Product Requirements Document: PolicyChat
Overview
Product Name: PolicyChat (working title)
Product Type: Multi-tenant SaaS lead distribution and management platform
Description: PolicyChat is a modern, AI-powered lead marketplace and CRM platform built for insurance agents and lead distribution administrators. The platform consists of two integrated portals:
1. Agent Portal — A self-service marketplace where insurance agents can fund accounts, purchase filtered leads in real-time, manage their pipeline via a built-in CRM, integrate with external tools, and receive AI-driven recommendations to maximize ROI.
2. Admin Portal — A back-office command center for operators to manage lead sourcing, buyer/vendor integrations, third-party validation and enrichment services, agent relationships, call routing, marketing communications, and platform analytics.
Target Launch: Life insurance vertical first, with rapid expansion to Health, Medicare, Auto, Home, Final Expense, and Commercial insurance verticals.
Vision: Become the most trusted, intelligent, and agent-friendly lead distribution platform in the insurance industry—where data quality, transparency, and AI guidance create measurable ROI for agents and predictable revenue for operators.
Problem Statement
Insurance agents today face several pain points when buying leads:
- Opaque lead quality — Agents waste money on stale, mis-targeted, or fraudulent leads with no visibility into source or enrichment data.
- Fragmented workflows — Agents juggle multiple lead vendors, CRMs, dialers, and spreadsheets, leading to lost follow-ups and revenue.
- Poor filtering and targeting — Existing platforms offer limited filter granularity, forcing agents to buy leads outside their ideal customer profile.
- No intelligence layer — Agents rely on gut instinct vs. data to choose verticals, filters, and budgets.
- Slow refund/dispute processes — Lead disputes can take days or weeks to resolve.
Meanwhile, lead distribution operators struggle with:
- Manually onboarding buyers/sources and maintaining brittle API integrations.
- Lack of real-time visibility into lead routing, profit margins, and agent satisfaction.
- Inefficient communication channels with agents (email blasts vs. in-app).
- Compliance risk (TCPA, DNC, jurisdiction-specific rules).
PolicyChat solves both sides with a unified, intelligent, fully integrated platform.
Goals & Success Metrics
Business Goals
| Goal | Metric | Target (12 months post-launch) |
|---|---|---|
| Acquire active agents | Monthly Active Agents (MAA) | 2,500+ |
| Drive lead volume | Leads sold per month | 100,000+ |
| Recurring revenue | GMV (Gross Merch. Value) | $5M+ ARR equivalent |
| Agent retention | 90-day retention rate | ≥ 65% |
| Agent satisfaction | NPS | ≥ 50 |
| Lead quality | Dispute rate | < 5% |
| Platform reliability | API uptime | 99.95% |
Product Goals
- Reduce time from agent signup → first lead purchase to < 10 minutes.
- Achieve < 2 seconds average lead delivery latency from source to agent inbox.
- Drive 30%+ of agent purchases through AI-recommended targeting.
- Enable admins to onboard a new lead source in < 1 business day.
User Stories
Agent Stories
- As an agent, I want to sign up and verify my license so I can immediately start buying compliant leads.
- As an agent, I want to fund my account via credit card, ACH, or wire and have funds auto-reload so I never miss a hot lead.
- As an agent, I want to set granular filters (age, income, homeowner status, geography, health conditions) so I only pay for my ICP.
- As an agent, I want to preview lead volume estimates before committing budget so I can plan ROI.
- As an agent, I want leads delivered to my CRM in real-time so I can call within seconds.
- As an agent, I want to dispute bad leads in one click and receive instant credit when approved.
- As an agent, I want an AI assistant to recommend filters, verticals, and bid strategies based on my historical conversion data.
- As an agent, I want to integrate with my existing CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Zoho) via Pipedream Connect.
- As an agent, I want to receive inbound calls routed directly to my phone based on filter matches.
- As an agent, I want to see news, promos, and limited-time deals in the portal.
Admin Stories
- As an admin, I want to onboard new lead vendors via configurable API templates without engineering work.
- As an admin, I want to enrich incoming leads through third-party services (e.g., LexisNexis, Melissa, Whitepages Pro, Ekata) before resale.
