What's it Like to Work in Product at Clearcover?
Written by Aileen Comer | 4 minute read
Hi, I’m Aileen! I’m a Product Manager at Clearcover, a VC-funded insurtech that’s helping people get smarter, better car insurance coverage - while also paying less. I joined the company as a Product Owner and recently got promoted to Product Manager. With the transition, I had time to reflect on my day-to-day and wanted to share it here:
1. We’re serious about solving problems.
We’re an up-and-coming company claiming a piece of the market dominated by companies that are much larger than we are. Each day looks a little different. Ultimately, my job is to get creative and solve a lot of problems quickly.
The way I do that changes each day. I’m the product lead on the policy servicing team, which means I’m responsible for building the best possible experience for our customers, our agents, and our customer advocates. To do that efficiently, it’s important the team works on the right problems in the right order and we understand the issues we’re addressing. It’s easy to get caught up fighting small fires so, at the beginning of every day, I sit down and take a hard look at my team’s weekly goals to make sure they align with the company’s overarching goals for the quarter. If it looks like we’re losing focus, I have the conversations necessary to make sure we stay on track.
Because of our size and user-centered approach, Clearcover is incredibly agile. We iterate on the fly. If a meeting shifts in a direction that doesn’t require everyone originally invited, we tell people to go. We do our best to over-communicate, practice candor, and to talk about what’s not working. Essentially, if something isn’t working, we change it, and every member of the team has a voice in finding the solution. In a company that’s growing so quickly, every decision has a measurable effect on company growth. It’s certainly a challenge but it’s also deeply rewarding.
One of the best parts of working at Clearcover is the environment of empowerment. For example, during our recent push to launch Clearcover with independent agents, I was responsible for determining the digital interface for our users—a project that needed to go from prototype to launch in only a few months. It was my responsibility to consider all the possibilities and then narrow them down to the iteration that was most reasonable for the timeline and also offered the necessary features.
The deliverables were completely up to me—as long as they would help us meet our launch goals. And when we ultimately landed on a simple, straightforward experience that met our stakeholders’ most pressing needs, it was my call. It’s been exciting to deliver a true “minimum viable product,” and I’m excited for what’s next as we learn and iterate.
You don’t get this kind of freedom everywhere.
2. We grow every day.
Clearcover is expanding rapidly and we want to provide an industry-best experience. And, since we’re radically customer-focused, my role is focused on continually improving how people experience our product. We’re constantly asking via survey, user testing and 1:1 calls— What do customers really want to know about their policy and how can we best provide it? Where does our product need to change? How can we make self-service easy? How do we know what’s most important to the people we serve? How can we change customers’ expectations of an insurance company?
To state the obvious, my job is never boring.
As we grow, Clearcover itself is constantly changing. One of our fundamental values is to challenge assumptions, so we’re always rethinking how we do things, questioning first principles, and setting unreasonable goals. We’re not afraid to pivot if it’s the right thing for our company and for the people we serve.
3. We like each other.
At the end of the day, I work at Clearcover because of the people. In any given week, I have the opportunity to work with engineers, marketers, designers, and senior leadership. Kyle, our CEO, has office hours every week, when anyone can go in and have a conversation. We see our company culture as akin to that of a professional sports team—we all play to our strengths while caring about each other a whole lot. We check up on each other, depend on each other, and everything we do is a combined effort. No one here is in a bubble—we have to talk to each other and work in parallel or nothing works.
Ultimately, we’re a team that really enjoys and takes pride in what we’re doing. When I was still considering the role, Adam Fischer, the EVP of Product and Technology, told me that the leadership team wanted to build the best product team in Chicago. That caught my attention—and it turned out to be true. At Clearcover, there’s a sincere dedication to excellent product work. We’re given the autonomy we need and the tools necessary to practice our craft well. I’m so glad I joined the team.
Clearcover is scaling fast but our culture is special. We’re doing unique and interesting work with fantastic people, and we’re always looking for new talent to join the team.
Could that be you? Check out Clearcover’s open jobs!