There’s a certain kind of perspective you only get by being in the weeds.
Not just overseeing strategy, but actually doing the work. Processing enrollments. Troubleshooting carrier files. Supporting clients, learning their pain points. Building implementations from scratch. Fixing what breaks (and seeing what breaks…a lot).
That’s the lens our Director of Product, Lacy Southerland brings to Jellyvision as she’s been quietly building ALEX Home with her team.
After years spent across nearly every corner of the benefits world—operations, account management, implementations, product—she’s seen firsthand how certain features can help people, how they can confuse them, and most importantly, where they can quietly fall apart.
In the last year, (though you wouldn’t guess it based on how quickly she’s made an impact) she joined Jellyvision to help build something different from the ground up.
We sat down with her to talk about what she’s learned, what’s broken, and what comes next.
“You learn what works. But more importantly, you learn what doesn’t.”
Let’s start with your background. What brought you here?
I’ve had a pretty full tour of this industry.
I started on the operational side; processing data, validating carrier files, making sure reports were accurate and going out on time. From there, I moved into account and project management, then into building new service lines, and eventually leading implementations and conversions.
At one point, I was helping move entire books of business from legacy systems onto newer platforms. That’s where I really got to know how these systems are built and where they struggle.
From there, I spent about a decade in product, really thinking about how these platforms should work, not just how they currently do.
So, you could say, I’ve seen it from every angle: the backend, the client experience, the admin side, the employee side.
And when you’ve done that long enough, patterns start to show up.
What kinds of patterns?
A lot of patchwork. You could think of it like a toddling tower, almost like Jenga. Legacy systems as a foundation, bolted on new features, trying to make certain functionality fit because the latest tech trend requires it. Over time, it’s really shaky.
Most ben admin systems work, HR and brokers deal with them. But a lot of software or solutions really don’t work together. Experiences make sense on paper, but feel really clunky from both the user and admin perspective. Processes that take way longer than they should, implementation teams have to find work arounds.
So, you learn what works, but more importantly, you learn what doesn’t. And you start to see how much of that is driven by the way these platforms were built in the first place.
“We finally get to build it the way it should have been built.”
So what made you want to come build something new?
Honestly, I needed something fresh.
A lot of the systems in this space are built on older architecture. And that limits what you can do; how fast you can move, how intuitive you can make things, how much you can automate, how helpful a solution can be.
When you’re working within those constraints, you’re often improving around the edges instead of rethinking the full experience.
The opportunity with Jellyvision was different, and so was the team. We have a leadership bench with deep expertise.
We’re building from the ground up, with modern architecture. That means we can actually use today’s technology—AI, automation, real-time data—in ways that legacy systems just can’t.
And when you combine that with a group like ours, that’s spent years inside those older systems, you get a pretty clear vision of what to do differently.
“Most platforms weren’t designed to be truly helpful. That was the starting point for us.”
Let’s talk about ALEX Home. What feels most different to you?
The biggest shift is that it’s actually built to be helpful. It’s truly the reason we started building it, to be really helpful to the real humans who are navigating systems like healthcare that are designed to be confusing.
And it kind of sounds almost too simple, but it’s really not how most benefits platforms were designed. A lot of them are built around transactions, right? Enrollment, data capture, compliance.
We started from a different place: what does someone need in the moment they’re trying to understand and use their benefits?
Okay, pivoting a little, you mentioned we’re building in a truly modern environment, with AI as a foundational building block. AI is kind of everywhere right now. (Maybe a little too much). What makes our approach different?
A lot of “AI chat” in this space isn’t really AI. It’s hard-coded responses sitting behind a chat interface.
Ours is different because it’s connected to the actual system.
It can pull from configured benefits, uploaded documents, eligibility rules, really everything and anything that’s been set up on the admin side. So the answers aren’t generic, they’re not being pulled from the web, they’re specific to that person, that organization, that plan, even that moment.
That’s a big shift. Because now you’re not just giving people information, you’re giving them their information.
“The goal isn’t just automation. It’s giving people time back.”
What about the HR and admin side? How would you say ALEX Home is different or more helpful than the alternatives?
As we all know too well, there is a lot of time lost dealing with the admin side of benefits.
Configuration can be complex. Implementations take longer than they should. Even simple updates can feel daunting.
We’ve taken a lot of what we’ve learned from those pain points and built around them.
For example, HR admins can:
- Upload a plan document, and the system can pull out key details automatically
- Start with pre-built templates based on common plan rules and compliance standards (for example, legal standards or IRS regulations, etc.)
- Configure eligibility and events without needing deep technical setup (in other words, they don’t need our team or IT to step in)
Our goal is to make it possible to get up and running faster, and make ongoing updates feel manageable…or even, easy.
How does AI play into implementation and setup?
It further reduces the manual work.
Instead of entering everything line by line, the system can extract and suggest configurations based on the information you provide. That cuts down on effort and helps reduce errors.
The goal isn’t just automation for the sake of it. It’s giving people time back.
“You can’t talk about engagement once a year and expect it to stick.”
When we talk about the user experience, we’ve been highlighting benefits pages a lot. But benefits pages and microsites are in most systems. What’s different with ALEX Home?