- As an admin, I want to set markup rules, pricing tiers, and dynamic pricing per vertical/filter combination.
- As an admin, I want a real-time view of every lead in flight: source → enrichment → routing → buyer → outcome.
- As an admin, I want to manage agent KYC, license verification, and account standing.
- As an admin, I want to publish news, promotions, and announcements visible in the agent portal.
- As an admin, I want to handle disputes with a structured workflow and SLA timers.
- As an admin, I want to view P&L per vertical, source, and agent cohort.
Requirements
Functional Requirements
A. Agent Portal
A1. Authentication & Onboarding
- Email/password + Google/Microsoft SSO
- 2FA via SMS/TOTP
- Multi-step onboarding wizard:
- Personal info & contact
- Insurance license upload + automated NPN verification (NIPR API)
- E&O insurance verification (optional)
- Vertical selection
- Initial deposit
- Tax document collection (W-9) where applicable
A2. Wallet & Payments
- Stripe integration (cards, ACH, Apple/Google Pay)
- One-time deposits and recurring auto-reload thresholds
- Transaction ledger with downloadable statements (CSV/PDF)
- Refund/credit management
- Spend caps (daily, weekly, monthly)
- Multi-currency support (Phase 2)
A3. Lead Marketplace
- Vertical browsing: Life (launch), Health, Medicare, Auto, Home, Final Expense, Commercial
- Lead type options: Real-time web leads, aged leads, live transfers, inbound calls, data leads
- Filter builder:
- Demographic (age, gender, income, marital status, household size)
- Geographic (state, county, ZIP, radius)
- Property (homeowner, length of residence, home value)
- Health (tobacco use, pre-existing conditions, height/weight)
- Financial (credit score band, employment status)
- Behavioral (source, time of day, device)
- Saved filter presets
- Lead volume estimator (forecast monthly leads at $X/each with filter set Y)
- Bid/pricing display with dynamic per-lead pricing
- Exclusivity options (exclusive vs. shared, up to N agents)
A4. Lead Delivery & CRM
- Built-in CRM with pipeline stages (New → Contacted → Qualified → Quoted → Sold/Lost)
- Lead detail view with full enrichment data
- Click-to-call, click-to-SMS, click-to-email
- Notes, tasks, reminders, custom tags
- Lead status sync with external CRMs
- Activity timeline (calls, emails, status changes)
- Bulk actions and CSV export
A5. Integrations (via Pipedream Connect)
- One-click OAuth integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Zoho, Pipedrive, Close, Monday, AgencyBloc, Radius, Velocify
- Webhook delivery (custom endpoints)
- Twilio for SMS/voice
- Calendly/Google Calendar
- Slack/Discord notifications
- Custom workflows via Pipedream's no-code builder
A6. AI Assistant
- Chat interface powered by LLM (GPT-4-class or Claude)
- Context-aware: knows agent's purchase history, conversion data, current filters
- Capabilities:
- "What filters should I use to maximize ROI in California life insurance?"
- "Why did my conversion drop last week?"
