Haden Kirkpatrick is a senior business executive with more than 15 years of leadership experience, including a decade in the insurance industry. During his tenure as vice president of strategy, innovation, and venture capital at State Farm, Haden Kirkpatrick led the transformation of multiple subsidiaries, modernized product and innovation capabilities, and helped launch a $200 million venture capital fund. He also oversaw strategic investments that improved return on capital and reduced operational costs. Previously, he held senior roles at Esurance, Amdocs, MobiPCS, and Motricity, where he focused on brand strategy, digital transformation, revenue growth, and international expansion. His background in strategy and software-driven operating models informs his perspective on how insurers can design products that feel current, responsive, and aligned with evolving customer expectations.
What Makes an Insurance Product Feel Modern to the Customer
As more industries adopt digital tools, insurance buyers bring those expectations into every part of the policy lifecycle. For many customers, a modern insurance product feels as straightforward and responsive as the apps they use for banking, travel, or shopping. When the experience depends on paper-like forms, unclear explanations, or slow updates, the product can seem dated even when coverage is solid.
When customers call a product modern, they usually mean it gives them control without forcing a phone call for routine tasks. That control shows up as secure self-service, an online account or mobile app where people view documents, pay bills, request changes, and receive confirmations. Good design adds guidance at decision points so customers understand what a choice changes and what it does not.
Legacy systems create friction in tasks such as changing deductibles, updating addresses, or reviewing billing schedules. Older portals may rely on fixed fields, dense terminology, or layouts that work poorly on a phone. Stronger platforms cut waiting by showing progress clearly, confirming actions quickly, and using summary screens that translate internal terms into plain language.
Pricing clarity is part of that experience. Instead of asking customers to trust a number with no explanation, modern tools show common inputs that influence a quote, such as location, vehicle use, recent claims history, and driving-related risk signals. Customers expect a short path to a human explanation if something looks wrong.
One example is usage-based insurance (UBI), or telematics-based auto insurance, where an insurer uses driving data to adjust a premium, discount, or risk score. Insurers collect telematics through a smartphone app, a plug-in device, or another in-car tag. The program measures factors such as speed patterns, braking, phone use while driving, and time of day. Because programs differ, customers need a clear description of what the program measures and how those measurements can affect price.
UBI can feel more tailored, but it also creates a privacy trade-off that customers do not want buried in fine print. Driving data can reveal personal details, including where a person drives and when, and many consumers have limited visibility into retention rules, sharing practices, or whether third parties can link a “de-identified” dataset back to them later. A modern experience earns trust by stating what the program collects, why it needs that data, how long it keeps it, and what changes if the customer opts out.
Speed and visibility matter most during stressful moments like filing a claim. Policyholders want immediate confirmation, a clear checklist of next steps, and status updates that do not require repeating the same details. When messaging preserves claim context, customers avoid restarting the story every time, which reduces confusion and missed steps.
Another term that needs plain framing is insurtech, which refers to insurers and technology platforms that build insurance workflows around software-first design. These products raise expectations for what customers can do from a phone and pressure traditional carriers to remove internal complexity that leaks into customer experience.
Insurers modernize fastest when they treat digital experience as something they test in real time. They track where customers hit dead ends in quoting, billing, or claims, then reduce those drop-offs with clearer flows, faster confirmations, and support that resumes where the last interaction stopped. For products that rely on driving or usage data, the same discipline must cover privacy, with plain-language guardrails and checks that keep data use aligned with what customers were promised. The next cycle will reward insurers that measure where people get stuck and fix those points continuously, not only during major redesigns.
About Haden Kirkpatrick
Haden Kirkpatrick is a former vice president of strategy, innovation, and venture capital at State Farm, where he led investment strategy, operational transformation, and the turnaround of multiple subsidiaries. He has also held senior leadership roles at Esurance, Amdocs, MobiPCS, and Motricity, delivering results in digital transformation, product strategy, and international expansion. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and completed executive programs at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.