This project had two phases...
Phase one: Aimed to resolve inefficiencies in one of Entera’s core workflows, affecting both client and internal user success
My roles in phase one: Quickly understanding technical requirements and limitations. Translating well scoped requirements into low and high fidelity mockups.
Phase two: Created new platform tools to optimize workflows and improve the experience for multiple user types
My roles in phase two: User research and exploration for partially scoped requirements. Multiple iterations of high fidelity mockups and gathering user feedback.
Click here if you want to view phase two now
Phase One: The Problem
The aim of phase one was to resolve inefficiencies in one of Entera’s core workflows - underwriting a single family home.
The Existing Workflow
Entera has an internal team of property analysts who use Entera’s platform to underwrite single family homes for sale on the behalf of Entera’s clients. One - two internal analysts are assigned to each of Entera’s clients. Because Entera is a marketplace for single family homes, it is very common for one specific home to exist within multiple client accounts. Before I started on this project, all analysts would work off a list of homes ready for underwriting within their own client accounts. This led to a workflow that looked like this...
None of these activities were being tracked in a centralized way, so analyst workflows were siloed to their own client accounts, even though they were underwriting the exact same homes in more or less the same way.
This created large inefficiencies as analysts were doubling up on work every single day. Entera’s clients had large budgets and increasing targets for the number of underwritten homes they wanted to review in a given week. Due to the suboptimal underwriting workflow, internal analysts were frequently missing these targets, limiting their clients ability to review and make offers on homes in a timely manner. This was causing clients to loose homes to competitors, ultimately leading to fewer client transactions on Entera’s platform overall.
The Solution and My Role
In order to increase the volume of homes being underwritten, Entera needed a way for analysts to share a single underwrite for a specific home between multiple client accounts.
This was a backend heavy initiative with well scoped options, so my role for this phase was to thoroughly understand the technical requirements and limitations in order to quickly develop wireframes to spec, sometimes on the fly. I attended regular meetings with the project PM, the backend engineering team, and a couple of internal analysts to receive timely feedback on my wires and keep forward momentum.
The New Workflow
After many technical discussions, the new flow looked like this (much more efficient than the existing flow, as you can see!)
Initial Sketch Iterations
Examples of wires I drew on the fly during my meetings with the project PM, the backend engineering team, and a couple of internal analysts. Since this project had many technical components, it was important to crystalize ideas and requirements in real time to avoid miscommunications - sharing these visuals with the team really helped with this.
Turning the new flow into the new reality...
My high fidelity wireframes solved for two primary requirements:
1. Underwrite Sharing
Upon the completion of an underwrite for a specific home, the analyst should be able to share the underwrite to that same home within each of the client accounts. This action could be done from a specific client account, or from a centralized internal account. We would need a button and a modal for sharing.
2. Activity Tracking
A single data table in the centralized internal account that could track underwriting activity on all homes existing on the platform. The data table already existed, but additional columns were required for analysts to see:
- Homes with an underwrite that was shared to multiple client accounts
- Homes with an underwrite in currently progress (but not yet shared)
- Name of the internal analyst who completed/was currently completing the underwrite
The result for internal analysts was a shared workflow, an easy way to prioritize and track work, and efficiency gains! Improving the internal analyst experience had flow on effects, ultimately improving the client experience. Internal analysts were able to quickly increase the volume of underwritten homes being viewed by clients, thereby increasing their clients chances of taking action on a home before competitors did.
Single Family Real Estate Investment Platform For Investors
Entera is a 3-sided marketplace focused on connecting Enterprise and Mid-Market investors, sellers and services providers in the single-family residential market. Powered by modern data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Entera’s marketplace offers the most seamless solution for investors to access, evaluate, transact and operate their single-family real estate investments.
As a UX/UI designer at Entera, I worked closely with the director of engineering, design teammates, product managers, and senior developers on projects to increase users’ speed and effectiveness in discovering and analyzing residential real estate for purchase at scale.