Startup Life: Unscripted #30 with Kirby Carabana, Manager, Customer Process Improvement at Cover Genius

Startup Life: Unscripted is a TNG Media newsletter, as part of The Nudge Group, where we feature candid conversations with startup operators about their career journeys and experiences. If you received this email as a forward, you can read all our past interviews and subscribe right here.

Welcome back to Startup Life: Unscripted! This time around, we're chatting with Kirby Carabana, who's making waves at Cover Genius as their Customer Process Improvement Manager. Kirby's got a cool story, having switched gears from leading customer experience at Lawpath to diving into process management in the insurtech world.

Key interview takeaways:

🤖 AI's Role in Customer Service: Kirby chats about how his fascination with AI led him to Cover Genius and what it means for customer experience today.

🚀 Highs and Lows at a Startup: He gets real about the challenges and wins in his role, especially in a field as fast-paced as insurtech.

📅 A Day in the Life: Kirby gives us a rundown of his typical day, juggling everything from partner integrations to brainstorming process improvements.

👥 The Power of Mentorship: He reflects on his mentorship role and why it's crucial for growth, especially for folks from diverse backgrounds stepping into the startup scene.

Kirby, your shift from heading customer experience at Lawpath to spearheading process management at Cover Genius is quite an interesting leap. Could you share what sparked this career move?

Customer experience is going through an evolution with this tech and it's becoming less about humans delivering customer service and more about humans delivering customer service design.

A good part of what sparked this move stemmed from my keen interest in AI technology. I could see the impact it was making in the industry and wanted to move to a position that allowed me to make use of my experience with developing customer journeys and at the same time get involved in this cutting-edge tech. 

I'm curious about what a typical day looks like for you as a Process Manager at Cover Genius. Could you walk us through your daily routine and responsibilities?

My days are normally planned out at the beginning of the week. I meet with my regional manager and we develop priorities weekly that align to the vision of the company. These generally revolve around a few key areas like designing and creating partner integrations, developing processes to power service delivery and reviewing opportunities for automation.

This could mean some days I'm working with partners and third parties on the customer experience, other days I could be looking at reports to understand ways to improve the claims journey or the platform support team. It's a great variety of meaningful work!

Working in a startup, especially in a sector like insurtech, must be full of challenges and exciting moments. Can you share some of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of your role?

My first week was a little challenging in that it was like starting school again, needing to learn all the systems, the platforms, and a new list of acronyms! It meant that I wasn't feeling like I was able to contribute much and I wasn't sure how fast I was learning as I hadn't had anyone to compare to.

This also ties into the rewarding aspect, while it can take some time to consume that knowledge and understand it, because of all the support and collaboration from everyone, I feel that I've quickly reached a point where I can start to deliver value and support the team.

That support and collaboration extends across the business and also meant I had an opportunity to join in our company hackathon, while not being part of the engineering tech team, it was an amazing way for me to be a part of a project that could have a huge impact on the customer experience.

Given your experience in driving automation both at Lawpath and Cover Genius, how do you see technology and automation transforming the insurtech industry, particularly in relation to customer experience?

As I mentioned initially, I think the customer experience landscape is evolving, it used to be focused on how a company would combine automation with human-powered support.

While that used to be something of a 50/50 split between humans and tech, I believe the focus has shifted to how you power up automated/AI support processes with meaningful human interactions. With the split being more 90/10 with technology being the greater focus.

This doesn't mean that humans won't be involved in delivering support but more likely they move to take on more complex issues and in the short to medium term I think this will manifest as humans being "escalation points" when an AI or automation can't reach a positive outcome.

While there is no replacement for human emotions, AI technology is constantly getting better at providing empathetic responses, this improvement means that we will soon see more believable, human-like interactions with complex problem-solving capabilities and scalability that this technology already brings.

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Alongside your role at Cover Genius, you're also a mentor at Startmate. What motivated you to take on this mentorship role, and how has the experience been for you so far?

As someone who benefited from amazing mentors in the past, I thought it was a good way for me to give back. The experience was great and initially before becoming a mentor, I thought it was a selfless act but now being on this side, I realised that while being a mentee was very rewarding, it's equally rewarding as a mentor.

It's a way to spend the currency of experience that you've banked in your career, on those who value it the most, which is a great feeling. It's also an exercise in achieving results through others, something you need to be able to do as a leader in any organisation.

How important do you think mentorship is in the professional development of individuals, especially those from diverse backgrounds, in the startup ecosystem?

I think it's critically important. I don't know any successful person who hasn't learned from a mentor in some capacity. It's more important the further away your background is to the startup ecosystem.

Just like any new experience, learning from those who've come before you, allows you the privilege of stepping over the many "problem canyons" that their mentors had to climb out of with their bare hands. In a competitive, fast-paced environment like a start-up, that kind of experience can catapult you to success.

As someone who's navigated various roles and challenges in the startup ecosystem, what resources - be it books, podcasts, networks, or specific tools - have you found invaluable in your journey? Could you share how these resources have helped shape your approach and success in the fast-paced world of startups?

I think in terms of resources, nothing beats learning firsthand with people in your network, keeping active with people you used to work with or know, can net you some great advice from peers who are likely working in similar fields. There are a ton of books worth reading but the most impactful to me being in the start-up world have been:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Helped me focus my efforts so that I could get the most value from myself and those around me.

• Start with Why - Helped me better understand connecting purpose to solution design.

• Antifragile - Expanded my understanding of gaining from disorder and black swan events.

Each of these, I think, would make an impact no matter what your role in a start-up and outline great lessons and learnings.

Last question before we wrap up, for those looking to start a career in insurtech or in a startup environment, what advice would you give based on your experiences and learnings?

Three things, firstly, take initiative and do what others won't to achieve the results that others don't. The second would be to be kind, it may be the next minute, the next day, or even many years later, but the karma comes back, it's a virtuous cycle and people remember kindness.

Lastly, remember that one day it all ends. Tough times, great times, life in general comes to an end. Live your life with no regrets, love your family and your friends. When those challenging times come it's often the relationships you have with those around you that become the safety net you need to bounce back, both in your career and your personal life.

From the Startup Life team

And that's a wrap! We hope you've enjoyed this edition as much as we loved putting it together. Stay curious, keep learning, and above all, enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is Startup Life. Catch you in the next one! 👋 Not subscribed yet? Do it here and don't miss out! Subscribe Now.

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