Case Study LVM

The old LVM website as a starting point for the relaunch.

LVM Design Sprint

Website Relaunch using Design Sprintss

Design Sprint
User-Centered Relaunch
Participatory Design
Workshops

The Agricultural Insurance Association of Münster, known as LVM, is one of the leading insurance companies in Germany. "By farmers for farmers" – from this original idea has emerged a modern insurance company with a wide range of products for all target groups, primarily focused on the interests of its customers. This is also reflected in the application of customer-centered methods.

In 2022, we worked together with LVM on a major challenge: the relaunch of LVM.de. This needed to be user-centered while also considering internal expertise and company policies. In summary, the project could be called "ELMO and the 5 Design Sprints." Sounds strange? We’re happy to explain.

Time for a Challenge

Whether you are a private customer, a commercial customer, someone interested in a job, or a journalist, LVM.de is the hub for many interest groups related to LVM. Everyone has individual requirements for the website, which made the relaunch a challenge. These requirements were supplemented by the interests of the individual LVM departments, IT, marketing, and the trustman (as the contact persons in the insurance agencies are called).

Not a Marathon, but a Series of Sprints

The result was a multifaceted challenge in which LVM placed particular importance on three things: fast decision-making, collaborative work, and user-centered thinking. All of these goals are embedded in the Design Sprint approach, which made the decision for this method an easy one.

However, a full relaunch was far too extensive to tackle within a single Design Sprint. We therefore broke the project down into five modules and carried out a series of five Design Sprints, each with a different thematic focus. An initial research phase complemented the plan.

User-Centered Design

Understand

Explore

Prototype

Test

No Sprint Without Warm-Up

In preparing for the Design Sprints, our focus was on getting to know the users of LVM.de more closely. Why do people visit an insurance website in the first place? What are their main intentions? What challenges are they currently facing?These questions were ideally addressed through a Top Task Analysis and Usability Testing, the results of which formed part of the foundation for our sprints.

The second part of this foundation was created through vision and stakeholder workshops. In these sessions, decision-makers at LVM collaboratively defined—under our facilitation—what the goal of the Design Sprints should be and which conditions were non-negotiable. The workshops resulted in a set of guardrails that helped us stay on track during the sprints. These included, for example, the interaction between lvm.de and the insurance agencies, as well as the overall tone of voice on the website.

Display panel from a design sprint with findings from previous research.

On Your Marks, Get Set, Sprint!

Our sprints followed the proven phases of the method, spread across 4–5 days: define the goal, sketching, decide, prototyping, and testing. Although there were a few weeks between each sprint, we didn’t take a real break. Instead, we used the time for a thorough follow-up before starting the next topic. After the sprint on the product page for private customers came the sprint for the product page for business customers, followed by the sprint for the press section, and so on.

Overall, we adhered to the Design Sprint methodology but deliberately chose to deviate from it in certain areas. One example: typically, a core principle of a Design Sprint is that a decision-maker participates to ensure decisions carry beyond the sprint. However, with a total of 22 sprint days in just five months, it wasn't feasible for any LVM decision-maker to participate continuously. Our solution: a well-structured schedule with clearly defined time slots requiring decision-maker input and longer phases in which the team could work independently.

Design Sprint participants evaluating new concepts.

Passing the Baton Between Two Sprints

Our series of Design Sprints came with an additional challenge: how might we ensure that the results of each individual sprint would merge into one coherent overall concept? We tackled the tricky opponent called inconsistency with a few strategic moves. At the start of every Design Sprint, we presented the concepts developed in previous sprints as a foundation and source of inspiration. We also had a few “core sprinters” who took part in multiple sprints and contributed to consistency simply through their ongoing involvement. And when those two measures weren’t enough, we stepped in as moderators to make small course corrections where needed.

Illustration of a relay race, runner number 4 passes the baton to runner number 5 for the next design sprint.

And What Does ELMO Have to Do with This?

ELMO was one of the methods that helped us stay focused during the Design Sprints and avoid drifting too far from the core topic. Whenever that happened, someone would call out “ELMO” – Enough, let’s move on. It became a lighthearted cue for everyone to get back on track. And by the way: ELMO didn’t retire after the final Design Sprint — it has since become a regular part of many meetings at LVM. In addition to ELMO, our “discussion vouchers” proved helpful in these moments. If a topic shouldn’t simply be ended with ELMO, participants could redeem one voucher per day in exchange for 15 minutes of discussion time.

Red Elmo stuffed animal in the workshop room.

Crossing the Finish Line

After a series of intense sprints, everyone involved crossed the finish line with a record-worthy result. We succeeded in creating a prototype of lvm.de — including a new UI design — in significantly less time than would have been possible with other user-centered design methods. And most importantly: the outcome not only convinced the internal team but also proved itself in usability testing. Thanks to the positive feedback from users, we know the effort paid off. Time for a high five with our client at LVM.

Illustration of three runners reaching the finish line together.

Ready for the Next Season

After crossing the finish line successfully, we took a short recovery break — but we’re ready for the next race at any time. The series of Design Sprints delivered excellent results with strong focus and time efficiency — and was fun along the way — so we plan to use the same approach for future topics as well. In general, this method is suitable for almost any challenge that needs to be tackled in an agile way but initially feels too big to take on as a whole.

LVM About the Project

“With the relaunch of lvm.de, we were able to implement a large project in high quality and in a short time. This moved us to rethink existing methods and possibilities. In the process, we came up with the idea of developing a design sprint series in which all content builds on each other and all stakeholders are equally involved in corresponding workshops in order to cast the results into a complex concept for the entire website. We needed a strong service provider to realise this idea for us. usability.de showed us the way to the concept and delivered the concept in high quality - and in a short time. We are grateful for the first-class guidance and great implementation of our requirements and for the high level of expertise.”

Rosen Lütke, Head of User Experience, LVM Versicherung