Real Estate Investment for all.

There's a few times in your career where you're able to work for a company, and the mission statement completely resonates with you. Doorvest is that company for me, helping others help others.

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Overview

Doorvest is a Real estate consulting company that utilizes home ownership investment as a product. There is so many hands that are involved in making sure the full process works. There is acquiring a home, renovating the home, getting the home leased, marketing different geographic locations to customers and even property management once a home was sold.

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My Role

Lead Designer

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Tools

Figma | Whimsical | Linear | Asana | Slack | Notion

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Project Duration

3 Weeks for this feature

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Definition

We initially used a sign-up survey to match homes to user preferences. However, to improve precision, we introduced a ranking system to show homes closer to user preferences on their dashboard. Homes were assigned based on user cohort at sign-up to maintain exclusivity. User research revealed dissatisfaction with slow home matches and missed emails. Homes were often reserved by others before users could view the profile. To enhance the home matching experience, we improved the process, dubbing it "Doormatch."

The Initial plan

The goal was to provide users with a seamless experience when logging in by directing them to a dedicated deposits page where they can view all relevant information for the specific deposit. To enhance this experience, we added the ability for users to view the homes they were matched with directly on this page. The homes displayed are tailored to the preferences the user selected during sign-up, and we also implemented a system to track likes and dislikes to continually improve the algorithm. This allows our customers to have a personalized and efficient experience on our platform.

General Design Principles

The design system was built on the fly being that working at Doorvest is a  fully agile environment. Customizing material design to make it responsive as well as customizing the design to fit into the rest of Doorvest’s marketing material. Everything was designed with an 8px grid.

( show design system screenshot below)

Getting Started

Our objective was to determine the key elements to display on our platform. We engaged in customer research by conducting video calls to understand the most crucial financial information to present. Utilizing a group email campaign through Hubspot, we were able to reach out to 20 live sessions and receive over 500 responses through a survey. The feedback was clear, with customers consistently highlighting Year One Appreciation, Cash On Cash Return, Rental Range, and Cap Rate as essential information. With this knowledge, we can confidently ensure that our users have the necessary insights to navigate our platform and make informed decisions when reserving a home.

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Testing, UAT, Analytics

While moving extremely fast on deploying this feature the research tactics also embodied that as well. We deployed to a set group of users and used clarity to study the user interaction with the Doormactch cards. We also got on calls to hear initial responses and insight on the new addition.

What Would I Have Done Differently

Our data analytics review revealed a significant increase in user engagement, with a 40% spike in home reservations and a 13.8% increase in signed letters of intent. This resulted in a significant financial gain for the company, with over 100s of thousands being generated. While these metrics are certainly impressive, I believe that with additional time and resources, we could have further enhanced the algorithm to suggest homes to users, even if they fall outside of their preferences. This would have allowed us to provide valuable insights on how these homes could assist them in their financial journey, ultimately leading to an even more personalized and efficient user experience.

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