Turning Leads into Relationships
INDUSTRY
Real estate tech
ROLE
Design lead
TIMELINE
Oct 2024 - June 2025
TEAM
1 UX Researcher
1 UX Designer
In digital home buying/selling world, traditional lead generation reduces rich consumer intent to anonymous form fills, treating agents as mere recipients rather than experts. Furthermore, consumers experience a series of discrete interactions that lack cohesion throughout the process.
My client saw an opportunity to pivot from this transactional monetization model to relationship-driven ecosystem enablement.
I led the design strategy for this initiative in home buying experiences to inform product roadmap and MVP. In the design delivery phase, by designing an empowering agent portal and a "search-to-close" experience in the consumer app, I helped redefine how the two sides collaborate.
IMPACT
Enabled over 50% of active agents to adopt core collaboration tools within the first 90 days.
Supported a 3.3% lead conversion rate without monetization or forced registration, reinforcing ecosystem-enablement strategy. Demonstrated early readiness for monetization by driving repeat agent usage and multi-feature adoption.
+50%
Active agent adoption
+3.3%
Lead conversion rate
xxx
xxxx
CONTEXT
My client is a leading online real estate marketplace that connects buyers, sellers, and renters with real estate professionals in the US, capturing approximately 29% of all category traffic with peak monthly visits reaching 256 million, maintaining its position as a primary competitor to Zillow. It serves three main personas in the industry: consumer, agent, and MLS.
29%
all category traffic
+256
million monthly visits
10.12%
Market share
PROCESS
Two month of blueprint (work with product, tech lead to inform product feature roadmapping, tech feasibility) + eight month of build to deliver a full MVP
KEY CHALLENGES
The pivoting of the business model was derived from key challenges faced by multiple relevant persona our client is serving for, customer (home buyer, sellers etc.), agents (home buying agent, selling agent), and MLS partners.
How might we create a seamless search to close experience throughout the home buying process that enhances interactions between consumers and agents?
BLUEPRINT PHASE
Co-creation workshop: To understand users' habit formation, I undertook three key actions. First, I researched articles on the psychology of fitness habit formation. Second, I analyzed existing data from the client regarding user drop-off points. Lastly, I conducted 12 exploratory interviews with users to gather qualitative insights into their motivations and challenges.
Leverage service blueprint for product roadmap: Habit formation follows a specific cycle, with 21 days identified as a critical pivot point for success. Notably, there is a significant drop-off after the first four workouts.
BLUEPRINT PHASE
Circulate the demo to executive leadership: Txxxxxx
BUILD PHASE
Uniques alignment challenges of the project: This initiative is unique as the work wasn’t “owned” by any single product stream — it touched every team, so working in silos would fail. It required deep shared context, and fast ramp-up across disciplines.
How I drove alignment: After the product roadmap being locked during the blueprint phase, I facilitated 2 cross-team workshops with relevant product teams, engineer leads, product manager, using journey maps of key features + early wireframes to surface options. Got to decisions quickly with all key stakeholders in the room (e.g., Engineering leads assessed tech feasibility live, reducing weeks of back-and-forth into one session)
BUILD PHASE - CONSUMER APP
Agent activities feed: The current discover tab of the app, as its name, is a kitchen sink of everything, including latest updates, recent searches, market trends, neighborhood information based on user search history. After broader alignment, the agent activity feed will be added into this tab. After consumer connects with agent, this tab will turn into "For you", with agent activity feed and all the existing functionality.
INNOVATE WITHIN STRUCTURE
Initial design: I introduced a dedicated Agent Activities section leveraging existing design pattern and components in the design system. However, this addition contributed to an already lengthy scroll within the Discover tab, potentially overwhelming users.
Data-driven design iterations: I reached out to the current product team for discover tab and get to know that the discoverability of the content down is actually super low as I assumed. Therefore, in the connected state of the app, I explored different ways to improve discoverability of the content and tested two options with user (option 1: use tab to separate agent activities and other content; option 2: user anchor pill on top to auto-scroll.)
Feature proposed: User testing revealed a strong desire for greater content discoverability coupled with enhanced guidance throughout the search-to-close process. Based on this feedback, I proposed adding a "Your Next Step" section within the For You tab, offering users clear direction on their journey.
Small visual treatment makes a big difference: I implemented a timeline pattern for the Agent Activities section, clarifying the visual hierarchy. Additionally, I introduced a dynamic background image showcasing properties of interest to the user. These visual treatments not only create an inviting aesthetic but also streamline navigation, ensuring users can effortlessly find what they need.
USER TESTING INSIGHTS EMPOWER PRODUCT ROADMAP
User testing revealed that the Notes feature had strong potential to evolve beyond passive annotations into an in-app messaging system. As buyers narrowed choices, the feed naturally became the primary collaboration surface—where conversations, tour coordination, and offer-related actions converged. This insight directly informed the product roadmap, laying the foundation for iterative expansion into a unified workflow experience. The team shipped the mvp of this capability six month later.
AGENT PORTAL - MVP IMPACT
In parallel with delivering core consumer app features under a tight timeline, I owned end-to-end design for the agent portal—enabling agents to search for prospects, engage meaningfully, and stay continuously informed of consumer activity across the buying journey.
Successfully onboarded 100K+ agents, with ~5K engaging in active, ongoing collaboration with consumers—a meaningful behavior shift from passive lead intake to partnership.
