Cake & Arrow recognized as one of 2017’s Top 10 Mobile Applications and Technology Solution Providers to the Insurance Industry.
View the award announcement:
See the profile of Cake & Arrow's CEO in the magazine:
Insurance in the age of the Gig Economy
What happens to insurance when business gets personal?
By 2020, 40% of the U.S. Labor Force will be comprised of independent workers. As more and more workers leave their full time jobs and/or supplement their incomes with Gig Economy work, what does this mean for the future of insurance?
This white paper discusses the findings of a survey we conducted of Gig Economy workers and provides insights for insurance carriers into:
- To what extent Gig Economy workers are insured for their independent work
- How Gig Economy workers understand and assess their own risks
- How the insurance industry as a whole might better meet the changing needs of Gig Economy workers
Gold Stevie Award for Women in Business
It is with great pride that I accepted a Gold Stevie® Award in the category of Women Helping Women and a Bronze in the Female Executive of the Year category for Business Services. My awards reaffirms my commitment to helping women in business and I'm so proud that this will be a springboard for even more impact as I continue to grow in my career.
Image courtesy of the Stevie Awards
My Acceptance Speech
Red Carpet Interview
Hear what the Judges said about me:
"Ms. Goldschmidt's passion for supporting women within her own company and within her community is notable. Leveraging her knowledge in both the financial and digital industries with this focus in mind is impressive."
"Strong leadership and commend her for understanding the importance of the customer."
"Great example of helping women in business beyond just what would be expected of a good leader. Taking extra steps to coordinate networking groups, council young women and formally mentor others where what led to my score."
"Christina is obviously dedicated to supporting women in business."
"Christina's passion, energy and commitment to the advancement of women both within Cake & Arrow and her industry is commendable. Keep up the great work."
"Congratulations on your achievements. I found your commitment to, and success in supporting women in the workplace and facilitating equality to be inspiring."
"A true leader and advocate for women voice who empowers women leadership."
"As great business leader and female mentors in the industry."
"Nominee has a very noteworthy past of proving women with an opportunity for advancement within her company and developing programs that support their lives. Further her efforts to support women on several fronts outside her company are noteworthy. She has recognized for her efforts including awards for her as a woman business leader."
"After reviewing the application for Christina, I feel that she has hit the mark on the head. She has been able to flip the organization around and really empower women. The application itself was put together very well and really showed what she has accomplished."
"Great efforts and appreciate the #FlipHerScript campaign, as well."
Six Lessons in Trust the Insurance Industry Can Learn from Retail Ecommerce
Trust remains one of the insurance industry’s greatest barriers to transformation. What lessons can they learn from retail ecommerce?
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Designing for the Nth Persona: Stakeholder Management for UX Designers
I deeply care for the end user and designing the right experiences that meet their needs. But the end user is not the only audience we need to think about designing for. The Nth persona is that person who is internal at a client or company who works on behalf of the end user. An important Nth user is actually stakeholders. Stakeholders are also some of the hardest personas to crack. Effective stakeholder management can really make the design process go well. Here are my tips for how to get to know your stakeholders better.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
A Transformation from Within: A Step-by-Step Guide to Transforming Digital Culture and Making Your Organization Truly Customer Focused
In the Insurance and Financial Services industries there is still lots of chatter on how to transform companies to be more innovative and customer centric. Banking, insurance, and private equity all fall below the global average when it comes to their ability to effectively transform and deliver on customer experience. And in the age of digital transformation and customer centricity, their ability to do so is critical to their survival in the 21st century. While most organizations are aware of the need to transform, many are held back by organizational structures resistant to change and cultures of “business as usual.”
This white paper provides insight into how insurance and financial services organizations can:
- Enable customer-centric digital capacity from within their organizations
- Use Design Thinking, User Experience Methods and the principles of Adult Learning to seed change that will increase risk taking, agility and creativity
- Thoughtfully scale change over time to infuse every level of the organization with a spirit of innovation, design thinking, and customer-centricity
Rutgers Design Thinking Advisory Board
I'm please to have been awarded a position on the Design Thinking@Rutgers Advisory Board. Being selected to this invitation only position is a great honor and recognition to my commitment to further the field of design thinking.
I'm looking forward to participating in classroom activities and helping to improve the program.
Image courtesy of Rutgers
Learn more about the program:
Debunking the Myth of the UX Unicorn
So much talk about the UX unicorn. But its not reality. You don't have to be able to do it all! Read my blog post on how you can actually craft a career that you love. And the secret is about knowing a little bit and choosing where you want to focus. Long live T-shaped people!
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Our KIND Snacks Website Redesign was Awarded One of the Best Homepages
HubSpot is a trusting marketing partner to business across the web. So honored to see that the website redesign that we did for KIND Snacks was honored by them as one of the top homepage to emulate. Here is what they said:
Why It's Brilliant
- The bold colors produce contrast, making the words and images stand out on the page.
- The CTA -- "Shop KIND" -- is clever. It urges the visitor to click to learn more while making a play on the word "kind" -- implying that it's a good choice to shop there.
- KIND Snacks' tagline is straight up brilliant -- when I read it, the message immediately resonated and made me want to read the snack bar's label.
