FBD Insurance

Role

As Director of Product & Technology, I led the end-to-end digital transformation of fbd.ie — Ireland's largest Irish-owned insurer — turning a legacy website into a high-performing revenue channel. The engagement spanned digital strategy, user research, UX design, creative direction, UI design, and full front-end build on the Terminal Four CMS.

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Challenges

Despite FBD's 50-year heritage and strong brand equity, the digital platform was significantly underperforming:

• Legacy Journey Architecture: The site was organised around FBD's internal product structure rather than how customers actually thought and searched — creating friction in both new business and renewal flows.
• Weak Digital Brand Expression: The warmth and trustworthiness of the FBD brand wasn't translating online. Generic imagery and unclear visual hierarchy were undermining customer confidence.
• Low Self-Serve Rates: Customers who could have converted online were defaulting to the call centre, increasing cost-to-serve and limiting revenue growth.
• No Content Strategy: With no publishing capability, FBD had no way to stay relevant to customers between renewal moments — a significant gap in a low-engagement category.

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Contribution

1. Digital Strategy & UX Design:
   • Conducted extensive user research, competitive auditing, and journey mapping to identify the key friction points in FBD's new business and renewals flows.
   • Developed a comprehensive UX roadmap and redesigned the information architecture around customer needs — 'Am I covered?', 'What's the best value?', 'How do I renew quickly?' — rather than internal product categories.
   • Designed and prototyped eQuote journeys for all product lines (car, home, farm, business), optimising each for self-serve conversion.
2. Creative Strategy & Digital Branding:
   • Developed a consumer-centric photography direction — moving from generic insurance stock to imagery that felt authentically Irish, warm, and grounded in real life.
   • Created a comprehensive pictogram and iconography system to simplify complex insurance concepts and improve at-a-glance comprehension.
   • Refined the visual expression of FBD's 'Protection, it's in our nature' positioning for digital, ensuring brand continuity while dramatically improving clarity.
3. UI Design & Build:
   • Delivered a cohesive, component-based UI design system — built for long-term ownership by FBD's internal team.
   • Integrated a 'Protection Stories' publishing platform enabling FBD to share claims advice, safety initiatives, and community content — keeping the brand relevant between renewal moments.
   • Full front-end build on Bootstrap, jQuery UI, and Terminal Four CMS, with rigorous QA and UAT.

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📈 +185% Year-on-Year Increase in Online Sale Conversion Rates

The redesigned customer journeys — built around how FBD's customers actually think and behave — delivered a 185% uplift in online conversion rates, establishing fbd.ie as a genuinely high-performing digital sales channel.

📋 +164% Increase in New Business Policies Sold Online

Optimised eQuote journeys and a clearer product information architecture made it significantly easier for new customers to understand their options and complete a purchase online — resulting in 164% growth in new policies sold digitally.

💶 +165% Increase in Online Revenue

The combination of higher conversion rates, more new business, and improved renewals flows delivered a 165% increase in online revenue — transforming fbd.ie from a supporting channel into a core revenue driver for the business.

📞 Reduced Call-Centre Demand

Customers who could self-serve confidently online meant measurably lower call-centre volume — a significant operational cost benefit alongside the commercial gains.

🏆 Client Endorsement

"We doubled online sales and online revenue. WONDR were undoubtedly a key cog in the wheel to achieve that." — Mark Feane, Head of Digital, FBD Insurance.

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The gallery showcases the redesigned fbd.ie experience across mobile, tablet, and desktop — from the simplified homepage and product navigation through to the eQuote journeys, renewal flows, and the Protection Stories publishing platform. Key highlights include the consumer-centric photography direction, the pictogram system used to simplify insurance product communication, and the warm, trustworthy digital expression of FBD's 'Protection, it's in our nature' brand positioning.