Deal Management Platform
Overview
Objective
A top U.S. Real Estate Commercial firm was looking for a platform that could help them identify new deal opportunities, analyze complex data sets, identify trends and automate processes. With these capabilities, brokers, underwriters and team managers would be able to allocate more time on increasing their client network and manage deals appropriately rather than spending it in tedious, time-consuming processes.
Problem
Their platform at the time was built over 10 years ago and had not been upgraded significantly since then. New brokers and underwriters coming from different competing companies complained about the platform being outdated, slow, not helpful and inflexible. Given this situation, users started to record their deals offline, which caused the firm to have no visibility on the deals being handled somewhere other than the platform.
My involvement
I was involved in this project for 15 months. I was one of two UX architects in the project, working along with a UX designer, developers, project managers and product owners. I was part of several streams of the project, which allowed me to better understand the overarching vision of the client’s goal.
Users
Brokers
Brokers are always on the go (on the streets meeting with existing and potential clients, visiting sites…). They do most of their jobs on their phones. They work closely with underwriters to document a deal’s details and progress as the client executes decisions and provides information. Their job is time-sensitive, which makes them always want the right information right away.
Underwriters
Underwriters work at their desks. They are in charge of looking for loans that fall within the brokers’ client requirements. They make calls and send emails to banks, provide the loan details to the broker, who then presents them to the client. Once the client chooses a loan, the underwriter is in charge of getting all the required documentation from the client.
interview Findings
User Journey
Mind map
Sketches
Wireframes
Deal Profile
Lead Generation
Lead Assignment
mockups
Learnings
I learned incredibly about the real estate world through this project. I understood why different users behave in certain ways, the dynamics between brokers, clients and underwriters, and the importance of data quality for users. Users with the wrong data can cause them to lose a prospective client or a deal, which is the heart of the real estate broker business. I also learned how to work closely with developers, and to interact with key stakeholders on a daily basis. I got the chance to learn how to write user stories, acceptance criteria and help define requirements from a product perspective.