Cover letterDigital Product Owner · MAS

Dear MAS team,

I'm Rahul Singh, a Product Development Manager who owns digital products end-to-end — from discovery through delivery and the post-launch optimisation that proves it worked. My happiest work has been in claims at IAG, where the goal was never "ship a feature" — it was measurable outcomes for customers under pressure: faster lodgement, auto-decisioning, proactive comms during disasters, and partner channels that actually shifted volume.

I'm also planning a move to the Wellington region, so the timing and the location line up — I'd be relocating to be part of this, not commuting around it.

The Digital Product Owner role reads like the brief I've been practising for — a defined member journey, a regulated environment, and the autonomy to run discovery and delivery as one loop. Scroll through to see how that maps, with a deeper look at the claims work I'm proudest of.

Jump to claims work →See JD mapping

Section 01 · Why MAS

A mutual, member-owned model is the version of digital I want to build for.

I've spent years inside large insurers where shareholder pressure quietly steered roadmap conversations. MAS is structurally different — owned by Members, focused on long-term value. That changes what "good" looks like for a digital product owner.

Make a difference, In it together, Own it & do it isn't far off how I already work: outcome-led, embedded with the squad, comfortable carrying the call from discovery through to adoption.

"I don't want to ship features. I want to move outcomes for members — and own the trail of evidence that proves we did."

Section 02 · The role, decoded

Your job description, mapped to my receipts.

Deep diveEight years inside claims

Claims is where I learned to ship outcomes in a regulated environment.

At IAG I owned the digital claims product across direct consumer brands in AU and NZ — the lodgement journey, the decision engine behind it, the partner channels feeding into it, and the hub members landed on during a disaster. Here's what that looked like in numbers and in story.

0%

↓ AHT for new digital lodgements

Real-Time Decision Engine, IAG

0%+

of partner claims lodged online

Westpac & BNZ partner lodgement

0%

of all claims shifted to digital

IAG digital claim forms

0%

lift in online claim submissions

Optimisation value stream

The claims journey, end to end

Five products, one customer journey.

01 · Lodgement

Digital claim forms — the foundation

15%claims moved online
Problem
The vast majority of claims still came in by phone, creating queues, inconsistent capture, and a heavy operations cost.
Discovery
Mapped the lodgement journey across direct brands, identified drop-off points and the questions that confused customers most.
Bet
Rebuild lodgement as a guided digital flow — own it as a product, not a form.
Outcome
Shifted 15% of all claims to online channels as Product Lead for IAG's digital claim forms.

02 · Real-time decisioning

Real-Time Decision Engine

75%↓ AHT for new digital lodgements
Problem
Straightforward digital lodgements still sat in a queue waiting for a human assessor, dragging average handling time.
Discovery
Worked with assessors and data to identify the claim patterns that could be auto-verified safely under existing policy rules.
Bet
Ship a Real-Time Decision Engine that auto-verifies low-risk claims at the point of lodgement.
Outcome
Average handling time for new digital lodgements dropped by 75% — one of the biggest single ops wins of the program.

03 · Disaster response

Disaster Response Comms platform

Problem
When a major event hit, teams scrambled to manually contact tens of thousands of impacted customers — slow, inconsistent, and stressful for everyone.
Discovery
Sat with the event response team during live events to understand the real choreography between ops, comms and claims.
Bet
Automate proactive SMS to impacted customers, triggered by event geography and policy data.
Outcome
Shipped a disaster-response comms platform used during major Australian events — proactive contact at scale, in minutes not days.

04 · Partner lodgement

Online lodgement for Westpac & BNZ

20%+partner claims lodged online
Problem
Bank-distributed insurance still relied on phone-based lodgement, making the partner channel slower than the direct one.
Discovery
Worked across two major bank partners to align journeys, branding constraints and data hand-off requirements.
Bet
Deliver a shared online lodgement experience that fits each partner's brand and integrates with claims operations.
Outcome
20%+ of partner claims now lodged online — meaningfully shifting volume off voice channels for both Westpac and BNZ.

05 · Information hub

Disaster Response Hub

Problem
During major events customers couldn't easily find what was happening, what to do, or how to get help — driving anxiety and inbound call volume.
Discovery
Mined call-centre transcripts and customer feedback to surface the real questions people asked in the first 48 hours of an event.
Bet
Create a centralised Disaster Response Hub that becomes the single source of truth during events.
Outcome
Live during major events as the centralised information hub — reduced repetitive enquiries and gave customers a place to land.
Regulated · complex

Built for environments where risk has a seat at the table.

