The setup
Pumpkin sells pet insurance for cats and dogs. PumpkinNow pays the vet bill in minutes, but it runs at the counter, after services are rendered.
For about a third of pet parents, even that speed stalls — the pet's health history hasn't been reviewed in time, and the wait lands in an already high-stakes moment.
Pre-visit didn't exist. We set out to build for the appointment itself, so readiness could happen before the pet parent reached the vet.
Contribution
Led service and product strategy across the customer-facing visit pass, the pre-visit experience that hands it to the pet parent, and the backstage processes that get them ready for the appointment and the payment that follows. Main focus: pivoting the team's hypothesis when "deliver coverage certainty pre-visit" stopped fitting the constraints, and building the four-pillar frame that replaced it.
The first hypothesis
The obvious move was to build a number. A page where the pet parent could see, in dollars, what Pumpkin would cover for the upcoming visit. We held that hypothesis for a while. Three things broke it.
The question doesn't map
Pet parents ask service-shaped questions. Our coverage data is condition-shaped — about 1,000 adjuster labels. No clean way to map "my dog's ear infection" onto that list.
The answer isn't stable
About 81% of visits are for new symptoms. The only real answer is a preauthorization, and we can't issue one in the moment without the pet's medical history in hand.
We don't control the input
Confirming coverage means waiting on records from another vet's office. No SLA we can commit to, because we don't own the call.
"It depends" is not an answer a pet parent can walk into a vet's office with.
Confidence without certainty
Pet parents told us, in surveys and in vet-side research, that they want to walk into the vet confident, not anxious. Confidence does not require certainty. It requires the four things certainty had been standing in for.
Comprehension
Help them understand how their plan works for this specific visit, not for insurance in general. Deductible status, plan utilization, what changes when they file.
Transparency
Surface what we know and what we don't. A "your records are being reviewed" status with no false guarantees is more useful than a fabricated coverage verdict.
Readiness
Quietly do the work that makes them ready: bank set up, health history reviewed, appointment details on file. They should arrive prepared, whether or not they noticed the preparation.
Continuity
Be present before, during, and after the visit. Make presence tangible — something the pet parent can pull up at the front desk, in the exam room, on the way home.
The pass as the medium
The Visit Pass carries all four pillars in one object. Its role changes as the appointment unfolds, while staying deliberately absent of a coverage verdict in dollars — that refusal keeps the rest credible.
The pass shows what's confirmed and what's still open. Coverage stays a status — "your records are being reviewed".
The pass shifts to one-handed actions for the exam room: a visit-in-progress badge, an estimate to submit, quick actions.
The pass closes the loop. Funds sent, claim resolved, transcript intact.
