WorkAboutResume
Streamlining the process for real estate brokers to find and sell properties
November 2019 - January 2020

My Role

Design Research Manager
User interviews, journey mapping, synthesis, usability testing, product launch, A/B testing

Team

(1) Design Research Manager (me)
(2) Product Designers
(1) Product Manager
(2) Software Engineers)

Context

Two-month project I completed with a cross-functional team during my time at Knotel, a real estate startup offering flexible workspaces

TL;DR

Research Goal

How can we support the workflow of corporate real estate brokers in order to increase customer engagement and Knotel sales?
This project was intended to streamline the workflow of real estate brokers that aid prospective renters in finding commercial real estate. At the start of this project, two sites existed:
  • Atlas - a site for internal Knotel Account Executives hare spaces with potential customers who reached out
  • Dashboard - a site for Knotel potential customers, typically real estate teams of startup to larger companies
The goal of this project was to merge these two sites to meet the needs of real estate brokers, who proved to have a more critical need for a listings site than either of these parties.

Project Highlights

In an effort to increase corporate real estate deals through partnerships with brokerages, our team was tasked with the development of a site showcasing Knotel’s available properties tailored specifically for brokers. Some outcomes included:
  • The site reached ~5,000 users by Q2 2020
  • After a month of being active, the site was receiving 213 page views daily

Project Context

Atlas

Site for internal Knotel account executives

Dashboard

Site for Knotel potential customers

Exploring the Needs of Real Estate Brokers

I led a series of contextual inquiries and interviews to understand the workflow of real estate brokers and how best to support their sales process. I then developed a workflow map of the different stages throughout the real estate broker's sales process.
Contextual Inquiry
In-Depth Interviews
Workflow Mapping
Contextual Inquiries + In-Depth Interviews

What are the pain points in the real estate broker workflow?

To understand the needs of corporate real estate brokers, we conducted 10 interviews including 5 in-person sessions with an ethnography component. Interviews were conducted with brokers from the New York City market in-person and the West Coast and Europe markets virtually and included a split between brokers from large brokerages and smaller brokerages. Through interviewing the brokers, observing their workflow, and conducting a journey mapping exercise, we defined the broker journey to better understand at which points Knotel’s sales process could fit into their workflow. We then identified pain points in their journey to ensure our product features met their distinct needs.
Journey Mapping

What is the real estate broker journey?

After synthesizing the user interviews and observations, our team defined a broker’s sales journey and identified the interaction points between brokers and customers, and between Knotel and brokers.
Research Question
How might we support the workflow of corporate real estate brokers in order to increase customer engagement and Knotel sales?

We Learned...

The Value of Pipeline

Brokers see the most critical value as access to properties off-market and in our pipeline (those we might acquire but even more so those that might come back into the market).

The Security of Assets

Brokers ask for flyers because they want the assets in them in order to make their own surveys for their customers. Their biggest struggle with these surveys is finding the assets (photos, information, layouts) that bring the spaces to life.

All the Data We Give for Free

Brokers don’t want to tell us who their clients are, but are happy to provide us their requirements in the form of saved searches.

The Importance of Branding

Brokers seemed reluctant to send our listings to their own customers because it’s not obvious who it is coming from (e.g. they may not even know Knotel) and they want the option to show our listings agnostic of our branding as some believe it may hurt the perception of the listing.

Developing a Portal for Brokers

I led a worksession to generate features and define the value proposition for the broker portal alongside cross-functional team members. I worked closely with product designers to evaluate and prepare to test design solutions.
Ideation
Prototyping
Ideation + Prototyping

How were the brokers' needs we uncovered translated into product features?

After synthesizing the insights, a clear value proposition for the product was defined as a self-service site that provides exclusive access to Knotel’s off-market, pipeline, and active listings to enable easy download of assets and scheduling of tours.
Exclusive Visibility - Visibility into exclusive, off-market, and pipeline properties not listed anywhere else
Downloadable Assets - Quickly access and download assets including floor plans, space images, and flyers
Notifications - Easily access relevant listings and receive customized notifications as new listings are added or come back on market

Testing & Refining the Broker Portal

I planned and led usability testing of the broker portal product with 17 brokers from 3 different markets and with 5 internal stakeholders. I tracked usability issues use the Single Ease Questionnaire (SEQ) to assess system usability.
Usability Testing
SEQ
Usability Testing + SEQ

What were the main usability issues present on the site?

Before releasing a formal blast, I led a series of usability tests with 5-6 brokers(17 total) in each of three markets including New York, West Coast (SF & LA), and Europe (London & Dublin) as well as 5 internal stakeholders.
Usability Test Guide
Initial Walk-through/Familiarization - Taking an initial look at the listings site, what are your initial thoughts on this page? What would be the first thing you think you would be inclined to do/look at? Why?
Task 1 - Surface the most typical type of space you sell (market, size, etc.)
Task 2 - Download assets including photos and a floor plan of the desired space
Task 3 - Request more information about a specific site
After each task, the Single Ease Questions (SEQ) was used to assess system usability on a scale of 1-7.
Rainbow spreadsheet used for tracking usability issues , success rate, time to completion, and satisfaction

We Learned...

