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GENERAL MOTORS INSURANCE

Turning Rewards Points into a Motivator for First-Time Policy Purchases

Overview

To support GM Insurance’s ambitious goal of 5x auto policy sales by the end of 2025, we explored how to incentivize drivers who weren’t actively thinking about auto insurance. The solution: allow GM Rewards members to apply their points toward their first policy payment.

By giving drivers an immediate benefit, we reframed quoting and purchasing as an opportunity to use value they already had.

Goals

  • Support the business outcome: 5x increase in auto insurance policy sales by the end of 2025.

  • Achieve the product outcome: show a quoted price to 700K GM drivers.

  • Address the user opportunity: “I’m not thinking about auto insurance right now.”

  • Provide an immediate motivator by enabling users to apply Rewards points to their first payment.

Collaborators

  • Product: Defined business requirements and KPIs.

  • UX Research: Validated prototype comprehension before launch.

  • Marketing: Owned email outreach

  • Engineering: Implemented rewards logic

  • Legal/Compliance: Reviewed copy and sweepstakes eligibility rules.

My Role

As lead product designer, I built an interactive prototype in Figma, collaborated with UX Research to validate comprehension before launch, and designed the final toggle + info pattern that was implemented in the product.

Timeline

  • January–February 2025 → Designed an interactive prototype in Figma and aligned with the product on requirements.

  • March 2025 → Partnered with UX Research to run usability testing on toggle interaction and info icon comprehension.

  • April 23, 2025 → Feature launched to all digital sales flows.

  • May 5, 2025 → Measurement snapshot: 15%+ of digital sales included Rewards redemption at payment (FullStory data).

The Challenge

Business Need

  • Drive more conversions by turning low-intent users into purchasers.

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User Need

  • Make insurance feel relevant today by showing tangible value through point redemption.

Problem to Solve

How might we motivate users who aren’t considering auto insurance by giving them a reason to apply their Rewards points right now?

Discover & Define

Discover

  • Analyzed sales funnel drop-offs and identified low-intent users as a key barrier.

  • Business teams emphasized finding new motivators to capture this audience.

Define

  • Framed the opportunity: unlock participation by allowing Rewards members to redeem points at payment.

  • Hypothesis: if redemption was transparent and straightforward, it would increase conversion.

Opportunity Solution Tree

A visual is a tool that supports product discovery by illustrating the path from the desired outcome to validating solutions

Rewards Tree.png

Develop & Deliver

Develop

  • Designed a toggle interaction for applying Rewards points.

  • Paired with an info icon to clarify why points couldn’t cover the entire payment (due to state regulations).

  • Created an interactive Figma prototype and ran moderated research with UXR to test comprehension.

UX Research Results​

  • 100% of participants successfully applied points with the toggle.

  • 80% correctly identified (via the info icon) that state requirements prevent full-payment coverage.

  • Users understood why the restriction existed, minimizing frustration.

Deliver

  • Launched on April 23, 2025 across digital sales flows.

  • Feature fully integrated into checkout with a clean, compliant design pattern.

User Interface

Results

  • Since launch, over 15% of all digital sales included Rewards points redemption at payment (FullStory, May 2025).

  • Redemption toggle proved intuitive and accessible, validating design and research investments.

  • Showed how small, user-friendly motivators can meaningfully increase engagement and conversion.

Reflection & Next Steps

  • Key Learning: Incentivizing purchase through Rewards made auto insurance feel relevant to low-intent users.

  • Strategic Impact: Demonstrated that existing loyalty programs can be leveraged as powerful acquisition levers.

  • Design Growth: Learned the value of pairing simple patterns (toggle + info icon) with clear research validation.

Next Steps

  • Track long-term retention of Rewards-motivated policyholders.

  • Explore scaling redemption options beyond the first payment, such as renewals

  • Allow users from all sources to redeem points, not just those in the mobile app.

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