Data and technology specialist, Hood Group, is set to host a series of insurance hackathons in February.
The hackathons will see a group of staff – all from different areas of the business –working together to develop two new personal lines insurance products which Hood Group hopes to be able to successfully bring to the market in conjunction with one or several of its existing affinity and insurance partners.
Gavin Dobson, Head of Marketing and Innovation at Hood Group, comments: “We want to bring about the changes needed to transform the customer’s view of insurance. To do this, we not only need to think differently but we need to act differently. We want to foster a culture of creativity and problem solving to create something new, and we want all our team members involved in the process. Building something new should be fun and rewarding and that’s why we’ve decided to run these hackathons.”
The first hackathons will be held from 9th-10th February, focusing on developing a new travel insurance proposition that can be sold via messenger bots. The second will be held from 15th-16th February with a focus on building a ‘no questions asked’ home insurance solution.
A panel made up of members of the Hood Group senior team and some of its affinity and insurance partners including AXA will review and evaluate the product ideas generated, and the team generating the ideas judged to be commercially viable stand a chance of each winning an Amazon Echo.
Dobson continues: “We really don’t know what to expect but we’re really excited at the prospect of getting the entire business enthused and active in generating a pipeline of ideas to evaluate and prioritise. I don’t expect all of them to actually go live but we want to push the boundaries of our imagination. This is just the starting point and I anticipate that we’ll be running regular hackathons to help us develop a range of totally fresh ideas that will deliver real value to our partners and more importantly, their customers.”
