By FINTECH Books Contributor, Fuad Hendricks Follow: @ftotheh Is segmentation still relevant for the industry today? Digital has dramatically impacted the way organisations engage with customers, and as such have to review it’s business models.The expectations of the customer base in insurance have already transcended traditional segments (e.g. gender, age, etc.), and becoming pervasive not only in customer experiential requirements for products and services, but also existing business models. Verticals creating and servicing traditional product lines are blurred as organisations cross the divide to experiential and customer centricity management constructs. For example, youth, mass and HNIs segmentation is no longer relevant as the demands across these verticals become common place with minimal differentiation. Personalisation is no longer a requirement for only the highly profitable consumer, but has become a right for all consumers in the insurance services eco system. The development of personas and ethnographic studies has become as relevant as ever. One may argue the evolution to personas is equivalent to segmentation, however, personas convey behaviours, journeys and experiences of engagement. Businesses’ shift in response to customers’ demands will significantly be driven by UX design and data insights. The effect of ‘when’ and ‘how’ organisations respond to customer moments of truth or life events, will impact and become a catalyst for amalgamation of business verticals. Will establishing data centres and data science as a skill become a pre-requisite for incumbent organisations? Data is increasingly becoming a critical enabler, these imperatives will be key strategic levers for remaining relevant and competitive. As organisations become entrenched in the digital eco-system, the processes and models for developing client offers will follow the same design processes, i.e. designing for experience. Cross product definitions, and promoting simplicity with high value impact, will emerge and encourage adoption across multiple consumer personas. Product and service offering can no longer be developed on margin and propensity of profitability of an identified segment. A ‘boxed’ or prescriptive customer model is no longer sustainable nor sufficient for insurance organisation but the (un)relevance thereof is.