• Research
• Visual Design

This was a research project led by the VP of Customer Experience who would go on to eventually patent a concept that was essentially a “buy-it-now” for the consumer to consumer business. But before it could get to that point, we had to convince the board that this was a worthwhile product. Part of the conveying process was to have a visually communicated Customer Journey Map, along with research findings, to present to the board.

The problem is that buying a home can be a very arduous and often stressful & tedious process. Both sides of the home purchasing journey goes through various and definitive pain points.

Our goal was to identify, understand and potentially resolve these pain points through a product that could help facilitate this process using our online platform.

One of the major challenges we hit right away was how jaded the Bay Area housing market was. Having a house sell well beyond the asking price as well as having bidding wars with 10 other potential home buyers was not a common occurrence around the country. The Bay Area was an anomaly and we knew in order to get more reasonable feedback, we had to do our focus group sessions outside of California. The area we focused was Las Vegas Nevada because of their quickly expanding consumer market and more reasonably diverse middle class. We needed to clearly identify within our research if there really was a need for a product like this in the market.

We outlined and began a lengthy research process. Process work that arose from the customer and user experience studies for the Customer Journey Map and eventual products were,

• Whiteboard Brainstorming Sessions
• Use Case Storyboarding including:
  • Scripts
  • Storyboards
  • Video marketing promo
• Multiple detailed focus group sessions with:
  • Home Buyers who purchased property in the past year
  • Agents & Brokers who’ve sold property in the past year
• Early concept of Retail Flowchart for Product
• Sketching and Ideation of Journey Map including:
  • Notebook sketches & concepts
  • Early Map variations (for feedback & updates)
• Final Visual Customer Journey Map

This entire process would eventually lead to the Unsealed Bid beta, Offer Select and Own-It-Now Product for Ten-X.

The Customer Journey Map when completed was printed largely and hung outside the main meeting room in order to begin conversations and illicit feedback from anyone within Ten-X. It helped to facilitate conversations and in the end and the board agreed to fund the project. However, during the rebranding, the product was dropped for the consumer business. The research however did not go to waste, as it was the initial data that began the process for products on the commercial side named Offer Select and importantly, into my flagship product and commercial real estate equivalent Own-It-Now.