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 an anxious uncertainty, 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 revenue and uncovering the need for a new strategic approach.
As the Design Lead, I worked cross-functionally with stakeholders and re-designed a personalized experience for incoming/prospective customers in this changing market.
My core challenge was balancing business needs, taking into account the current state of the economy and designing an experience centered around first-time homebuyers’ needs.
Shifts in Consumer Mindsets
Own Up had the opposite problem — the influx of customer volume was really high, without enough concierge advisors to support that capacity. The company was scaling the team rapidly. Customers coming in were by & large fully ready to buy a house.
Since interest rates on mortgages were now on the rise, a couple of things shifted. People who wanted to buy homes became more cautious and were adopting a wait & see approach. Stemming from this approach, the customer volume also reduced.
When consumer needs shift, how can we re-think the narrative we are trying to tell them?
What is the narrative we are trying to tell them?
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.
I proposed user segmentation based on intent:
1. Early stage shoppers - 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
At the heart of my design work was this core question — How do we build OwnUp for today’s homebuyers - uncertain, anxious, and not ready to buy?
Understanding why the current experience doesn’t work
I sought feedback from two sources:
1. Our internal concierge team to uncover details on current customer interactions
2. From prospective customers who were looking to buy a home
• 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
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 for the product. We thought through what type of messaging would most resonate with homebuyers today.
I led user research sessions to test out new positioning along with rethinking the product surface.
Iterative refinements from user feedback gave structure to the first version of the new concierge experience.
(Select iterations shown due to NDA)
The New Own Up Concierge
A simple experience that outlines Own Up’s main pitch, with a side panel for widgets pertaining to market signals and insights for customers to refer to while making their purchase decision. This experience was specifically for those customers who we knew from onboarding were ready to move forward (Purchase-Ready).
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.