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Case Study

$2B in New Assets Under Management Delivered 20% Under Budget

How a leading life insurance and annuities technology firm launched seven new products in its largest initiative ever by pairing rigorous program management with a new sprint-based delivery method



What Is Insurance Product Launch Program Management and Why Does It Matter? 

Launching new insurance products is not a program management problem in the conventional sense. It is a coordination problem at scale: dozens of technology systems, regulatory deadlines that cannot move, product configurations that must be sequenced precisely, and large teams whose work is deeply interdependent. When any of those threads breaks down, the cost shows up in rework, compliance risk, and lost market timing.

Effective program management in this environment is about giving every level of the organization a clear, current picture of where the initiative stands. When leaders can see dependencies, surface conflicts early, and make resource decisions before pressure builds, large initiatives finish on time and on budget. 

Client Opportunity

A leading life insurance and annuities technology and services firm needed to refresh and launch seven new Fixed Index Annuity products simultaneously. The initiative was the largest in the company's history, requiring coordination across 163 resources, multiple technology systems, and tight regulatory timelines. The products included new riders, rate functionality, and custom configurations that needed to be built, tested, and deployed without disrupting existing servicing operations. Andrew Reise was engaged to provide senior program management leadership across the full initiative, from planning through delivery. 

The Challenge

Coordinating a 163-person team across a product launch of this complexity introduced compounding risks at every layer. 

Broker making a presentation to a young couple showing them a document which they are viewing with serious expressions

No unified visibility into sprint-level progress across workstreams

With 163 resources working across multiple product configurations, technology systems, and regulatory tracks, no single view existed of where each workstream stood relative to the others. Senior leaders managing dependencies and resource allocation were making decisions based on lagging information, and by the time a conflict surfaced, the window to resolve it cleanly had often already closed. 

Product customizations and rider configurations required precise sequencing

The seven new products each included riders, rate logic, and custom functionality that had to be built in a specific order. Work completed out of sequence did not simply slow things down; it triggered rework across downstream teams who had built on assumptions that were no longer valid. Managing that sequencing dependency across a large team, without a shared visual reference for the plan, was a structural risk from day one.

Regulatory and market timing created rigid deadlines 

Insurance product launches operate inside regulatory filing windows and market timing constraints that are largely outside the organization's control. Slippage on the internal delivery schedule does not move those external deadlines. It compresses the time available for testing, compliance review, and deployment, or forces a delayed market entry that carries its own cost.

No established internal playbook existed

The firm had not run an initiative of this size before, which meant there was no precedent to draw on for process decisions, escalation structures, or governance rhythms. Every structural choice about how the program would operate had to be made in real time, while delivery was already underway. Without experienced program leadership in place, those decisions would have defaulted to whatever each workstream lead assumed was expected of them.

Our Role

Andrew Reise was engaged to provide senior program management leadership across the largest product launch in the client's history, directing a 163-person initiative from planning through delivery.

Program Management

Andrew Reise introduced a sprint-based planning approach called Walk the Wall, mapping all initiative requirements across sprints on a shared visual timeline accessible to every level of the organization. The method gave cross-functional teams a single source of truth for sequencing and surfaced dependency conflicts early enough to resolve them without schedule impact. Leaders at every tier could see the evolution of the program in real time without waiting for status reports to filter up.

Project Management

Day-to-day execution management covered coordination across 163 resources spanning product, technology, and operations teams, with budget and schedule performance tracked against plan throughout delivery. Andrew Reise managed the automated servicing build-out for all seven new products and maintained the sequencing discipline required to prevent downstream rework. The combination of sprint-level visibility and active delivery management kept the initiative on track across multiple concurrent workstreams.

Change Management

The Walk the Wall methodology was new to the organization, and adoption across a 163-person team required more than a tool rollout. Andrew Reise embedded the approach into the program's operating rhythm so that the process became the natural language of progress updates, escalations, and dependency conversations. The client formalized it as an enterprise best practice in its PMO playbook after the engagement concluded.

 

Industry
Financial Services/ Life Insurance

Case Study Attribute
Program Management, Project Management, Change Management

Results

  • $2B in additional Assets Under Management added to the client portfolio
  • Seven new Fixed Index Annuity products launched on schedule
  • Project completed 20% under budget
  • Initiative earned the CEO Award for Delivery Excellence
  • Walk the Wall sprint methodology adopted into the client's PMO playbook as a new enterprise best practice
  • Automated servicing successfully deployed for all seven new products

Contact Us

Ready to Deliver Your Next Large-Scale Initiative on Time and Under Budget?

Program complexity does not have to mean schedule risk. Most large initiatives fail because no one built the visibility layer that lets leaders make decisions before pressure builds. If your organization is preparing a product launch or transformation initiative and needs experienced program management leadership from day one, that conversation is worth starting early. 

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is insurance product launch program management?

Insurance product launch program management is the discipline of coordinating a complex, interdependent launch at scale: dozens of technology systems, fixed regulatory deadlines, product configurations that must be sequenced precisely, and large teams whose work depends on one another. It's less a conventional program management problem than a coordination problem, because when any of those threads breaks down, the cost shows up as rework, compliance risk, and lost market timing. Effective program management gives every level of the organization a clear, current picture of where the initiative stands so leaders can resolve conflicts before pressure builds.

What is the Walk the Wall sprint methodology?

Walk the Wall is a sprint-based planning approach that maps all initiative requirements across sprints on a shared visual timeline accessible to every level of the organization. It gives cross-functional teams a single source of truth for sequencing and surfaces dependency conflicts early enough to resolve them without schedule impact, so leaders can see the program evolve in real time rather than waiting for status reports to filter up. In this engagement, Andrew Reise introduced Walk the Wall to coordinate a 163-person launch, and the client later formalized it as an enterprise best practice in its PMO playbook.

Why do large insurance product launches run over budget or behind schedule?

Large launches slip because no one builds the visibility layer that lets leaders make decisions before pressure builds. With a big team working across multiple product configurations, technology systems, and regulatory tracks, senior leaders often manage dependencies from lagging information, and by the time a conflict surfaces the window to resolve it cleanly has closed. Precise sequencing adds risk too: work done out of order triggers rework across downstream teams. In this case, a shared sprint-level view addressed both problems, and the initiative finished on schedule and 20% under budget.

Why does sequencing matter so much in a multi-product launch?

Sequencing matters because in a complex launch, work completed out of order doesn't just slow things down, it triggers rework across downstream teams that built on assumptions no longer valid. In this engagement, seven new Fixed Index Annuity products each included riders, rate logic, and custom functionality that had to be built in a specific order. Managing that dependency across a 163-person team without a shared visual reference was a structural risk from day one, which is why a single source of truth for sequencing was central to keeping the initiative on track.

How do you manage a product launch against fixed regulatory deadlines?

You manage it by building early visibility into dependencies and progress, because regulatory filing windows and market timing constraints are largely outside the organization's control and don't move when the internal schedule slips. Any slippage simply compresses the time available for testing, compliance review, and deployment, or forces a costly delayed market entry. In this launch, sprint-level visibility combined with active day-to-day delivery management kept multiple concurrent workstreams aligned to the plan, allowing all seven products to launch on schedule within their regulatory timelines.

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