At INSTANDA, a product roadmap is never just a static list of features or a timeline of deliverables. It is a living, breathing strategy built on a foundation of collaboration.
For Kieran Topp, Head of Product at INSTANDA, the distinction is clear: clients are integral partners in shaping INSTANDA’s journey, never just recipients of software updates.
We met with Kieran to discuss the ‘art’ behind the roadmap - how INSTANDA balances the needs of Tier 1 carriers with niche MGAs, the role of co-creation workshops, and why listening to the ‘voice of the customer’ remains the most critical tool in a product leader’s repertoire.
Q&A with Kieran Topp
Q: How would you describe INSTANDA’s philosophy when it comes to building the product roadmap?
Kieran Topp: Our philosophy is deeply grounded in the founding vision for the INSTANDA platform. From day one, INSTANDA acknowledged an important truth: nobody can ever know everything there is to know about insurance. Our clients are the experts in their specific lines of business, their markets, and their customer needs. A no-code platform was the only way to deliver true agility and flexibility, placing powerful product design and configuration directly into the hands of those closest to the challenges and opportunities.
This fundamental idea directly shapes our product roadmap strategy, which is built on an outside-in perspective. Rather than assuming what the market wants, we actively seek out and incorporate our clients’ insights, allowing their needs and experiences to guide our direction. This collaborative process of co-creation ensures we focus on developing features and enhancements that bring the greatest value to the broadest number of clients, while continually strengthening the capabilities of the platform for everyone.
The goal is to chart and follow a course of best fit: identifying which things move the needle furthest, fastest, for as many clients as possible, while continuing to push the wider industry forwards.
Every feature and iteration is designed to solve real-world business challenges. It’s about ensuring the technology serves a clear purpose, enabling insurers to build and adapt their product and distribution strategy with speed and efficiency.
Q: You mentioned co-creation. How do you practically gather that insight from such a diverse client base?
Kieran: Even at the cutting edge of AI-augmented innovation, one cannot ignore the enduring power of the human touch. So, in our view, it’s always critical that we keep a conversational pulse running with clients. Deep client conversations are essential for fostering collaboration. Getting 'hands-on' with clients in workshops is a dynamic way to gather insights and uncover the emotional and functional drivers that truly resonate with people who use the platform. This, in turn, allows us to better define and align with what 'quality' really means. Even better, when multiple clients gather in a shared space, they gain the time and freedom to exchange ideas and insights, creating a microcosm reflecting the global carriers and MGAs that INSTANDA serves.
In January, for example, we ran a thematic workshop with several select clients, including Tier 1 carriers and specialist MGAs to ensure a ‘broad church’ of views from across our clients regarding INSTANDA’s AI strategy for 2026. Naturally, this is an incredibly exciting area as we swiftly move beyond the Quote Policy Assist tool we deployed in November 2025 and toward operationalizing a broader range of platform innovations this year. Once again, we recognized the need for the voice of the client to be a central factor in our strategic thinking.
We played back AI initiatives within four thematic areas where we felt AI could most benefit clients, brokers, and customers. After the ‘pitches,’ we held an interactive voting session where participants scored the initiatives based on the value they believed each would bring to their business operations. The outcome was clear: client-driven insights, with a few key front-runners emerging as initiatives we are now advancing this year.
Q: Aside from thematic workshops, what other mechanisms do you use to ensure client feedback reaches the product team?
Kieran: It really is anything bearing the essence of continuous co-creation. For instance, this could be regional or global client-led discovery groups or dedicated roadmap workshops where we drill down into the detail of our forward thinking. These sessions not only keep clients informed about the latest features added to the platform but also create opportunities for them to share feedback, insights, and ideas, ensuring a two-way flow of collaboration.
