Gaining insight on people’s experiences of cancer

The team responsible for life and critical illness products at Royal London was aware of the changing landscape of the cancer world, but wanted to learn directly from people affected – with a view to reviewing and developing their product range and enhancing customer experiences.

We set up a social insight programme in partnership with the wonderful cancer support charity Maggie’s. It was a three-day process that started with ‘immersion’, a day of frank and sometimes hard-hitting conversations with a group of inspiring Maggie’s beneficiaries with, or who’d had, cancer. They provided insight on a host of topics, from the ‘hierarchy of needs’ on diagnosis to the weekly financial implications of having cancer.

The process continued with ‘ideation’ – generating ideas for products and new approaches to service inspired by the insights from the immersion phase – and finished with ‘prototyping’, which saw the team develop the top three ideas in detail.

Taking part from Royal London were colleagues from Product, Insight, Research, Marketing and Corporate Responsibility – all of whom are now using the insight and prototypes with the ultimate goal of creating better experiences for people with cancer and those caring for them.

“This was one of the best insight gathering workshops I’ve ever participated in.”

Alice Sweet, Head of Consumer Proposition, Royal London