Realm
·
2023
·
Case Study
Realm
Realm
Few experiences rival the complexity and stress that come with renovating your home. Between ever-changing costs, unreliable contractors, city regulations, and an the endless list of unknowns, it's a wonder anyone begins a home project — let alone finishes one.
That's why Realm's first order of business on their mission to being the homeowner's companion app was to transform how people renovate. When I joined, they had found product-market fit with their renovation advisory service and had brought me on to help shape their digital offering.
Role
Staff Product Designer
Product Design
Product Strategy
Research
Prototyping
Ads
How Realm wins
Homeowners generally do multiple renovation projects over the course of their time in a home and Realm wanted to be front and center to help when they were ready to take action. The strategy for the app was threefold:
How Realm wins
Homeowners generally do multiple renovation projects over the course of their time in a home and Realm wanted to be front and center to help when they were ready to take action. The strategy for the app was threefold:
How Realm wins
Homeowners generally do multiple renovation projects over the course of their time in a home and Realm wanted to be front and center to help when they were ready to take action. The strategy for the app was threefold:
1.
Acquire and retain homeowners at any point in their renovation lifecycle
2.
Garner their trust and help boost them towards renovating
3.
As they start considering a renovation, be top of mind so they choose to renovate with Realm
Retention
Initially, our sales team was doing a spectacular job at hitting our revenue goals so we focused our app efforts on retaining and boosting users. We launched multiple features, including the ones below.
Retention
Initially, our sales team was doing a spectacular job at hitting our revenue goals so we focused our app efforts on retaining and boosting users. We launched multiple features, including the ones below.
Retention
Initially, our sales team was doing a spectacular job at hitting our revenue goals so we focused our app efforts on retaining and boosting users. We launched multiple features, including the ones below.
Stay on top of changes to your home value and neighborhood
Stay on top of changes to your home value and neighborhood
Aggregated monthly insights about your home, neighborhood, and projects
Aggregated monthly insights about your home, neighborhood, and projects
Insights related to your home and projects you're interested in
Insights related to your home and projects you're interested in
Shifting priorities
Our revenue targets became increasingly more demanding as we were heading into our Series B and the app needed to start to meaningfully contribute to revenue.
We shifted gears and I began a discovery effort to understand how the app may best assist. I held sessions with customers, leads who didn’t convert, and our sales and advisory team and came away with a number of really great insights that helped inform our strategy.
Shifting priorities
Our revenue targets became increasingly more demanding as we were heading into our Series B and the app needed to start to meaningfully contribute to revenue.
We shifted gears and I began a discovery effort to understand how the app may best assist. I held sessions with customers, leads who didn’t convert, and our sales and advisory team and came away with a number of really great insights that helped inform our strategy.
Shifting priorities
Our revenue targets became increasingly more demanding as we were heading into our Series B and the app needed to start to meaningfully contribute to revenue.
We shifted gears and I began a discovery effort to understand how the app may best assist. I held sessions with customers, leads who didn’t convert, and our sales and advisory team and came away with a number of really great insights that helped inform our strategy.
Plan of attack
In looking at the insights from our research, a clear theme emerged — homeowners didn't feel confident.
"It's really difficult to know how much doing what we want to will cost"
"I mean, yeah, I'd love to get that ADU but I have no idea how I'd pay for it…"
"I've just heard so many horror stories of people getting bad work done or contractors leaving halfway through"
In each conversation, this theme became more clear, as did the question the product needed to answer: how might we help homeowners feel more confident? We took a holistic look at what we could do to answer this question and broke down the work into three parts.
Plan of attack
In looking at the insights from our research, a clear theme emerged — homeowners didn't feel confident.
"It's really difficult to know how much doing what we want to will cost"
"I mean, yeah, I'd love to get that ADU but I have no idea how I'd pay for it…"
"I've just heard so many horror stories of people getting bad work done or contractors leaving halfway through"
In each conversation, this theme became more clear, as did the question the product needed to answer: how might we help homeowners feel more confident? We took a holistic look at what we could do to answer this question and broke down the work into three parts.
Plan of attack
In looking at the insights from our research, a clear theme emerged — homeowners didn't feel confident.
"It's really difficult to know how much doing what we want to will cost"
"I mean, yeah, I'd love to get that ADU but I have no idea how I'd pay for it…"
"I've just heard so many horror stories of people getting bad work done or contractors leaving halfway through"
In each conversation, this theme became more clear, as did the question the product needed to answer: how might we help homeowners feel more confident? We took a holistic look at what we could do to answer this question and broke down the work into three parts.
