Rethinking Own Up’s purchase experience during a market slump
Post 2022, the American housing market experienced a contraction due to increasing interest rates on loans. However, for prospective homeowners in the market, it created a competitive situation, with many adopting a “wait & see” approach, hoping for interest rates to fall. This became a point of inflection for Own Up, as consumer patterns around housing changed, affecting customer pipelines for the company.
Gathering market signals
At first, I started to notice a lower volume of customers
Decreasing customer pool (and traffic)
Due to high interest rates, low housing inventory
& economic recession, there were less customers looking to buy a house and, as a result, coming to Own Up.
High drop-off post onboarding
The current experience had extremely high page drop-offs indicative of it not meeting our users’ expectations.
Broad product strategy
Pre-2022, Own Up’s product strategy was based on segmenting customers by loan type. Any customer could qualify, provided Own Up could service their state and if they met basic income requirements.
What’s not working now?
Collated customer feedback from sales calls, survey and user research sessions:
• Underutilized positioning of Own Up’s 1:1 concierge service, which is incentivized for unbiased advice.
• Missed opportunity in building expertise profile and trust by addressing current anxieties around the housing market
• Unmatched mental model for users who just expected to see mortgage loan rates
• Lack of user choice or agency due to a singular CTA, without other actions
Proposed: Onboarding based on customer’s journey in the mortgage process (for purchasing)
Homebuyers weren’t just choosing a mortgage. They were navigating an uncertain journey. Our product flow treated all users as “purchase-ready.”, sidelining their journey.
Own Up’s onboarding was good at identifying the context of a mortgage loan, not the context of a user‘s journey.
I proposed user segmentation based on intent:
1. Early stage shopper - someone just looking around, more exploratory
2. Mortgage rate watchers - someone waiting for the right opportunity to buy a house
3. Purchase ready - our ICP, which we can prioritize for our concierge home advisor team
How do we redesign OwnUp for today’s homebuyers - uncertain, anxious, and not ready to buy?
I led a group ideation session consisting of our Sales, Engineering, Lender Relations & Customer Success representatives to brainstorm ideas on creating a new Concierge exeprience.
The key was striking a balance in our positioning for customer problems while identifying high quality leads for our sales team.
Own Up concierge re-imagined
Two clear choices
Customer’s can either opt for Own Up’s concierge service and talk to a home advisor or be connected with a partner lender to give them a custom negotiated rate.
Interest Rates & Market Forces
I created a widget for our users to look at weekly rate ranges, along with explanations on market conditions.
I also included the ability to set rate reminders, giving the option for people to stay informed daily or weekly about rate fluctuations — so when they are ready, they can move forward with their mortgage loan.
Real people with genuine advice
I created a home advisor details view, featuring their qualifications, years of experience and user reviews from previous customers.
Leveraging the strength of our in-house expertise allows our customers to build trust with the product.