Image courtesy of HubSpot
Getting Down to Business as a UX Designer
Learn how you can go from being a good UX designer to a great UX leader by learning a thing or two about business. Propelling your career is possible when you focus on not just your craft but also your leadership skills.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Insurtech Silicon Valley 2017
On March 29th, I joined John Tramonti, Assistant Vice President at MetLife to speak at Insurtech Silicon Valley 2017 Summit. The theme of the conference was Core Systems and Insurtech Fusion: Roadmap for Rapid Innovation and Transformation and focused on how insurtech is driving a paradigm shift in product innovation and core systems transformation.
It was super exciting to be speaking with MetLife’s John Tramonti at this insurtech conference and to share how our great partnership is transforming their business. Our work together will make them the carrier of choice for customers and agents!
See video of the panel: https://youtu.be/KDy6PXpLKfU
We spoke on a panel including Andrea P Eichorn, Cognitive Solutions, Global Executive at IBM and Dustin Yoder, Founder and Head of Product and Strategy at Sureify about how the insurance value chain is shifting and what it will take to compete as the insurance industry goes digital.
View our presentation:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8d-1vCt7Pw4a0hqR1lUQ0ZueGM
Learn more about the conference:
http://sviaccelerator.com/insurtech-sv-core-systems-insurtech-fusion/
Use discount code ChristinaG-15 for 15% off!
See our own Anna Perez's summary of the conference:
https://cakeandarrow.com/newsfeed/2017/04/key-takeaways-insurtech-silicon-valley-2017/
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
4 Tips for Making a First Impression that Lasts
As we continue to hold Archery Club meetings, we are getting some great topics! Read my write up of Katie Gray's presentation on making first impressions. It focuses on how women can make a lasting first impression in the workplace, with practical tips for how to present one’s self in meetings, interviews, presentations etc.
Image coutrsey of Cake & Arrow
Transformation & Tradition: Re-Imagining the Customer-Agent Experience in Insurance
I have had the pleasure of interviewing countless insurance agents/brokers across the globe and also equal numbers of insurance clients. The one universal conclusion from my hours and hours of research is that the customer-agent experience in insurance is broken. In this Webinar, Jane Lindner and I explain how to use our human-centered approach to fix it.
Image courtesey of Cake & Arrow
Read more about the webinar & watch it:
https://cakeandarrow.com/newsfeed/2017/03/webinar-recap-transformation-and-tradition/
NYU STERN School of Business - User Experience Workshop
I've been talking to NYU Stern for about two years now about conducing workshops in UX to better prepare students to go out and work in the digital world. On February 28th I'm finally got to do a lunch time workshop. I walked students through the basics of UX, how to speak intelligently on the topic in interviews, how to generate insights from user research and how to work with UX designers.
See the slides here: https://www.slideshare.net/emilycakeandarrow/demystifying-user-experience-72781605
See video excerpts from my workshop:
Christina Goldschmidt leading a workshop on NYU Stern School of Business on User Generated Insights
IMA Awards
My agency had an exciting year at the IMAs Though we only one 3 awards this year, we were awarded a Perfect Score for the redesign of our own website for Cake & Arrow. To make this even more special, here are the notes on how rare this is for the IMAs:
- This entry is the first to achieve a perfect score in the 2017 award year, from over 2,000 entries submitted so far.
- This entry is the 22nd to achieve a perfect score since IMA began in 2005, from over 30,000 entries submitted.
See all of our awards:
Cake & Arrow: IMA Best in Class, Web Design / Development
Read more about the awards on Cake & Arrow's site:
https://cakeandarrow.com/newsfeed/2017/03/cake-and-arrow-wins-two-interactive-media-awards/
Finding Your Voice as a Woman in Business
The best thing I can do in response to our current political climate is to help women develop their careers and leadership skills. With that in mind, at the end of last year I started an initiative at my company for a dialogue around gender equality in the workplace. We have monthly meetings where we explore topics, share strategies and create connections. We had our 2nd meeting about a week ago and the topic was Finding Your Voice. I wrote a blog post on our company's website on the details of the meeting.
Closing the Digital Divide Between Boomers and Millennials
After a lifetime of observing human behavior and attitudes via research and testing, I'm finally starting to share those nuggets with the world! Check out my blog post on the Cake & Arrow site where I talk about closing the digital divide between Boomers and Millennials.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
AVA Digital Awards - Gold
Cake & Arrow did great at the AVA Digital Awards, taking home a total of 4 awards. I directly worked on 2 of the Gold winners:
Genpact Lead Generation Platform
Cake & Arrow Rebrand and Site Redesign
I are honored to have our work recognized amongst some of the top digital work created throughout the world in 2016.
The Future of Customer Experience in 2017: The Return of the Pyramid Scheme
As it turns 2017, leaders at my agency have been sharing our predictions! Mine is that we will see a return of the pyramid scheme. It will be repositioned to prey on Millennials and appeal to their sense of social conscious and desire for authentic experiences. Check out Emily Smith's write up of my idea: a new incarnation of multilevel marketing is on the horizon. This time, millennials are the target.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow
Creating Consumer Faith in Online Insurance Quotes
I've been working on property and casualty insurance for MetLife for over 2 years now. In my initial user research, I uncovered that consumers were reluctant to actually purchase their insurance online as they have been taught to not trust the insurance companies. As MetLife was working to bring a direct to consumer option to market, this mindset was the biggest barrier to their success. Trust continues to be a barrier to online insurance purchases, for all carriers. How can insurance companies build consumer trust while mitigating risk? Check out this article on my agency's blog that discussed over coming this issue. I contributed to Emily Smith's great writing.
Image courtesy of Cake & Arrow