Part I
Project Customization
Adding projects
Adding projects
Adding projects
Introduce the user to what renovating with Realm is like
Allow them to add projects they're interested in
Provide initial low-end estimates and allow them to create multiple plans to compare
Before customizing...
A primary goal I had in customization was to minimize the effort needed for users to get an accurate estimate. Unfortunately, our ability to provide precise estimates depended on both the quality and quantity of inputs about their project. Knowing this, I collaborated closely with our advisory team and engineers to dig into our pricing models to find a sweet spot.
We were able to boil down the input requirements to the three most impactful — scope, quality, and size. By providing answers to these questions initially, users would get a reasonably accurate estimate immediately that they could then adjust with additional customizations.
Before customizing...
A primary goal I had in customization was to minimize the effort needed for users to get an accurate estimate. Unfortunately, our ability to provide precise estimates depended on both the quality and quantity of inputs about their project. Knowing this, I collaborated closely with our advisory team and engineers to dig into our pricing models to find a sweet spot.
We were able to boil down the input requirements to the three most impactful — scope, quality, and size. By providing answers to these questions initially, users would get a reasonably accurate estimate immediately that they could then adjust with additional customizations.
Before customizing...
A primary goal I had in customization was to minimize the effort needed for users to get an accurate estimate. Unfortunately, our ability to provide precise estimates depended on both the quality and quantity of inputs about their project. Knowing this, I collaborated closely with our advisory team and engineers to dig into our pricing models to find a sweet spot.
We were able to boil down the input requirements to the three most impactful — scope, quality, and size. By providing answers to these questions initially, users would get a reasonably accurate estimate immediately that they could then adjust with additional customizations.
Customizing a project
Here users are given the opportunity to make these projects their own. They can choose the materials they want to use, the quality of the appliances, and extras like pot fillers for a kitchen!
We also wanted to allow users to customize in a more visual way, so we introduced Showroom. Showroom would allow users to browse images of inspirational spaces to see which one resonated the most with them and use them as a starting point for their customizations. In the future, I hoped we'd introduce AI to allow users to make visual updates to their own kitchen to see how they'd look and price them accordingly.
Customizing a project
Here users are given the opportunity to make these projects their own. They can choose the materials they want to use, the quality of the appliances, and extras like pot fillers for a kitchen!
We also wanted to allow users to customize in a more visual way, so we introduced Showroom. Showroom would allow users to browse images of inspirational spaces to see which one resonated the most with them and use them as a starting point for their customizations. In the future, I hoped we'd introduce AI to allow users to make visual updates to their own kitchen to see how they'd look and price them accordingly.
Customizing a project
Here users are given the opportunity to make these projects their own. They can choose the materials they want to use, the quality of the appliances, and extras like pot fillers for a kitchen!
We also wanted to allow users to customize in a more visual way, so we introduced Showroom. Showroom would allow users to browse images of inspirational spaces to see which one resonated the most with them and use them as a starting point for their customizations. In the future, I hoped we'd introduce AI to allow users to make visual updates to their own kitchen to see how they'd look and price them accordingly.
Here users get an overview of all the estimates for their project including price, added value, and ROI
Here users get an overview of all the estimates for their project including price, added value, and ROI
As users customize, we try to educate them so they feel confident in their choices
As users customize, we try to educate them so they feel confident in their choices
Users could enter the showroom to get some inspiration for their projects and price them visually
Users could enter the showroom to get some inspiration for their projects and price them visually
Once a project is saved, the estimates for their plan update to reflect the changes they made
Once a project is saved, the estimates for their plan update to reflect the changes they made
Part II
Financing
Home value & equity financing
While cash payments or credit cards work for some, many can't afford these methods for renovations. That's why we looked to provide insight into equity financing options.
Equity is the home's value minus the outstanding mortgage balance, but as our researched showed, people distrust home values they see from sites like Zillow and Redfin. These sites can show home values that differ dramatically from one another and they change day to day for seemingly no reason. If we wanted users to trust our financing options, users needed to first trust our home values.
Home values across Realm, Redfin, and Zillow on the same day
Home value & equity financing
While cash payments or credit cards work for some, many can't afford these methods for renovations. That's why we looked to provide insight into equity financing options.