Insurance trains a particular kind of product muscle. You can't ship past compliance, you can't optimise away customer vulnerability, and you can't talk about "outcomes" without owning the risk side of the ledger. I spent eight years inside that reality — including being an integral part of IAG's McKinsey-led digital transformation, where I co-built the 3–5 year strategy and the customer journey model the business still uses.

The MAS line about a "regulated, complex environment" isn't a warning to me — it's the conditions I do my best work in.

Section 03b · Claims, mapped to the JD

How my claims work translates into discovery and delivery for the role.

The JD describes a product owner who runs both sides of the loop — discovery to define and validate, delivery to plan, prioritise and execute. Here's the same eight years of claims work, sorted into the two halves of that loop.

DiscoveryProblem validation · solution testing

  1. JD · Lead discovery activity to clearly define problems

    Problem framing

    For the Real-Time Decision Engine, the framing wasn't "build automation" — it was "why are simple claims sitting in a queue?". Reframed AHT as a customer outcome, not an ops metric.

    ↓ 75%Average handling time on new digital lodgements

    How measuredMedian lodgement-to-decision time, tracked weekly via the claims data warehouse vs. pre-launch baseline.

    Artefact · Problem statements, opportunity tree, journey pain map

  2. JD · Inform priorities with insight from the ground up

    Evidence gathering

    Sat with assessors and mined call-centre transcripts during disaster events to surface the real first-48-hour questions that drove the Disaster Response Hub.

    100sTranscripts + ride-alongs synthesised per event

    How measuredThemed call transcripts and assessor sessions tagged into a recurring insight log, reviewed each event cycle.

    Artefact · Interview synthesis, transcript mining, ride-along notes

  3. JD · Validate solutions before committing to delivery

    Solution testing

    Validated digital lodgement flows for Westpac and BNZ with prototype testing across both partner brands before engineering committed — kept rework low across two stakeholders.

    ≈ 0Major scope reversals across two partner launches

    How measuredCounted change requests > 1 sprint of rework after build start — kept near zero by validating with both partners pre-build.

    Artefact · Prototype tests, partner walkthroughs, assumption logs

  4. JD · Use insight and analytics to shape what's next

    Continuous discovery

    The 7% lift in online claim submissions came out of a standing optimisation value stream — discovery didn't stop at launch, it became a habit of the squad.

    +7%Online claim submission rate

    How measuredSubmissions ÷ form starts, tracked in Adobe Analytics and reviewed weekly against pre-optimisation baseline.

    Artefact · Optimisation backlog, weekly insight readouts

DeliveryPlanning · backlog · execution

  1. JD · Partner closely with Agile delivery teams

    Planning & ceremonies

    Embedded inside the claims squad — co-ran sprint planning, refinement and reviews so engineering and design shaped the increment with me, not after me.

    SteadyPredictable sprint throughput across the claims squad

    How measuredStory-point velocity and committed-vs-completed ratio tracked sprint over sprint in Jira.

    Artefact · Sprint goals, story slicing, dependency map

  2. JD · Own and maintain a well-prioritised product backlog

    Backlog ownership

    Held a single prioritised backlog across digital lodgement, decisioning and partner channels — every item ladder-rung'd up to a measurable outcome (AHT, online share, partner volume).

    100%Backlog items tagged to a measurable outcome

    How measuredBacklog hygiene check — every prioritised story carried an outcome tag (AHT, online share, partner volume) before sprint pull.

    Artefact · Outcome-tagged backlog, RICE / outcome scoring

  3. JD · Maintain end-to-end oversight of journeys and processes

    End-to-end execution

    Owned the lodgement-to-decisioning chain end to end — front-end form, decision engine, ops hand-off — so seams between products didn't quietly become customer pain.

    15%Of all claims shifted to digital channels

    How measuredChannel mix (digital vs. phone) reported monthly from the claims data warehouse.

    Artefact · Journey-level acceptance criteria, ops readiness checklist

  4. JD · Support rollout, change and adoption

    Rollout & adoption

    Worked with ops, partner managers and comms on phased rollouts — Westpac and BNZ launches needed change support inside the bank as much as inside IAG.

    20%+Of partner claims now lodged online

    How measuredPartner channel mix (online vs. phone) tracked post-rollout against the pre-launch baseline at Westpac and BNZ.

    Artefact · Rollout plan, partner enablement pack, post-launch review

Section 03c · Journey

Claims → discovery → delivery, in one horizontal flow.

Each stop is a real claims product. Walk across to see the discovery and delivery work behind it, then jump straight to the artefact it produced.

LodgementStep 1 / 5

Digital claim forms

Discovery

Mapped the lodgement journey, identified drop-off + confusion points across direct brands.

