Insurance, You Indemnify Me: Haley Smith, Product Manager State Auto

This week’s episode of Insurance, You Indemnify Me, provides an incredibly unique perspective on Product Management, Insuretech, and State Auto, from one of the industry’s youngest and most talented; Haley Smith.

Haley started at State Auto as a Product Manager (Which we get into and discuss at length) and then transitioned to and headed up, State Auto Labs, a unique unit tasked with understanding and using Insurtech to ensure State Auto was positioned perfectly for their second Century of doing business within the industry.

This is hands down the liveliest, fastest-paced, least guarded conversation to date. As such, this one is a lot of fun and there are a ton of nuggets of information in this podcast. A true must-listen!

Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvIoVz3OQa4

Jump to the Moments that Interest you:

0:08 – Welcome Haley Smith.

1:50 – Let’s start with, “Who is Haley Smith”

5:00 – Joined State Auto right out of college.

6:50 – I found out I might not want to be an Actuary.

7:35 – I started a career as a Product Manager for personal lines in the western region.

10:30 – The best product directors have a perfect balance of analytical and creative.

12:40 – When we launched connect….

14: 39 – Over the last year, I was at home and didn’t get to see any of my agents.

15:25 – It’s about the long game in our industry.

16:28 – Mike Larocco joined the company in 2015

17:00 – Shawn, “Can I tell you my State Auto pitch?”

19:20 – Mike brings on a leadership team.

20:36 – Kim has this vision of an innovation arm of the company.

21:51 – I got to build State Auto Labs.

25:00 – How did you turn into a Tech person?

26:13 – What’s the one thing tinsurtech startups don’t have? Insurance knowledge.

32:00 – There are so many non-traditional data sources.

33:25 – How would you go about shortening the claims process.

35:00 – The claims department adopted more labs than all others combined.

36:23 – What makes insurance foxy to you?

41:10 – Sometimes it’s important to be first, but you must stay first.

43:55 – Funniest insurance story.

45:57 – How I fell in love with Southwest and its customer service.

51:10 – Let’s jump into State Auto Commercial.

54:50 – How does a carrier decide what data to use?

1:05:00 – How is State Auto prepared for us getting back on the roads?

1:07:49 – Are insurance agents salespeople or field underwriters?

1:18:15 – Tell me about the producer development program at State Auto.

1:22:40 – What would you tell young kids getting into the industry?

Honorable Mentions:

Kim Garland

Mike Larocco

The Ohio State University

Urban Meyer

State Auto Labs

Bill Wilson

Insurtech

Mark Cuban

Unit economics

Lexus Nexus

Non-traditional data sources

Telematics

State Auto

Southwest airlines

Accutaries

Delta V