Name: Adam Hale
Role: Product owner, Allstate.
What does your typical day look like?
We start our day with a team standup, going around each team member and letting them speak to what they worked on the previous day, what they will work on today, and anything stopping them that needs to be raised up. After that, the team will split off into virtual rooms and get coding. We also have great flexibility and could choose if we wanted to work in the office. My day varies a lot, so I can find myself working on some code, attending meetings discussing technical implementations or directions, our strategic landscape for both product and technical, or coach / mentoring sessions with others. After lunch, we would sync up with our US based colleagues and have another quick check-in, then much of the same, some code, some conversations.
What are you currently working on?
At present, my teams have been building a new platform for claims handling at Allstate that has transformed how we as an insurance carrier interact with hospitals and medical providers so we can improve our processes and customer experience. We started this work at the start of July, and I am proud to say the team was hugely successful getting a fully functional system into production by the end of the month. This new implementation and process will generate millions of savings, as well as significantly reduce the time and complexity for casualty adjusters working claims. The teams have since been iterating on adding more functionality to enhance the already delivered experience to further capitalise on the immediate successes. I am also involved in initial conversations and planning with one of the biggest tech companies around. This new conversational AI which would take the first details for starting a claim. I also have another side project on the go where I am looking to leverage blockchain as an experiment for improving our user workflow in some systems.
What inspired you to join this company in particular?
I had previously worked at Allstate NI, and really enjoyed the XP lab that had been established. Working over the past few years in Claims XP has been great, the culture and way of working is energising. I love the ownership across all our area too where we work hard and play hard, and the culture that we have built up is outstanding. Being able to work alongside so many talented people, as well as being able to draw so much inspiration from everyone around me is something that keeps me continually learning and developing too. Furthermore, there are endless opportunities for development at Allstate. Being one of the largest tech outfits in NI comes with the awesome resources for continued learning and building knowledge and experiences.
Did you always want to work in this industry (tech)?
I always had an interest in technology, the rise of games consoles, internet, mobile phones was something that has always been evolving and of interest. Being able to get involved in the tech industry has been great, and having the ownership and freedom to shape my future through my career at Allstate has no doubt helped me immerse myself into it.
What’s your favourite part about your work?
I enjoy the mix of technology, problem solving, and people. No day is the same, and being agile is part of how I work as well as the environment we work in. I really enjoy being able to get stuck into complex technical problems and applying technology to solve them. Being able to balance this with coaching and mentoring others, leadership responsibilities such as looking at our technical landscape or ensuring we are having the right conversations around what we are trying to achieve and how we are doing it. Getting new problems and having the trust to create an innovation solution and lead teams to implement it is the full package for me. It allows me to exercise all the things I enjoy at once, and get some kick ass results too!
What would you say to other people considering a job in this industry (tech)?
There is something for everyone. Being an engineer, I love full stack, and it allows me to easily explore interests. For anyone looking to get started with code, it would be what I recommend as it offers so much opportunity to find what you would like to concentrate on. There are vast opportunities beyond coding, like product, UX, architecture, testing, quality assurance, the list is long. Figure out what might interest you, and there is a good chance those values align to something in the tech industry.
How do you see this technology impacting our lives?
Time is our most precious resource, being able to use technology to give our customers some of that back is magnificent. Being able to influence how we shape our solutions is fundamental for this, being able to implement clean solutions and establish exceptional patterns and practices has allowed us to achieve this time saving for our customers, as well as making their daily jobs easier, not to mention it makes our lives easier being able to build further on these systems. It’s a very pleasant life cycle for our teams, which time and time again get praised for the high value and quality delivered.
What do you consider to be the most important tech innovation or development in recent years?
I am really interested to see how blockchain will play a role in the world. There have been some interesting use cases within organisations for it which has peaked my interest. The metaverse would be another and how it will shape the tech landscape.
What tech gadget could you not live without?
Probably the most obvious is my phone, has everything I need and connects to everything I want. A handheld device with instant access to infinite resources in the information age seems like the ideal gadget. The risk taker in me would say my crypto hard wallet, it might get me the lime green lambo I have been keeping my eye on…
