Realvitalize
The RealVitalize program offered by Anywhere Real Estate Brands brings cutting-edge communication and financial tracking to property renovations. As Lead Product Designer, the transformation to a streamlined platform promises a 75% increase in fund collection efficiency and reduced legal costs.
Dec 2021 - Aug 2022
TLDR
The RealVitalize Program partners with Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, and Sotheby's agents and sellers to renovate properties with no upfront cost to the seller. RealVitalize relied on spreadsheets and email for communication, leading to no real-time data, no system for tracking financial collection, and confusion internally and externally. To solve this, a new interface was created for admins and agents based on user interviews, resulting in real-time data and progress tracking.
My Role
As the Lead Product Designer, I collaborated with stakeholders, agents, product owners, business analysts, and the development team to conduct interviews, develop a UX strategy, design the UX architecture, create user flows, wireframes, Hi-Fi and Low-Fi Mockups, prototypes, and collaborate with developers to implement final designs. In a matter of 9 months, we designed, developed, and launched the beta of this brand-new product. The product was estimated to increase the timely collection of funds by 75% and reduce legal cost.
What
RealVitalize needed to improve its communication and tracking systems to streamline the renovation process and financial collection previously managed through spreadsheets.
Why
The manual process using spreadsheets and email resulted in no real-time data, no system for tracking financial collection, and confusion internally and externally. Additionally, agents had no way to track progress on properties that were being renovated. The new application provided not only a way to help financial tracking but it provided a way for agents to check in on enrolled properties and see how the renovations were coming along. They were also able to get notifications when something needed their attention. The Agents needed a way to help manage the Realivitalze projects from start to finish.
How
User interviews were pivotal in the early stages of product development, where we promptly identified three distinct user groups: Agents, Finance team members, and Brokers/Operations Managers. Each group was interviewed, with similar questions tailored to their respective roles, and qualitative feedback was systematically tabulated using Dovetail. While responses varied across roles, common themes emerged, providing invaluable insights to guide our decisions and priorities.
Among these themes, the paramount desire for transparency and insight into the management of Realvitalized projects resonated across all user groups. Their core responsibility is to ensure client satisfaction and successful home sales. However, achieving these goals becomes challenging in the absence of clear communication and visibility into project management on a web-based platform.
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What we learned
The journey of optimizing fund collection proved challenging yet invaluable. From meticulously understanding user flows to navigating variations in program operations across brands, each step demanded thoroughness and dedication. Engaging in user interviews and one-on-one sessions with internal finance team members was pivotal, providing profound insights that shaped our solutions. Collaborating directly with stakeholders and witnessing the tangible impact on internal teams, agents, and customers has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career, reaffirming the transformative power of thoughtful design in everyday operations.
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