Flexible Insurance for Gig Workers

7.3 million Canadians work in the gig economy, and 1.57 million earn their primary income there — yet auto insurance still bends to none of them. Intact Financial handed this gap to the Rotman Design Challenge in 2025. As service designer and strategist on the five-person Team Northstar, I led research synthesis, persona work, and solution framing.

Canadian auto insurance is binary: personal or commercial. Personal policies void the moment you accept a fare; commercial policies start at six-month minimums priced for fleet operators, not someone driving two nights a week. Gig workers fall into the gap — often uninsured, frequently without knowing it. Our research found one in two full-time gig workers carry no valid coverage.

We designed a two-phase model with flexibility as the structural core. Phase 1 solves access and cost — buy coverage by the week, pause with no penalty when you stop working, resume in one tap. Phase 2 solves comprehension — Polaris, an AI agent trained on Intact Customer Care calls, turns any policy into a plain-language summary, translates on request, and guides claims filing. Together they target the three findings that kept surfacing: rigidity, language barriers, and accident risk driven by financial stress.

Team Northstar placed first and won the $5,000 prize. Judges singled out the before/after service narrative and the way Phase 2 treated language barriers as a systemic design problem rather than an edge case. This was a pitch and concept project — validated through research and judges, not shipped to users. The takeaway held regardless: design for the person with the fewest options, and you build something that works better for everyone.