- "Suggest a budget for $50k revenue next month"
- Best-practice scripts for first call
- Compliance Q&A
- AI-generated weekly performance reports
- Recommendation engine for filters, verticals, and bid amounts based on cohort data
A7. Call Routing (Inbound)
- Agents can opt into inbound live transfers
- Configure available hours, max calls/day, accepted filter ranges
- Twilio-based routing
- Call recording playback
- Pay-per-call billing
A8. Disputes & Returns
- One-click dispute from lead detail
- Structured reasons (wrong number, duplicate, out of filter, fraudulent)
- Status tracking + SLA timer
- Auto-credit upon approval
A9. News, Deals, & Communications
- In-portal news feed (promos, vertical launches, system updates)
- Targeted offers (e.g., "First 100 agents to buy CA life leads this week get 20% bonus")
- In-app notifications + email digests
- Direct messaging with admin/account manager
A10. Analytics & Reporting
- Dashboard: spend, leads purchased, contact rate, conversion rate, ROI
- Cohort analysis by filter set, source, time period
- Exportable reports
- Goal tracking
B. Admin Portal
B1. Agent Management
- Agent directory with search/filter
- KYC/license verification queue
- Account standing (Active, Hold, Suspended, Banned)
- Manual credit adjustments
- Impersonation mode (with audit log)
- Notes and CRM-style activity log
B2. Lead Source / Buyer API Management
- Configurable API connector framework (REST, SOAP, webhook, FTP/SFTP)
- Pre-built templates for common vendors
- Field mapping UI (vendor field → canonical schema)
- Source quality scoring
- Volume forecasting and pacing controls
- Cost-per-lead from source, markup rules
B3. Third-Party Enrichment & Validation
- Plug-and-play integrations:
- Phone validation (Twilio Lookup, Telnyx, IPQS)
- Email validation (NeverBounce, ZeroBounce, Kickbox)
- Address validation (Melissa, USPS)
- Identity verification (LexisNexis, Ekata, Whitepages Pro)
- TCPA/DNC scrubbing (DNC.com, Contact Center Compliance)
- Property data (ATTOM, Estated)
- Credit/financial (Experian, Equifax — with proper permissible purpose)
- Configurable enrichment pipelines (order of operations, conditional logic)
- Cost tracking per enrichment per lead
B4. Lead Routing Engine
- Rules-based routing (filter match → agent match)
- Round-robin, weighted, priority, exclusive vs. shared
- Real-time bidding/auction mode (Phase 2)
- Geographic and licensing-aware routing
- Cap management (per agent, per hour, per day)
- Fallback logic for unmatched leads
B5. Call Routing & IVR
- Inbound DID number management
- IVR builder (drag-and-drop)
- Skills-based routing
- Whisper/announce, call recording, voicemail
- Live transfer integrations
- Real-time agent availability board
B6. Pricing & Catalog Management
- Per-vertical, per-filter dynamic pricing
- Volume discounts, promo codes, agent tier pricing
- A/B price testing
- Margin guardrails
B7. Dispute Management
- Dispute queue with SLA timers
- Automated rules (e.g., auto-approve if phone invalid per Twilio Lookup)
- Vendor chargeback workflow
- Dispute analytics
B8. Communications & Marketing
- WYSIWYG news/deals publisher with targeting (vertical, geo, tier)
- Email broadcast (via SendGrid/Postmark)
- In-app announcements and banners
- Push notifications (Phase 2 mobile)
- Templated agent messaging
B9. Analytics & BI
- Real-time operations dashboard
- P&L by source, vertical, agent, cohort
- Funnel analytics (lead in → enriched → routed → delivered → sold)
- Cohort retention
- Custom report builder
- Data warehouse export (Snowflake/BigQuery)
B10. Compliance & Audit
- TCPA consent capture and storage
- DNC scrubbing logs
- Full audit log of all admin actions
- Role-based access control (Super Admin, Ops, Finance, Support, Read-only)
- Data retention policies
- SOC 2 / GDPR / CCPA readiness
Non-Functional Requirements
| Category | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Performance | Lead delivery latency p95 < 2s; UI responsiveness < 200ms TTI on key pages |
| Scalability | Support 100K leads/day at launch; horizontally scalable to 1M+/day |
| Availability | 99.95% uptime SLA; multi-AZ deployment |
| Security | SOC 2 Type II within 12 months; encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.3); PCI DSS scope minimized via Stripe Elements |
| Compliance | TCPA, CAN-SPAM, GLBA, GDPR, CCPA, state insurance regulations |
| Accessibility | WCAG 2.1 AA compliance |
| Browser support | Latest 2 versions of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge |
| Mobile | Responsive web at launch; native iOS/Android in Phase 2 |
