The Problem
Building out the internal portion of our application at Truss.co was a tedious task. The application had to handle functionality in a graceful way so our brokers would be able to manage their clients and properties across the country. It wasn't just entering data that would otherwise be housed in a spreadsheet somewhere by a broker, the app had to be smart and very user-friendly as some of the users were far from tech-enabled savants.
The details across different lease types varied in so many ways there would have to be conditional smart views that speak to only what is needed at each stage of the leasing process.
My Role
Resarch & interview brokers on our platform to help guide the UI in a direction that best accomplishes the goals of our users.
As the lead product designer it's my job to put together an outline of what screens we need created, wireframe, & design the final product while writing documentation for our development team to ensure a smooth handoff of this feature.
Research
After interviewing 4 lead brokers in major cities across the US from Boston, Chicago, DC, & Los Angeles I was able to start putting together the requirements and functionality needed to create something beautiful within this space.
The Solution
The first item needed to be a dashboard for brokers to manage their pipeline of incoming leads. This would give better insight and tracking as to how valuable the leads were and where their attention should be focused on. Notifications to alert a broker when each client needed attention to helped to push the needle in great ways. A broker could essentially log in, find what clients were most likely to close with the highest budgets and focus their time as needed.
We allowed brokers to add favorites to their client's list of potential properties. This showed the users their broker was intently working to find them a great space which inspired confidence.
When it comes to commerical real estate, data providers and brokerages often gate their listing and pricing information. The fact of the matter is the consumer is far more familiar with the residential approach to listing information similar to Redfin or Zillow. Users want to be able to search for this information easily and will form a bond with your brand based on trust and reliable information. Brokers themselves need to have access to a current database with all the listings that are relevant in order to present the best options to their clients. Our operations team at Truss had a big task at hand of continually updating and collecting listing data. By creating a user frienldy way to search for this information I could enable a broker to access our data in a meaningful way.
