Hannah Kershaw, Chief Product Officer at Domestic and General, brings a wealth of experience from her marketing and product leadership roles. She explains how her company provides essential repair and replacement services for appliances, powered by a vast network of partnerships. Hannah shares insights on building product teams from the ground up and navigating the complexities of customer service in a partner-led ecosystem. She also highlights the evolving dynamics in product management and the importance of agility and effective communication.
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Domestic and General's Scale
Domestic and General is a billion-pound company with 6.5 million subscribers across 12 markets.
They provide repair and replacement for household appliances through service plans and insurance products.
insights INSIGHT
Insurance and Service Model Insight
Domestic and General operates as an insurance company in the UK and Europe but not in the US, where they offer service plans.
They focus on service usage to retain customers by extending appliance life through repairs.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Partner-Led Distribution and Repair
Domestic and General distributes products via retailers and manufacturers, often under their partners' brands.
They manage a vast repair network without employing repair technicians directly, working through manufacturers and independents.
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In this episode, I speak with Hannah Kershaw, Chief Product Officer at Domestic and General, a company that you might not have heard of but absolutely need in your corner the next time your dishwasher breaks. Hannah's journey took her from marketing to e-commerce, into product leadership at GoCompare, and now to transforming Product at a billion-pound growth organisation.
We cover a lot, including:
What Domestic and General actually does: A century-old, billion-pound business with 6.5 million subscribers across 12 markets, providing repair and replacement services for household appliances through service plans and insurance products.
A behind-the-scenes powerhouse: Domestic and General powers customer journeys via major retail and manufacturer partnerships (e.g. Argos, AO, Hotpoint), often handling registration, support, and repair logistics under their partners' brands.
Product complexity in a partner-led model: Coordinating customer experience, retailer requirements, manufacturer constraints, and service delivery logistics - without directly employing a single repair technician.
Building product from scratch: How Hannah established a product function at Domestic and General, moving from a traditional delivery model to domain-based product teams focused on growth and customer retention.
Evolving team structures: Starting with customer and partner-aligned squads before transitioning to domain-oriented teams, reflecting shifts in strategic focus and incorporating feedback from engineering and delivery teams.
Product vs Proposition: Domestic and General brings together digital product managers and proposition managers - handling platforms and customer experiences on one side, and the commercial performance of insurance offerings on the other.
Philosophy of simplification and belief: Encouraging resilience and optimism, Hannah champions a mindset that anything is possible - helping teams cut through complexity and deliver tangible outcomes.
Pragmatism over product purism: While Domestic and General aspires to be product-led, the focus is on real-world delivery - balancing best practice with the pace and realities of a high-growth, partner-centric business.
Executive-level impact: Demonstrating the value of Product by delivering outcomes. Early wins - such as improving online claims and conversion rates - helped build credibility and demand for product ways of working.
One Knight in Product