Yes, they exist, but they’re often hard to use.
The experience feels weird, really outdated, or honestly, annoying because you have to sift through sooo much content. We’ve all been there. Many systems just haven’t kept up with how current workers approach information gathering. So users go somewhere else, like search a shared drive, their email, or Slack.
We approached it differently.
Because we know the user and their eligibility, we can personalize what they see and AI chat responses. So instead of clicking around through everything, they’re seeing what’s relevant to them.
It becomes a true one-stop shop, not just for enrollment, but for understanding and using benefits year-round.
Okay, but I think we can all agree that year-round engagement is a bit of buzz term in benefits. What does it actually look like in ALEX Home?
- “You’re in a high-deductible plan but not contributing to an HSA”
- “It’s Q2, and you have a benefit you haven’t used yet”
- “Here’s something worth knowing based on your coverage”
But there’s a balance.
We want to be helpful, but not intrusive. That’s something we’re very intentional about using what we know in a way that feels supportive, but not uncomfortable. That’s an important distinction. Our use of AI is purposeful and thoughtful, never forceful.
And for HR teams, there’s flexibility, too. They can send their own communications, whether that’s email, text, push notifications, all from the same place.
“The experience shouldn’t change depending on the device.”
How does mobile fit in?
For most platforms, mobile is an afterthought.
It’s often a separate experience, or just a browser version of the website. Which makes it harder to navigate.
But experiences shouldn’t change that much depending on the device. We need to access benefits everywhere and that’s often on the go, on our phones.
Building on modern technology allowed for the app to be created in the same build as ALEX Home. It’s not like you’re seeing an iframe of the platform, like some other options. It’s a similar streamlined experience, built just as intentionally.
“We’re not just helping HR and brokers track activity, we’re showing real impact.”
I know something our team is really excited about with connecting decision support and ben admin is expanded reporting and analytics. Can you walk us through that a little bit?
We’re starting with the essentials, enrollment data, year-over-year comparisons, dashboards for HR teams and brokers.
But where it gets interesting is around impact, because we’re not just helping HR and brokers track activity, we’re highlighting outcomes.
We can start to show things like:
- How many questions AI is answering and how much time that saves HR teams
- What employees are engaging with (and what they’re not)
- Benefit enrollment data and trends
Plus, we’ll provide AI-generated summaries that help make sense of the data quickly.
It’s not just reporting on what happened, it’s helping you understand what it means, what your employees are getting out of their benefits, and where you might need to adjust.
“We built the system we always wished we had.”
Switching to benefits administration. We recently announced that Ben Admin is a part of ALEX Home. With this latest evolution, what do you think will be the most meaningful update or feature for our customers?
That’s a good question, and there’s a lot we’re excited about. Even though I’m a more recent addition to the Jellyvision team, I know our customers have wanted a full ben admin experience in ALEX forever, so it’s important that we’re delivering that.
But when we talk specifics, I think it’s ease of configuration, which is especially important with any new or updated system, right? We all know the pain of setup, and that’s especially cumbersome for something as complex as benefits and healthcare.
For example, things like life events—birth, marriage, starting a new job—come with a lot of rules. When can someone make changes? When does coverage start? How does it differ by plan?
In many systems, documenting those rules and the setup that comes with it is complex and time-consuming for an admin.
We’re starting with a strong baseline, configurations aligned to common practices and requirements, so teams aren’t building everything from scratch. They can adjust as needed, but they’re not starting at zero.
That alone saves a significant amount of time.
We worked with our own HR team, customer and broker partners to ensure ALEX Home has a more seamless configuration. (It’s really one of the first / best pieces of feedback we’ve gotten from the folks piloting ALEX Home).
We’ve really built the system that we always wish we had.
What are you, Lacy, most excited about right now?
That’s a really hard one, because we have a lot going on right now!
I would say, it’s probably that we built this from scratch, and we’re going to see it in action with customers and OE, soon.
That kind of opportunity doesn’t happen often in this space. You’re usually tweaking or updating existing systems.
With our leadership team, most of us have worked inside most of the benefits software out there. We got to take everything we’ve learned, the good and the frustrating, and actually apply it to how we built ALEX Home. Not just improve what exists, but rethink how it should work.
It wasn’t about adding more features. It was about making the whole experience—admin, employee, broker—feel simpler, faster, and more connected. That’s been the most exciting part about this journey, and now we get to see it in the wild.
“We’re defining what comes next.”
We usually start with this, but let’s end here instead. You wear a lot of hats, and we’ve covered a lot of ground in this interview. How do you actually describe your role at Jellyvision?
Yeah, that’s fair, we kind of skipped over that.
At a high level, my team is responsible for defining what ALEX Home should be. We partner closely with design and engineering to bring that vision to life, and to keep evolving it as we learn.
That means setting the direction, building the roadmap, and constantly refining the experience based on what we’re hearing and seeing.
In a lot of ways, we’re helping shape what this next chapter looks like.
And that’s really the bigger story here. Not just a new feature. Not just a new system. A chance to build benefits the way they were always meant to work.