| Internationalization | English at launch; framework in place for Spanish (Phase 2) |
| Observability | Structured logging, distributed tracing, error tracking (Sentry), uptime monitoring (Datadog) |
Technical Considerations
Suggested Architecture
- Frontend: Next.js (React), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui
- Backend: Node.js (NestJS) or Python (FastAPI) — microservices for lead ingestion, routing, payments
- Database: PostgreSQL (primary), Redis (caching/queues), ClickHouse or BigQuery (analytics)
- Message Bus: Kafka or AWS SNS/SQS for lead routing pipeline
- Search: Elasticsearch or Typesense for lead/CRM search
- Hosting: AWS (multi-AZ); Cloudflare for CDN/WAF
- Auth: Auth0 or Clerk
- Payments: Stripe (Connect for future multi-vendor payouts)
- Communications: Twilio (voice, SMS), SendGrid (email)
- Integrations: Pipedream Connect (agent-facing), custom connector framework (admin-facing)
- AI/LLM: OpenAI GPT-4 / Anthropic Claude via routed gateway; pgvector or Pinecone for RAG on docs/playbooks
- Analytics: Segment → warehouse; Looker/Metabase for internal BI
Key Risks & Mitigations
| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Lead vendor API instability | Connector framework with retry, circuit breakers, dead-letter queues |
| TCPA litigation exposure | Strict consent capture, DNC scrubbing, audit trail, legal review |
| Stripe payment disputes | Clear refund/credit terms in ToS; in-app dispute resolution |
| AI hallucinations in recommendations | Constrain to factual data from agent's history; show source citations |
| Lead quality complaints | Pre-delivery validation pipeline; transparency in source/enrichment data |
| Multi-tenant data leakage | Row-level security in Postgres; tenant isolation testing |
Scope & Constraints
In Scope (v1.0)
- Agent Portal: full functionality described above
- Admin Portal: full functionality described above
- Life insurance vertical
- Web app (responsive)
- US market only
- English only
Out of Scope (v1.0)
- Native mobile apps
- International markets
- Non-insurance verticals (mortgage, solar, home services)
- White-label / reseller mode
- Real-time bidding auction
- Carrier integration (e-app submission)
Constraints
- Must comply with state-by-state insurance regulations
- Must operate within TCPA / DNC frameworks
- Stripe is the sole payment processor at launch
- Pipedream Connect is the chosen iPaaS for agent integrations
Timeline & Milestones
| Phase | Duration | Key Deliverables |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 0 — Discovery & Design | Weeks 1–4 | Final PRD, UX wireframes, design system, technical architecture |
| Phase 1 — Foundation | Weeks 5–10 | Auth, agent onboarding, Stripe wallet, admin user mgmt, schema, infra |
| Phase 2 — Marketplace Core | Weeks 11–16 | Filter builder, lead catalog, basic routing engine, lead delivery to CRM |
| Phase 3 — Admin & Integrations | Weeks 17–22 | Vendor API connectors, enrichment pipeline, Pipedream Connect, disputes |
| Phase 4 — AI & Communications | Weeks 23–26 | AI assistant, news/deals, in-app messaging, analytics dashboards |
| Phase 5 — Call Routing & Polish | Weeks 27–30 | Twilio IVR, inbound call routing, performance optimization |
| Phase 6 — Beta | Weeks 31–34 | 25–50 beta agents, bug bash, NPS feedback loop |
| Phase 7 — GA Launch | Week 35 | Public launch, marketing campaign, sales activation |
| Phase 8 — Vertical Expansion | Weeks 36+ | Add Medicare, Health, Final Expense, then Auto/Home |
Open Questions
1. Pricing model: Is the business take-rate (% markup on each lead) or subscription + lower markup? Hybrid?
2. Exclusive vs. shared default: What's the default lead-sharing policy (e.g., max 3 agents per shared lead)?
3. Refund policy: What is the dispute window (24h, 48h, 7 days)? Per-vertical?
4. Carrier relationships: Should we pursue direct carrier appointments to facilitate quote-to-bind in-platform?
5. Geographic licensing: Do we block agents from purchasing leads in states where they're not licensed, or warn only?
6. AI data usage: Do agents opt in to having their conversion data used to train cohort-level recommendations?
7. Vendor onboarding: Will we use a self-service vendor portal or admin-mediated onboarding only?
8. White-label: Should architecture support white-label resellers from day one to avoid expensive refactor later?
9. Compliance budget: What's the SOC 2 / legal counsel budget allocation for year 1?
10. Mobile priority: When does native mobile become a competitive necessity vs. nice-to-have?
*Document Version: 1.0*
*Status: Draft for stakeholder review*