Equity is the home's value minus the outstanding mortgage balance, but as our researched showed, people distrust home values they see from sites like Zillow and Redfin. These sites can show home values that differ dramatically from one another and they change day to day for seemingly no reason. If we wanted users to trust our financing options, users needed to first trust our home values.
Home values across Realm, Redfin, and Zillow on the same day
Home value & equity financing
While cash payments or credit cards work for some, many can't afford these methods for renovations. That's why we looked to provide insight into equity financing options.
Equity is the home's value minus the outstanding mortgage balance, but as our researched showed, people distrust home values they see from sites like Zillow and Redfin. These sites can show home values that differ dramatically from one another and they change day to day for seemingly no reason. If we wanted users to trust our financing options, users needed to first trust our home values.
Home values across Realm, Redfin, and Zillow on the same day
Home value explanations
When taking a test in school, just getting the right answer was rarely enough to convince your teachers you knew what you were doing — you had to show your work. Taking a page from this, we began exposing how we were arriving at a user's home value by giving them insights into why it was changing.
Home value explanations
When taking a test in school, just getting the right answer was rarely enough to convince your teachers you knew what you were doing — you had to show your work. Taking a page from this, we began exposing how we were arriving at a user's home value by giving them insights into why it was changing.
Home value explanations
When taking a test in school, just getting the right answer was rarely enough to convince your teachers you knew what you were doing — you had to show your work. Taking a page from this, we began exposing how we were arriving at a user's home value by giving them insights into why it was changing.
Tooltip to call out the new experience
Tooltip to call out the new experience
We highlight the period of change and provide high level reasons for the change
We highlight the period of change and provide high level reasons for the change
Users can tap into each reason to learn more about it
Users can tap into each reason to learn more about it
Equity financing
With users having more confidence in their home values, providing them with their equity financing options was the next step to helping them afford their renovations. Users can adjust their loan amount and see their financing options. They can then use this to pull back or add more to their project customizations.
Equity financing
With users having more confidence in their home values, providing them with their equity financing options was the next step to helping them afford their renovations. Users can adjust their loan amount and see their financing options. They can then use this to pull back or add more to their project customizations.
Equity financing
With users having more confidence in their home values, providing them with their equity financing options was the next step to helping them afford their renovations. Users can adjust their loan amount and see their financing options. They can then use this to pull back or add more to their project customizations.
Display an entrypoint to equity financing near a user's projects
Display an entrypoint to equity financing near a user's projects
User confirms their mortgage information
User confirms their mortgage information
Once the mortgage info is submitted, the user can view and track their equity
Once the mortgage info is submitted, the user can view and track their equity
The user can see their financing options for the loan amount they selected
The user can see their financing options for the loan amount they selected
Part III
Project Kickoff
Submit projects
Once a user felt confident in their renovation plan, they could submit it to Realm. Our advisory team would get in touch with them to guide them through the process by collecting 3 bids from vetted contractors, helping them negotiate, and being available throughout the renovation to make sure things go smoothly.
Submit projects
Once a user felt confident in their renovation plan, they could submit it to Realm. Our advisory team would get in touch with them to guide them through the process by collecting 3 bids from vetted contractors, helping them negotiate, and being available throughout the renovation to make sure things go smoothly.
Submit projects
Once a user felt confident in their renovation plan, they could submit it to Realm. Our advisory team would get in touch with them to guide them through the process by collecting 3 bids from vetted contractors, helping them negotiate, and being available throughout the renovation to make sure things go smoothly.
A screen to remind them why they are renovating with Realm
A screen to remind them why they are renovating with Realm
Choose which project plan they want to move forward with
Choose which project plan they want to move forward with
We found user's budgets don't always algin with the projects they want to do
We found user's budgets don't always algin with the projects they want to do
This helps our team prioritize customers
This helps our team prioritize customers
Customers occasionally have some special circumstances - like one wanted to work alongside his contractor!
Customers occasionally have some special circumstances - like one wanted to work alongside his contractor!
As expected, we saw a lot of dropoff on the payment screen. We were testing this version with the many reasons to work with Realm.
As expected, we saw a lot of dropoff on the payment screen. We were testing this version with the many reasons to work with Realm.
In the post-deposit experience, we display upcoming tasks, milestones, and progress
In the post-deposit experience, we display upcoming tasks, milestones, and progress
© Nikhil Dua, 2024
© Nikhil Dua, 2024