Jigyasa Tuli

Archive About Contact

Launching Own Up’s concierge experience

In 2020, the housing market experienced low interest rates on loans, increasing customer intake for Own Up rapidly. In 2023, market conditions went in the opposite direction, recording some of the highest ever interest rates in the country, making it an unaffordable yet still competitive market, as housing demand did not decrease.

As the Design Lead, I worked cross-functionally with stakeholders and advocated for Own Up users, in an economic environment that was make or break for our business and the larger mortgage industry.

ROLEDesign Lead

TEAMIan Griesdorn (Senior Product Manager),
Sam Wilder (Content Strategist),
Robert Cafazzo (Tech Lead) &
ZeroDegrees (Agency Partner)

TIMELINE
3 Months

The Problems;

Less Customers

High Drop-offs

Broad Product Strategy

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.

The current experience had extremely high page drop-offs indicative of it not meeting our users’ expectations.

Irrespective of the homebuyer path (purchase, refinance or even ineligible), the experience was too generalized for a tough economic climate, with limited business opportunity.

Getting into the depth of the problems;

① Evaluating the current experience

Collecting feedback from customers and our customer success teams on our current experience showed us the weaknesses in our design. Our content and user journey did not set expectations that matched our current users’ needs, causing low conversion and high drop-offs post-onboarding.

• Lacking “human” depthOwn Up home advisors serve as unbiased facilitators to prospective homebuyers, who will advise you to not use Own Up if somewhere else is better — we were not sharing much about this integrity or them.

• Address current problemsEveryone knew the economy is not doing well, rates are high and housing is tough to find — this page did not call that out in any way or reflect these changes.

• “Just want to see rates”After going through onboarding, some people expect to look at rates, not another friction point.

• What else...?Besides the consultation pitch, there is not a lot of value on this screen. Our resources also link out to other pages that are already accessible through the homepage.

② Are there opportunities to convert users that Own Up doesn’t currently serve?

The existing Own Up experience focused on optimizing consultation quality to maximize revenue opportunities. People who did not qualify for Own Up or for people who decided not to move forward with us hit a dead-end node. As we looked for ways to bring in new revenue streams, there was an opportunity to connect previously ineligible leads to a relevant qualifying service. We termed this as the Non-Concierge Experience.

Current high-level user flow

The ineligible and drop-off points were considered as areas of new revenue opportunities

Ideating on the new experience;

③ Leveraging creativity from Own Up teams across departments

I led a group ideation session consisting of our Sales, Engineering, Lender Relations & Customer Success representatives to brainstorm key themes on creating a new Concierge exeprience, which helped me derive insights on how to approach design.

Session Prompt— How might we better position our Concierge offerings so that they more effectively solve the customer problem and deliver value in order to increase contact rates and consult take-rates?

④ Rapid prototyping & testing — under NDA

With the help of our agency partner, I collaborated on quickly producing prototypes to test out concepts. The winning version was taken forward by me and refined.

One of our concept prototypes added features and interactivity, resembling an app experience on mobile — this turned out to be too complex for our users during the test. They preferred another experience which was simpler, provided them with options and clear steps on what to do next.

The (new) Concierge Experience

We presented our customers with two options to choose from. They could either schedule a consultation with our home advisor or be connected with a lender match from our vetted network based on their unique scenario.

This new experience resulted in a 24% increase in customers scheduling a call with home advisors, enabling Own Up to help more customers find the best mortgage deal, and drive revenue growth.

Highlights;

① Clarity of options & expectation setting

In this new pitch, 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.

② Interest Rates & Market Forces

Utilizing our rate range calculation API (we do this by parsing data from Optimal Blue), 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.

③ 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.

Learnings & Next Steps;

My biggest learning from my work with Own Up is that economic conditions have a big impact on the mortgage industry. To me, this means, while we cannot future-proof our product, it should be designed for change and flexibility.

A few months after the release of the new Concierge Experience, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced new legal requirements for online mortgages and lenders — requiring another iteration and product pivot.