What It’s Like to Build a Career at Applied Systems
Ryan Lapp has wanted to build things since studying to become an architect in college, but the structures he saw in his mind at the time were physical, not digital.
Upon graduating from college, Lapp spent a couple of years building large municipal structures before joining a restaurant tech startup, where he helped scale its customer base to 140 clients in just over two years.
These experiences, while vastly different, solidified what Lapp already suspected about himself: He loved building things. While working for the restaurant startup, he proved his dedication to his craft, putting about 40,000 miles on his car visiting different bars and restaurants to implement the company’s POS system.
When the startup sold its POS system, Lapp decided he was ready for a career change, and applied to an open customer success management role at Tech Canary, a company that developed cloud-based insurance software. He applied for the job on a Saturday, and by Wednesday, he had signed an offer.
Applied Systems acquired TechCanary in 2019, and Lapp began working on Applied Systems’ Ivans Insurance Network, which serves as a digital connectivity hub for the insurance industry, connecting independent agencies with insurance carriers and MGAs.
What Does Applied Systems Do?
Applied Systems is a global provider of cloud-based insurance software and agency management systems.
In 2023, Lapp left Applied Systems to work at a different insurance startup as a VP of customer success. He spent 18 months there, and during that time, he realized that the work environment he was in didn’t align with his identity as a builder.
Lapp wanted to ship, iterate and create impact — just like he had at Applied Systems.
So, when Ivans Insurance Network President Michael Streit asked him to come back to Applied Systems in 2025, he didn’t hesitate to accept his offer.
Today, Lapp is senior director of product management for Ivans Insurance Network’s commercial distribution and quoting product. Leveraging his startup mindset, he’s helped the company navigate a period of rapid change while harnessing his passion for building.
What Is Ivans Insurance Network?
Ivans Insurance Network is Applied Systems’ digital connectivity hub for the insurance industry. It connects independent agencies with insurance carriers and MGAs and supports product integration across the broader insurance ecosystem.
“I wanted to come back and finish what I started,” Lapp said. “I got to come back with more control and better input on the roadmap. It felt like home.”
Below, Lapp shares more about why he decided to return to Applied Systems and how the company is driving innovation in the insurance technology space.
How Applied Systems Is Leveraging AI to Drive Innovation
The Ivans platform processes over $1.5 million transactions each day, directly serving 38,700+ agencies, carriers and MGAs while simultaneously facilitating product integration for customers who also use competitors’ tools. It’s a rare dual mandate: Build for your own customers and for the broader ecosystem at the same time. Yet it’s a challenge that Lapp is keen to tackle.
“Insurance touches every industry,” Lapp said. “Working here is the opportunity to make an impact you didn’t think was possible.”
Ask Lapp what excites him most about the team right now, and he doesn’t hesitate: the way Applied uses AI to build products.
AI has redefined the way Lapp and his team works, significantly reducing — and in some cases eliminating — time-consuming tasks that pull focus from collaborative, strategic work.
“We can spend so much more time with customers because we don’t have tickets or meetings or admin taking our time,” Lapp said.
The numbers back this up. Lapp’s team estimates a 20-30 percent reduction in manual work. Functionality mapping that once consumed months now takes 30 minutes. Configuration panels that previously required a 3-6-week build cycle can now be turned around in a fraction of that time. AI-connected tools push edits and corrections across platforms like Confluence automatically, eliminating the manual, page-by-page overhead that used to absorb hours of tedious work.
The shift has also changed how product and engineering collaborate. Lapp describes a new dynamic where PMs can hand developers code that needs iteration rather than a full spec, compressing the feedback loop and giving everyone on the team more space to think strategically.
“Access to the tools sets the tone for the environment,” Lapp said. “When we use this [technology] in the right way, we can eliminate update meetings and roadblocks and enable everyone to go fast.”
Harnessing AI isn’t just about improving internal velocity, however. Applied’s AI capabilities are a product imperative.
“We have to know how to use AI well because we have to think through how our customers will use it,” Lapp said.
How Applied Systems Approaches Product Development and Measures Success
Lapp’s background in structural architecture shapes how he thinks about products. The most important decisions, he said, happen before a single line of code gets written.
“As long as you have the architecture right, you’ll be successful in what you build,” he said. “The art of product development is how well and how quickly you can get this thing done, and approaching it from that angle is what’s exciting to me.”
He tracks progress with a metric that is intentionally simple: Are support cases going up, going down or staying the same? It’s a direct signal of whether what the team builds is actually working for the people using it.
For a PM who wants to connect their work to real outcomes — not just releases — it’s the kind of environment that rewards the right instincts.
What Makes Someone a Good Fit for Applied Systems
Insurance experience isn’t a prerequisite at Applied, but product instinct is. The team is deliberate about protecting the environment that makes good product work possible, including a flexible remote-first model that trusts people to deliver whether they’re in the office or not.
“We don’t need the insurance background,” Lapp said. “We want true product people who just want to build good things.”
“We want true product people who just want to build good things.”
The product team prioritizes onboarding and training, ensuring that new employees aren’t overwhelmed before tackling their first assignment. “Breathe and lean on your teammates” is Lapp’s onboarding philosophy, a signal that his leadership style encourages collaboration, support and psychological safety.
For PMs who are drawn to complexity, ownership and work with actual stakes, that’s not a caveat — it’s the point: “The brand isn’t flashy, but you’re building something real that can make a difference,” Lapp said.
For Lapp, coming back to Applied Systems wasn’t a second chance — it was a deliberate choice, made by someone who saw the alternative and knew exactly what he was returning to.
“The work has a lot of meaning,” Lapp said. “There’s a real appetite to solve really complex things. And the people — I love the group and the relationships, and that’s not something you can get everywhere.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Applied Systems do?
Applied Systems is a global provider of cloud-based insurance software and agency management systems. Its digital connectivity hub, the Ivans Insurance Network, connects independent agencies with insurance carriers and managing general agents, supporting product integration across the broader insurance ecosystem.
How does Applied Systems use AI in product development?
Applied Systems leverages AI to redefine how teams work, primarily by automating tedious tasks, compressing development cycle times, and changing collaboration models. For instance, AI-connected tools automatically push edits and corrections across platforms like Confluence, eliminating hours of manual, page-by-page overhead.
What qualities does Applied Systems look for in product managers?
When hiring product managers, the company's hiring managers prioritize strong product instinct over specific industry expertise. Hiring managers look for job candidates who are drawn to complexity, ownership, and building "something real that can make a difference."
