Belong
Industry
Rental Marketplace
/
Consumer Web
/
OVerview & GOALS
This release was part of a broader initiative to decrease vacancy rates on the home rental marketplace so that the company can grow faster and lock down a successful Series B fundraise.
I started with this renter-focused aspect of the marketplace focusing on decreasing the friction points from the time a renter group is approved for an apartment to the time when a lease is fully signed. This reduced the average vacancy time of a home by several days and saved the growth team 2+ hours per approved renter group.
Team & Timeline
My Role: Lead product manager and designer from ideation through release.
Other Team Member: 5 Full Stack Engineers, close collaboration with growth team.
Project Duration: 3 weeks from initial problem definition through design handoff, 2 weeks to develop.
/
View Live Example
No items found.
I. Problem Discovery & Definition
Lease signing pain points before the new flows:
- After a renter group is approved to sign the lease from the growth team, they take a long time to decide.
- Renters often call their growth representatives when they don't know what certain lease terms mean.
- When multiple roommates need to sign, they often don't know who has and hasn't signed.
No items found.
User Quotes
“What does 'indemnify' mean?”
— Stella, applying for a family of 4
Three days after receiving lease. “Did everyone sign?”
— Mo, college student applying with 3 housemates
/
II. Solution Ideation & Validation
Iteration
For solutioning, I first wireframed out ideas that addressed the top 3 painpoints mentioned above.
- Generate a sense of urgency, excitement, and delight for signing a lease.
- Give renters visibility into who still hasn't signed the lease.
- Automate frequently asked questions about lease terms to free up the growth team's time to close more homes.
No items found.
/
Iteration
As I moved to high fidelity, I came up with the countdown timer idea while ideating with marketing. The idea of creating a cinematic backdrop of the actual home the renter is signing a lease for came from ideating with the CEO. It was a lot of fun to get ideas from different parts of the company and bring it to life.
No items found.
III. Impact & What's Next
This release reduced average vacancy time by >15% and increased renter satisfaction for the application process by 30%. I spoke to renters throughout the development process through post-release, and they generally found it easy and straightforward.
As follow-ups to this release, I also led two more initiatives to automate credit report analysis to pre-approve renters. Collectively, average vacancy time went down 40% and the company successfully raised a $40M Series B. The renter flows are used every month in dozens of cities nationwide today.
Victoria transformed renter pain-points into delightful, empowering experiences, while also defining the logic for the estimated processing times and automated custom credit scoring that were powering the new flows. She rallied the full team to keep the quality high throughout this challenging release. We were proud of what we accomplished as a team, and we're happy to see that it significantly improved the rental process for our users.
- Murugesh Annadurai, Director of Engineering, Belong
