included three personas, a Risk Manager Journey Map, pain point themes, and a user panel.
02
Vision
Workshops with clients and stakeholders
After synthesizing research we led a Vision workshop focused on divergent ideation — two weeks of sketching and pushing ideas further. A feasibility workshop followed to prioritize based on business and development input.
03
Testing
Concept testing with ~50 Risk Managers
We introduced early concepts at an FM Global event and ran participatory design sessions to move from high-level ideas to detailed experiences.
04
Iteration
44 clients · 33 internal calls
A continuous 3-week feedback cycle from May to August. Every month we sent Research Playbacks to the team and stakeholders — showing design changes alongside the feedback that drove them. These decks built trust and kept everyone aligned.
05
Scoping
Defining the MVP
My design partner and I worked closely with the Product Owner and Solution Architect to balance user desirability with technical feasibility — carving out what an MVP could realistically deliver given dependencies on other teams, unstructured data, and security requirements.
Persona: Renee the Risk Manager
Persona: Renee the Risk Manager
Early wireframe sketches
Early wireframe sketches
The Research

We didn't guess — we listened. Before a single pixel was designed, we built a foundation of real conversations with the people whose work depended on getting this right.

44
Client calls
33
Internal calls
24
SME interviews
19
Risk Manager interviews
app.fmglobal.com/dashboard
FM Global account dashboard
Account level landing page
Outcomes

We didn't just redesign a portal. We triggered a digital transformation.

Clients began engaging with the new tool and new features were added as sprints continued. The project ultimately led FM Global to invest heavily in a company-wide Digital Transformation — creating a new platform to speed delivery across all software solutions.

77+
Client and internal conversations
1
Company-wide digital transformation triggered
F500
Enterprise impact
Lessons Learned

What I'd do differently

Introduce feasibility conversations earlier
Clients wanted drill-down chart functionality that wasn't technically feasible. Earlier feasibility conversations would have helped us find creative alternatives sooner and set better expectations.
Fix the current system while building the new one
Clients needed easier access to their data now — not just in the future replacement. Parallel improvement tracks serve users better than making them wait for a big release.
Related project
Thoughtforms — a freelance UX engagement from the same era
Next project
Teaching teams to think differently
 Back to all work
Let's work together

Expectations only move in one direction. Let's get ahead of them.

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