Texas Mutual
User Research and Design Thinking Aligns a 28-year Old Insurance Provider

Review Summary
- Insurance
- Strategy, UX Design
- Customer Portal
- 501-1000 employees
- USA
“Project management was very good. They delivered consistently on time and within budget.”
– Ken Ivie, Senior IT Manager, Texas Mutual
4.5/5 CLIENT REVIEW
We engaged with Texas Mutual in a three-phase journey to clarify the purpose and objectives of their website and web portal, develop an envisioned design that drives that purpose forward, and build site improvements according to the highest digital design standards.

“Praxent trained us well and gave us all of the skills we need to be successful. The internal UX team is now skilled enough to improve CX on their own. Since working with Praxent, mores users can access the self-service, and call rates have decreased, signifying an improved UX. Praxent’s team was friendly and easy to work with. They’re highly recommended.”
Ken Ivie, Senior IT Manager, Texas Mutual Insurance
Summary
The Problem
Seeking company-wide alignment around business goals
How We Helped
STRATEGY
User persona creation
DESIGN
UX/UI design
The Outcomes
The Problem
How can you tell whether a product is fulfilling its purpose if you aren’t clear on what that purpose should be in the first place? Texas Mutual had a general idea of who their website was supposed to be serving and how. They also knew that whatever their website was supposed to be doing, it could be doing it better. Armed with firsthand data from user research, we uncovered concrete insight into what Texas Mutual customers and stakeholders want most out of their insurance website and where those desires align with the company’s business goals
“For me, initially, it was a build or buy sort of decision like, should I hire someone internally to do this and have them build it? Or should I buy an engagement and get a whole team?
In that first meeting, seeing all of the different roles that were part of the team at Praxent, I knew there was no way that I could hire one person and in nine months have a completed project. There’s no way.
Ken Ivie, Senior IT Manager, Texas Mutual Insurance
How we Helped
User Experience Research & Design
Through strategy workshops and user research we worked with Texas Mutual to lay the groundwork for an innovation roadmap.
We implemented 6 custom tools Developed for an innovation roadmap:
“Their employees are great. They’re very skilled and they have excellent demeanors. They’re easy to get along with and they have a fantastic culture.”
Ken Ivie, Senior IT Manager, Texas Mutual Insurance
Results/ROI
Effective websites present only the content that’s relevant to a visitor at the right stage of their user journey. They intuitively guide visitors down the paths that will best answer their questions and satisfy their demands.We re-structured Texas Mutual’s website to lead users effortlessly to the information they needed most.
Informed by human-centered design principles, we turned Texas Mutual’s website vision and purpose into a full-fledged user interface design and user experience. The results:
- Concise purpose spoke to specific target audiences
- Turned overwhelmed users with negative sentiments into speed users with the clarity they needed to succeed
- Simplified user experience
- Intuitive structure for moving visitors quickly to their desired answers or next steps
- 20 content modules the Texas Mutual team can use as templates for future pages
- Thoughtfully redesigned information architecture for efficient navigation
“More of our customers are able to use our self-service, and we’ve experienced a 30% reduction in call volume. Our net promoter score has been fantastic since working with them—it’s about 80.”
Ken Ivie, Senior IT Manager, Texas Mutual Insurance
Gallery
Client Review
Background
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m an IT manager at Texas Mutual. We’re a workers’ compensation company.
Opportunity / Challenge
What challenge were you trying to address with Praxent?
We have a mobile application, and an external-facing website with a portal for our customers to log into. We had an initiative to improve customer experience on both of those applications and wanted to start an internal design and UX team. Our preexisting internal team didn’t have the resources to do it ourselves.
Solution
What was the scope of their involvement?
At the beginning, Praxent augmented our UX team and helped them train. We shadowed their team in order to learn the skills we needed.
What is the team composition?
The team consisted of a project manager, a UX researcher, a designer, and a sales representative.
How did you come to work with Praxent?
A coworker on another team was looking for a UX partner as well. They thought that Praxent would be a better fit for our project, so they passed their contact information on to me.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent between $30,000–$60,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project lasted from 2018–2019.
Results & Feedback
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our UX team is up and running and is working every day to improve customer UX. Praxent trained us well and gave us all of the skills we need to be successful.
More of our customers are able to use our self-service, and we’ve experienced a 30% reduction in call volume. Our net promoter score has been fantastic since working with them—it’s about 80.
How did Praxent perform from a project management standpoint?
Project management was very good. They delivered consistently on time and within budget. We used Jira and cloud to track tasks and stories. I wasn’t a big fan of a project manager that came on board later in our engagement, but all of their other employees were outstanding.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their employees are great. They’re very skilled and they have excellent demeanors. They’re easy to get along with and they have a fantastic culture.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I would tell them to make sure they continue to hire people that match their company culture.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Make sure your people are involved with the project so you’re able to learn from their team on the day-to-day.
Ratings
4.5
Overall Score4.5
Scheduling
On Time / Deadlines
I can’t think of a single time they missed a deadline.
4.5
Quality
Service & Deliverables
Their deliverables were great and always were on time.
4.5
Cost
Value / Within estimates
I don’t have any experience with other UX firms, so it’s hard to compare. They’re expensive, but they do good work.
4.5
NPS
Willing to Refer
I definitely recommend them.
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