Through usability testing, we learned what was working well and what needed improvement.
What Went Well
  • The average SEQ score for each task was > 4.0
  • Users expressed appreciation for the 'Coming Soon' notation and liked the visibility into the pipeline
  • The ability to view listings by both 'List' and 'Grid' view made sorting through the options easier
  • Users appreciated being able to sort and filter
What Needed Improvement
  • Users had difficulty selecting the exact move-in dates they were searching for
  • Multiple users accidentally downloaded the assets each twice
  • Resetting the filters required unchecking each filter individually
  • Users were confused by terminology in the product such as 'Off-Market' and 'Pipeline'
The design of the product was iterated on to address some of these core usability issues.
Feedback via toast for assets downloads
To reduce the number of users that were downloading assets multiple times, we implemented a toast as a feedback mechanism that the asset was downloaded.
Adding the ability to clear filters
Previously, the mechanism for resetting the filters was unclear. We designed a solution that would 'clear' the applied filters.
Clarifying terminology with hover states
To address confusion users had about the definitions of some of the tags, we implemented hover states to briefly clarify what each type of space tag meant.

Final Design

Our usability tests also revealed potential new features that would enhance the broker portal's experience across markets.

We learned...

Relationship-Driven Industry
Brokers referenced the industry as very relationship-driven, desiring a way to receive email updates with new listings without having to save a search.
"This makes it so much easier to search for spaces without having to go through an AE... While it eliminates a step, my relationship with the AE means I'm the first to know about new spaces. I still want to be the first to know.
- Broker, HelloOffice
Localizing Sites
To make the portal functional for all markets in the U.S. and in Europe,  tailoring needs to occur. Information such as transit options as well as measuring units should be curated for local culture.
"For Ireland, the subway/train would need to be localized to the site. It would be good to differentiate between the Luas and the DART trains, which comes from different areas."
- Broker, JLL
Successful Streamlining
Feedback from users during the usability test validated the need for streamlining the process and specifically called out the value in being able to download assets.
"The great thing about this site is that it's easy to use. You can go on and look at the floor plans, you can download the photographs, you can get the PDF flyers. It's all very straightforward and easy.
- Broker, Savills Studley
Additional Features

Developing Saved Searches

A key need our team saw to bring value to Knotel was through data collection from having brokers save searches - preset filters around their prospects’ requirements. To meet this need, we developed interactions to prompt users to save their searches and then receive emails whenever a new listing was added that met their needs.
With this functionality, the site could be used to establish an persistent, yet curated relationship with the broker, tailoring communications to their needs while keeping Knotel top of mind.

Launching the New Product to Brokers

In collaboration with product marketing, I helped develop the launch plan to track necessary metrics using logging/tracking software. I also set up an A/B test to determine which blast content had a higher open rate.
Data Tracking
A/B Testing

How will we launch this product?

To launch the new broker portal, we put together a plan for staged blasts to brokers in order to be able to learn and iterate. The goal was to gauge initial reactions to the portal and pilot with select users to ensure the final largest blast was successful.
To measure the success of the launch, we identified key metrics to track such as number of visitors, click-through rate from emails with the new portal as opposed to typical broker blasts, and number of assets downloaded.
A/B Testing

Which launch subject line has a higher open rate?

In preparing for the final launch, I developed a blast to be sent out to brokers and two subject lines to see which would gain more traction:
  • Subject A: Find Flex Space Faster in 2020
  • Subject B: On-Stop Shop for Flex Space
Target Users: 500 brokers from 112 global small brokerages who have never done business with Knotel as a low-risk test case.
Goal: Test which email subject line has the highest open and click-through rates; Evaluate and monitor usage and core user flows for bugs and issues on FullStory
Duration: 2-4 days

Outcome

Subject line B (One-Stop Shop for Flex Space) had a slightly higher open rate at 8% compared to 5% for subject line A; Click-through rates for both subject lines were very low at <1% for both groups
Since the initial test blast, our team blasted the new portal to ~4,000 in New York City, the market that was top priority to generate business for Knotel in Q1 2020. After blasting the product, the site received ~1,550 new users in February 2020.
Data Tracking

How did the broker portal perform?

A number of key metrics were tracked in order to gauge product success and reveal insights into user behavior. The team tracked metrics and usage using Heap Analytics.  After a month of being active, the site was receiving 213 page views daily.
An important indicator that the team was tracking was the sales funnel from viewing a page to submitting a request for information. The funnel proved the value of assets with ~11% of visitors downloading assets directly from the home page and ~33% of visitors downloading assets from the space details page.

Project Outcome

Knotel's Broker Portal launched in January 2020. The site had hit ~5,000 users by Q2 2020.

Business Outcomes

  • After a month of being active, the site was receiving 213 page views daily
  • The site drove an additional 14% in space rentals in Q1 2020
  • Launch the broker portal enabled Knotel to sunset the two original existing applications, Dashboard (for prospective customers) and Atlas (for internal account executives). This saved Knotel engineering resources from maintaining these applications.

Customer Outcomes

  • Brokers were given the ability download assets on their own instead of going through a middleman. 39% of users on the site downloaded assets in some way.
  • Providing visibility into Knotel's pipeline and off-market spaces gives certain brokers exclusive access
  • Having a public-facing listings site meant brokers could easily share listings with prospective customers
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