Product Design

How might we

create a mvp for a real estate financing platform that addresses core user needs, ensures data security, and provides control over the financing process, while minimizing blind spots?

My Role(s)

The Mission

The challenge was to develop an MVP for a real estate financing platform that helps consumers better understand their financing options, ensures data security, and provides more control over the process. The goal was to deliver core features with a streamlined design, while aligning team roles and minimizing blind spots during the product development process.

Identifying the main pain points to solve

Through research and interviews, we identified the primary use case to focus on: handling of documents in the finance process. This insight led us to prioritize the development of a feature that allowed users to easily send and manage documents with their consultants, addressing a key pain point and ensuring a financing experience with ease.

The product development process

Hypothesis- and data-driven

We created a 2-week-sprint rythmic product development process to align our roles, accountabilities, and deliverables.

Specifying the product design process

In my role as the Product Designer and together with my team, I defined the product design process that covers parts of the exploration, concept & validation and the build phase.  In this way, we minimized blind spots or accountability gaps.

Release of the first version

The core feature was the highest identified desirability
of sending documents to the consultant.

Silent launch

Developing a MVP-version of the product for a 4-month silent launch phase.

After the core functionality of the service was identified we developed a minimally viable version of the product. Before starting a silent launch phase, in which we rolled out the product on selected pilot partners, the overall design language and concept was created.

Say hello to Finn!

At the end of the silent launch- / beta-phase, the first version of Finn was released.

The data and feedback from this phase helped us to improve existing features and develop new ones.

Launch video created by me in my role as lead designer for the brand finn

The moment of truth.

Several user interviews, hours of reviewing hot jar recordings and days of general data analysis later we identified further pain points of the launched version and went into a phase of improvements.

Optimizing the registration funnel for a better conversion

We were aware that the first registration process wasn't optimal. And our hypothesis was proved now. So we improved our email notifications as well as the password-creation process.

Also we added a short onboarding to explain new users the core functionality and benefits of using Finn in their communiation with their consultant.

The outcome:
9.5% improvement
in conversion rate.

Further improvements have been made.

From minor wording adjustments to navigation aids, implementing a checklist for the overall procress, recreating the document upload as a checklist as well as technical improvements, such as changing synchronous to asynchronous data transmission with corresponding design adjustments.

The outcome:
Consumer satisfaction increased
from 4.3/5 to 4.5/5.

Component Library for faster implementation and conception

For a better understanding and maintainability of the overall design, a component library was created with the material ui react framework as a base. This living library is giving the team the ability to get faster results.

Time for new challenges

After successfully validating the MVP for the real estate financing platform, I handed over the design role to another product designer within the company. I ensured a smooth transition by onboarding the new designer and providing guidance for their responsibilities. Following this, I shifted focus to horizontal topics, including overseeing the design system and supporting cross-functional design initiatives.

Let's talk about it.

If you have any feedback, questions, or any type of input: don't hesitate to get in contact with me.

Imprint  —  Data Security