A highlight for me is the Feature Review Webinars we introduced last year, during which the INSTANDA Product Team invites all our clients to an interactive webcast featuring a panel of experts from across the business. In the past this has included Architecture, Product Design, Engineering, L&D and Marketing to name but a few. This provides clients with the opportunity to explore new features and functionality released in the previous quarter. More importantly, it creates an interactive forum where they can participate in a live Q&A. Clients can directly engage with the technical experts who make it all happen, discussing topics ranging from the thematic direction of AI within INSTANDA to activating specific functionalities.
Q: How do you ensure that the features you release are being adopted and delivering value?
Kieran: Any product person will tell you that there’s nothing more disheartening than designing, building, and shipping a smart piece of functionality, only to discover that some users are unaware of it and, therefore, do not realize the value it could bring to their operations. This is one of the key reasons the Product Team has introduced enhanced 'exposure initiatives' to ensure our clients fully unleash the potential of the INSTANDA platform at all times.
Beyond exposure, we use adoption feedback received from clients, partners, and our go-to-market teams to ensure that we are hitting the mark on quality and value. A crucial element is ensuring that our global roadmap strategy is married with regional agility to ensure that we allocate appropriate focus to rationalize the platform for diverse and divergent market needs. For example, something which might be particularly pertinent to a Tier 1 carrier in North America may be of less relative value to a niche MGA operating in Australia.
Q: You’ve introduced a new interactive approach to Quality Assurance (QA) involving clients last year. Can you tell us about that?
Kieran: Yes, I mentioned earlier how being in a room together can often spark new thinking – the concept for the QA sessions, for instance, emerged from a conversation over an after-work drink in Leadenhall in London. The subject turned to the concept of what “quality” really means in the context of a global no-code insurance platform where target markets and mindsets are constantly evolving. Often, the idea of 'quality' is treated as a static rather than a moving target. At INSTANDA, however, we understand the importance of not only enhancing the platform's functionality from a technical perspective but also enabling clients to interact with it in new and innovative ways to truly redefine their digital proposition.
Evolving the concept further, we arrived at the idea of hosting live 'over-the-shoulder' working sessions. These sessions bring together clients and members of our Product and QA teams to observe how different people interact with INSTANDA and what they use it for. For example, my background as an underwriter means my brain is conditioned to think about things in a particular way. However, those with more technical backgrounds, or those who are brand-new to the insurance industry, will naturally approach things differently – and, of course, there are no 'wrong' answers.
By getting that real-life insight into platform interaction, we can maintain a truly informed client satisfaction strategy. It’s not just simply about monitoring defects; rather, it’s about setting a very high bar for what we put out to sea and ensuring it remains relevant across all client user profiles.
Q: Ultimately, why is staying this close to the client so important for INSTANDA?
Kieran: Simply put, the more that individual clients can share their thoughts with us, the more we can use that insight to drive innovation for the benefit of everyone who uses the platform. After all, whether it’s a global enterprise carrier in Europe or a niche MGA in Australia, all INSTANDA clients share the same global codebase and benefit from every new release.
If clients come to us and say, "this feature has saved this amount of time without increasing overhead without sacrificing accuracy " or "this development allowed us to configure and deploy in a fraction of the time”, that is always great to hear but isn’t the end of the story. It’s always about asking ourselves ‘How can we continue to iterate? How can we continue to develop? How can we continue to solve real-world problems faced by progressive digital insurers?’ Placing the voice of the customer at the center of our decision-making is crucial in enabling INSTANDA to provide its clients with the firepower to meet digital demand at scale and with unparalleled agility.
Accelerating Innovation: Looking Ahead
As INSTANDA looks toward 2026, the roadmap remains a reflection of the community it serves.
By treating clients as true partners in the development process, we ensure our roadmap is not only fit for purpose today but also future-ready. With the rapid acceleration of innovation powered by AI tooling, our ambitions have never been greater, or more exciting. Guided by our principles of collaboration and client engagement, we’re embracing the challenge of keeping everyone up to speed as we redefine the future of digital insurance together and doing so with an ever-increasing velocity of product innovation.
