Pocket: Open Homes
Streamlining the real estate inspection process
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Research and competitive analysis
- Product design
- Prototyping
- Usability testing
- Delivery documentation
- QA
TEAM
- Product Owner
- 2x Engineers
PLATFORM
Native mobile application (iOS and Android)
TIMELINE
4 months
Native mobile application (iOS and Android)
TIMELINE
4 months
CONTEXT
Pocket is a mobile-specific customer relationship management (CRM) application for real estate agents, powered by Rex. With roughly 3000 monthly active users throughout Australia, New Zealand and the UK, the app allows an agent to manage their entire workflow from a smart device.
An important part of this workflow is facilitating inspections of properties that are for sale, commonly known as open homes. Because of this, Pocket’s dedicated open homes functionality became its most frequently used and highest-value feature following its release.
PROBLEM
Despite being well received initially, user engagement was steadily decreasing and a growing portion of customers were churning to a competitor’s product to manage their inspections. Feedback collected directly from agents highlighted several underlying UX and performance issues, so we decided a change was necessary.
SOLUTION
I was tasked with completely redesigning the Open Homes feature to better cater to the needs of agents, which included an extensive research and user testing process, as well as thorough documentation and quality assurance testing directly with Engineers.
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Pocket is a mobile-specific customer relationship management (CRM) application for real estate agents, powered by Rex. With roughly 3000 monthly active users throughout Australia, New Zealand and the UK, the app allows an agent to manage their entire workflow from a smart device.
An important part of this workflow is facilitating inspections of properties that are for sale, commonly known as open homes. Because of this, Pocket’s dedicated open homes functionality became its most frequently used and highest-value feature following its release.
PROBLEM
Despite being well received initially, user engagement was steadily decreasing and a growing portion of customers were churning to a competitor’s product to manage their inspections. Feedback collected directly from agents highlighted several underlying UX and performance issues, so we decided a change was necessary.
SOLUTION
I was tasked with completely redesigning the Open Homes feature to better cater to the needs of agents, which included an extensive research and user testing process, as well as thorough documentation and quality assurance testing directly with Engineers.
A sample of initial wireframes
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Early iterations in higher fidelity
Final visual design of some of the feature’s key views
OUTCOME
On the first weekend after its release, primary screens of the Open Homes feature were viewed a record number of times, with a peak 70% higher than any previously measured. Average per-user engagement also increased by 22% in following months, in terms of attendees added and open home “records” viewed. That increased usage trend continued to persist, and while there was a steep decline during the COVID-19 lockdown period, it recovered wonderfully with the return to in-person inspections.
On the first weekend after its release, primary screens of the Open Homes feature were viewed a record number of times, with a peak 70% higher than any previously measured. Average per-user engagement also increased by 22% in following months, in terms of attendees added and open home “records” viewed. That increased usage trend continued to persist, and while there was a steep decline during the COVID-19 lockdown period, it recovered wonderfully with the return to in-person inspections.