Financial & Insurance

A smarter way to build digital insurance

How we helped LähiTapiola speed up digital development and sharpen the user experience

Brand & Experience Design,

NoA Ignite — The digital consultancy that delivers

Challenge
LähiTapiola needed to speed up product development without losing sight of quality or accessibility. The process was siloed and slow.
Solution
We introduced live prototypes, early testing, and a shared design system, making design faster, clearer, and more collaborative.
Impact
Development time dropped, quality improved, and teams aligned around real user needs. Better products, delivered faster.

Prototyping that unlocks speed and clarity

Together, we rethought the flow from idea to implementation. We introduced functional prototypes from day one, built without a static backend, using real components from the Duet Design System. Real, working interfaces that teams could see, click, and test, not just imagine.

This approach made everything faster. Development teams could work directly from functional prototypes instead of interpreting static designs. It reduced errors, aligned teams, and brought customer insight into the process earlier. Small fixes were made on the spot. Bigger decisions landed with more confidence.

Accessibility was built in from the start. With early testing, barriers were caught before launch. That meant smoother services and a better experience for every user.

We also helped maintain and evolve LähiTapiola's Duet Design System, their shared library that gave every team a head start. Developers reused components. Designers worked faster. Other business units could move in parallel from a single source of truth.

Used together with Figma, early flows and legal requirements could be validated even before a line of code was written. The combined setup made the entire process faster, leaner, and easier to scale.

Better products, built faster

In just a few years, the shift was clear. Product development time went down. Internal collaboration went up. Digital services became more consistent, accessible, and aligned with customer needs.

Prototypes became a shared language across teams. Misunderstandings dropped. Decisions came faster. Business goals and user needs were easier to balance — with fewer trade-offs and stronger outcomes.

And this wasn’t a one-off fix. Over the past five years, LähiTapiola and NoA Ignite have built a long-term partnership around speed, clarity, and accessibility. Together, we’ve refined processes, evolved tools, and strengthened collaboration year after year.

And as more units began working in parallel, efficiency scaled across the organization. Quality improved — not by working harder, but by working smarter.

Today, LähiTapiola has a faster, more human way of designing services. And a digital experience that reflects the care and clarity their customers expect.

“The introduction of early prototyping has shortened our time to development, reduced the number of errors, and ensured we don’t have to go back to fix things as often. Where static designs left room for interpretation, working prototypes give developers exactly what they need — no guesswork, fewer questions, faster builds.”

— Maija Boman

Product Manager, LähiTapiola