Dec 3, 20245 min read

InsurTech Ohio Spotlight with Gina Minick

Gina Minick is an expert in auto insurance and the telematics space. Gina was interviewed by Andrew Daniels, Co-Founder and President at CrashBay and Founder and Managing Director at InsurTech Ohio.

Gina, your background includes time on the carrier and vendor side of the telematics industry. Tell us about those experiences and how they have shaped your view of the space.

“I spent the first 15 years of my career working for two large carriers. That experience helped me gain a deep understanding of the level of sophistication and innovation that was available in the space. I was part of teams or leading teams that created new products and features to help solve real problems that customers were having in the auto insurance market. That focus was to make insurance more fair by using data closely tied to your actual risk on the road. That was my experience at large carriers.

More recently in my career, I've moved to smaller companies in the telematics space and have been on the vendor side as well. I've been able to apply my previous experience in both more strategic and tactical ways because smaller companies often don't have the breadth of resources available that larger companies do. You often have to be more surgical in your approach. Having that big company experience first was a great progression for me to learn so much and then be able to apply it in a very relevant way.”

How do you balance getting stuff done with coaching your team to be successful?

“My expertise is in telematics, specifically bringing new telematics products to market. I believe telematics is the game changer for auto insurance. I've had this area as a focus for a while and I've been lucky to wear many different hats. I feel like at this point I can tackle any problem. But, the most important part of any job I’ve had has been to focus on building strong, empowered teams and coaching people. To be successful in that is hands down one of the most rewarding aspects of my career.

Telematics isn't going anywhere, and we need people who deeply understand how to dig into those problems and create the right solutions. My focus as a leader has been to help my team experiment, find effective solutions and drive tangible business results. That's how I view getting stuff done; when my team as a whole is driving results, working well together and having some fun while we do it.”

What are some of the ways carriers can differentiate themselves using telematics?

“A carrier is going to want telematics data as early as possible in the customer journey. Finding someone as they're shopping for insurance who also has telematics data is every carrier's best-case scenario. It's also important to use data as much as possible through the lifecycle of a customer, from quoting through servicing a claim. All carriers find this challenging in some way. Large carriers may have trouble talking across departmental silos about how to maximize the value of the data. Small carriers have to be very strategic because they can't invest in everything. You simply can't do it all. You need to pick your focus areas, or you will do too much and ultimately fail.

How each carrier can differentiate should be unique to them and what their strategy is in the auto insurance space. It's essential to reflect as a carrier on where you're strong and where telematics can take you to the next level. On the flip side, reflect on your biggest vulnerability and how telematics can close those gaps.

All of the top players have figured out how to implement a new business telematics program and know how to onboard customers. They all have programs in place, but there are still opportunities to get to people sooner, double down on those programs to get better participation and then stretch that data to ultimately drive more value for the customer. My advice to any carrier would be to listen to the pain points of your customer experience and reflect on your own strategy to think about how you can drive the most value with your strengths.”

How have things shifted for women in technology post COVID?

“I knew from my very first computer science class in high school that I would likely be working in a male-dominated space for much of my career. As a leader, I know how important it is to bring in diverse perspectives, and not just gender diversity. I have personally experienced a big lack of gender diversity in my career, which often feels frustrating especially as a mother of two girls. Once I had an interview for a job. I went through the whole process without speaking to a single female at the entire company. I legitimately, although somewhat jokingly, asked them if any women worked at their company. That experience demonstrated to me, and to them, the importance of diversity being top-of-mind, especially when you're in a leadership position or creating an interview panel.

The other angle with COVID and women in the workplace is truly fascinating to me. We know many women left their jobs at the height of COVID. Our kids couldn't attend school in person. Employers were trying to be as supportive as they could with working parents, helping us to figure out how to work remotely while our kids were figuring out how to learn remotely. It was chaotic, and that remote culture was very difficult at first. However, I've personally found it has opened so many doors for me to work at companies across the US and with people across the globe. These are opportunities that I would've never had until our mindset shifted, and we realized that we could still be effective. I've been remote since 2020, and I can’t imagine it any other way now.”

What's next for the telematics space?

“The goal is bringing telematics to the forefront of how auto insurance works, and it’s not an easy problem to solve. There isn’t a perfect solution yet. But, having worked at a few different companies and coming at telematics from a few different viewpoints, a couple of things come to mind. I would love to see some unique collaboration across companies in the space. I have said for years that one company alone does not hold the holy grail. No one will do this by themselves. It's important to maintain our networks and partnerships. When we find these interesting opportunities to work together, we need to be able to experiment and execute. Another aspect I'd love to see more is continued investments using telematics data in the claims experience and claims settling process. This feels like one that we have a ton of control over. We have the data, we just need to find effective ways to use the data. That opportunity is exciting to me.

Similar to most in the industry, I want the telematics data earlier in the process, so I'm keeping my eye on that. That goes back to looking for ways to partner and bringing that data into the experience sooner. Lastly, I hope companies continue to invest not just in technology, but also in their people. We need talented people across organizations who know how to maximize this powerful data. That includes product teams. I’m biased since I am a product leader. That's the area I love! We need to keep investing in building the right products and features. Other teams include data science, engineers, plus investing in the right technology and companies to partner with.”