Designing Claims Transformation
Vision, Buy-in, and Multimillion Dollar Impact
The Situation
After four acquisitions, American Family Insurance was operating five distinct claims processes across multiple technology platforms.
Costs were compounding with every system refresh. Adjusters were juggling five workflows, switching tabs between interfaces at every turn. Innovation was stalling amid confusion about where (and how) to integrate new solutions.
One claims leader came to me and said:
“I need a strategic vision for the future of claims, a plan to present to the board in four months. I’ve heard good things about design. Can you help?”
It was a high-risk, high-impact ask.
Previous efforts had failed by anchoring to existing benchmarks and “best practices” rooted in current-state thinking. I planned to start somewhere more resilient: with a view of the future of risk and business-to-consumer interaction.
I planned to start somewhere more resilient: with a view of the future of risk and business-to-consumer interaction, a spectrum of possibility designed to inspire solutions built to flex as the world changed.
“Start at design to build insurance innovation rather than just utilizing tech innovation in insurance.”
— Ryann Foelker, Connected Claims USA Conference 2023
The Tension
I had just four months to turn a vague mandate into something fundable at the board level.
Skepticism was a given. We were up against a deep-seated culture of stewardship, where protecting traditional business functions counted as a virtue.
We had to create a vision so clear, so tangible, that executives across disciplines and lines of business could see it, feel it, and choose to pursue it together.
“The challenge isn’t just operational, it’s philosophical. We have to move from optimizing what exists to designing for what’s coming.”
— Ryann Foelker, Insurance AI and Innovative Tech Conference 2023
The Work
I built the process, foresight first, and took a cross-functional team through it.
We reimagined claims experiences from every angle, then designed the infrastructure to support them before delivering a persuasive, memorable pitch that moved the board to act.
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We used foresight to define what claims should look like 10 years out, across tech, people, and process. We imagined autonomous vehicle crashes, proactive hurricane evacuations, AI-enabled empathy (this was in 2018). Then we reverse-engineered the infrastructure that would make that future possible.
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We sketched a tech-enabled claims operation that balanced customer empathy, adjuster support, and cost efficiency. This was a true marriage of operational fluency and long-range vision, designed to deliver both business impact and human value.
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First, we built a clear, staged roadmap that outlined how the organization could evolve toward its future state. Second, we created a mental model of the tech infrastructure: a blueprint that showed how platforms, solutions, and data would need to interact to support that future. Both were clear enough to align around, practical enough to build from, and the first version of what I'd later call Designed Equilibrium.
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To bring the vision to life, we created a communication strategy that used speculative storytelling: short sci-fi narratives featuring futuristic claims scenarios from climate disasters to AI-enabled repair logistics (again, 2018). We paired those stories with cartoon-style illustrations of the “claims engine” we envisioned, a solution later named Fabric.
Nobody had seen a deck like it. It was a plan for a more supportive, scalable, and human-centered future, told in a way people could see, feel, and choose to believe in.
The Results
Millions in annual expense savings
Unifying vendors and platforms cut operational expenses by more than 20%, a durable advantage as others tried to catch up.
The first unified claims platform in the top 20
American Family became the first top-20 U.S. carrier to operate on a single claims platform. The illustrated claims engine we named Fabric became the blueprint for the build-out that followed: automation for the routine work, connected to the systems already in place. Fabric was the case study cited in the Fast Company submission.
A vision that held under pressure
In 2021, Hurricane Ida put the redesigned operation to the test. It absorbed triple the volume possible before the transformation.
Recognition that named the work
The transformation and design programs I originated earned American Family the No. 71 spot on Fast Company’s 2023 Best Workplaces for Innovators, the only insurer in the top 100. In 2024, RISE Professionals named me its inaugural Innovator of the Year, citing this claims transformation vision as one of three bodies of work.
An innovation pipeline with a scoresheet
The roadmap gave the claims organization something to evaluate vendors against. I built the scoresheet for Demo Days, a vendor evaluation program that aligned claims tech to our roadmap. Fourteen startups went through in the first few months, and testing cycles fell from 12 to 18 months down to six.
The method it produced
This is the project Designed Equilibrium came from: a picture of the future so specific that every leader sees the same one, and a roadmap of decisions reverse-engineered to reach it.
“We didn’t chase recognition, we chased what was possible. This award reminds us that design doesn’t just shape great experiences, it shapes the business decisions behind them.”
— Ryann Foelker, Best Workplaces for Innovators Awards Reception 2023
Why It Worked
We started with a different question. Instead of "What's broken?" we asked "What should the future of claims feel like?"
Then we designed the system, people, platforms, and partnerships, to make that future real.
This case study reflects work I was proud to contribute to at American Family Insurance. The content shared here is based on initiatives that were made public under executive direction and have been featured in industry presentations and publications since 2021. All views expressed are my own. No confidential or proprietary information is disclosed, only publicly available outcomes, personal insights, and individual learnings.