Delivery

Owned the rebuild as a guided product, not a form — sliced into outcome-tagged stories.

15%of all claims shifted to digital channels

How measuredChannel mix (digital vs. phone) reported monthly from the claims data warehouse.

Auto-decisioningStep 2 / 5

Real-Time Decision Engine

Discovery

Sat with assessors + ran data analysis to find safe-to-automate claim patterns.

Delivery

Co-led the squad shipping the engine inside the existing policy-rule framework.

↓ 75%average handling time for new digital lodgements

How measuredMedian lodgement-to-decision time, tracked weekly vs. pre-launch baseline.

Proactive contactStep 3 / 5

Disaster Response Comms

Discovery

Shadowed the event response team during live events to map the real choreography.

Delivery

Shipped automated SMS triggered by event geography + policy data — rolled out for AU events.

Minutesfrom event trigger to customer contact (was days)

How measuredTime-stamped trigger-to-send logs in the comms platform vs. manual baseline.

Partner channelStep 4 / 5

Westpac & BNZ lodgement

Discovery

Validated journeys against two partner brands with prototype testing before build.

Delivery

Phased rollout across both partners with enablement inside the bank + IAG ops.

20%+of partner claims now lodged online

How measuredPartner channel mix (online vs. phone) tracked post-rollout vs. baseline at Westpac and BNZ.

Information surfaceStep 5 / 5

Disaster Response Hub

Discovery

Mined call-centre transcripts to surface the real first-48-hour questions.

Delivery

Built a centralised hub used as the single source of truth during major events.

1 sourceof truth during events — repeat enquiries down

How measuredHub traffic + call-centre repeat-enquiry tagging compared event-over-event.

Artefacts produced

What each step actually shipped.

BothStep 1

Lodgement journey map + outcome-tagged backlog

End-to-end map of the lodgement journey across direct brands, paired with a backlog where every story laddered to a measurable outcome.

OutcomeShifted 15% of all claims to digital channels.

DiscoveryStep 2

Auto-decisioning rule library + assessor co-design notes

A documented set of safe-to-automate patterns, validated with assessors and operationalised inside the decision engine.

Outcome↓ 75% average handling time for new digital lodgements.

DeliveryStep 3

Event-trigger comms playbook + SMS automation

A repeatable playbook tying event geography and policy data to proactive customer messaging — used live during major Australian events.

OutcomeProactive contact at scale, in minutes not days.

BothStep 4

Cross-partner lodgement prototype + rollout plan

A shared prototype tested across two banks before build, with a phased rollout and enablement pack for partner staff.

Outcome20%+ of partner claims now lodged online.

DiscoveryStep 5

First-48-hour insight set + Disaster Response Hub

Synthesised customer questions from call transcripts into a centralised content hub published at the start of an event.

OutcomeReduced repeat enquiries; gave members a place to land.

Section 04 · Beyond claims

Claims taught me the craft. The work since has stretched it.

Now · GDT

Modular marketplace platform

Designing and leading a modular SaaS platform across one of the world's largest commodity trading ecosystems — global sellers, buyers and ops on a shared rail.

Roam Digital

Discovery as a service

Facilitated discovery sprints across multiple client engagements — turning ambiguous briefs into validated problem statements and prioritised bets.

Side · Community

AI PM Briefing + Product Aotearoa

Run an AI intelligence layer for product managers, write PM Insights Weekly, and lead Experience for NZ's only annual PM conference.

Section 05 · How I work

Six things you can expect on day 30.

01

Discovery + Delivery

Equally fluent on both sides — discovery isn't a phase, it's a habit running through delivery.

02

Modern ways of working

Cross-functional, lightweight ceremonies, shared ownership over hand-offs.

03

Stakeholder craft

Tailor the message to the room — exec, ops, partner, squad — without losing the through-line.

04

Outcome-led prioritisation

Every backlog item ladders to a measurable outcome, not a feature wishlist.

05

UX + analytics literacy

Read research and funnel data with equal fluency. Trained in HCD and Design Thinking.

06

Autonomous, aligned

Comfortable operating with autonomy while staying tightly aligned to team and org goals.

Section 06 · Let's talk

I'd love to talk about how this maps to what MAS is actually building right now.

Thank you for reading. The shortest path from here is a conversation — happy to walk you through any of the claims work in more depth, or dig into the discovery practice I'd bring to your domain.

Signed

Rahul Singh

Auckland, New Zealand

Email me →LinkedInrahul.a-nz.comPortfolio

Quick reference

Email
rahulsing.in@gmail.com
Phone
+64 21 0736 801
Newsletter
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Right to work
NZ Citizen / Resident

Make a difference · In it together · Own it, do it