Skyrocket
Work
“How can we create an optimised digital presence for emerging real estate agencies?”
2020
I was a part of the team behind the digital product Skyrocket — an innovative website service for real estate agencies. Designed to address the needs of Australian real estate agencies, Skyrocket is a multifaceted platform built for speed and performance.
Defining the problem
Background
The emergence of start-up real estate agencies with limited budgets meant that bespoke digital solutions were not feasible for these markets. Our current services used our custom-built CMS and web development software that we maintained with our programmers.
To cater to this market segment we needed to develop a solution that fulfills the following:
i. adhere to limited budgets by clients
ii. support SEO and include marketing tools
iii. simple and effective design that captures customer attention
I worked with the business director, software engineers and user-tested the solution through multiple iterations with our clients to ensure the final product was a viable and competitive solution.
Process
Discover, define, design, deliver
As this project was a studio initiative, we were able to dedicate ample time to the strategy, research and analysis stages. We had no set date for delivery, however we wanted to deliver the solution as a MVP that we refine over multiple iterations.
Using knowledge gained from maintaining the platform Agent Box for previous clients, we were able to chart our ideal user and their end goals first. From there, we explored the most valued features by end users while gaining valuable feedback through user testing with established clients.
Visual identity iterations
User-centred design canvas
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Push Property is a small design agency specialising in digital product design for real estate agencies and property developers. The studio currently creates bespoke website solutions for clients tailored to this market segment. There is now a need to create a digital product for clients that are after a simple and effective website.
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— Emerging agents/agencies
— Small real estate agencies
— Individual agents
— Property developers
— Sub-brands for these agencies
Description text goes here
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— Constrained budget requirements.
— Require constant maintenance of their site.
— Lack marketing knowledge and tools.
— Often do not yet have brand awareness in users.
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— Develop websites quickly to boost brand presense.
— Work around limited budgets.
— Contain essential features of real estate websites; such as CRM sync, listings pages, and testimonials.
— Communicate the important aspects of an agency to their clients; such as inspections, auctions, and sales data.Item description
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— Offer service as a subscription to ensure site remains high-performing and constantly updated.
— Host solutions on our proven platforms, guaranteeing reliability and security.
— Develop suites of website templates that clients can design and personalise themselves.
— Embed marketing and analytics tools to assist audience-building.
Once we mapped out user needs, we were then able to pinpoint priorities for first launch.
User personas
B2B
We created key personas based on research of the existing customers to Push Property, and performed contextual inquiry with five existing customers who had expressed interest in a simple real estate website solution.
B2C
The insights gained from the workshop enabled us to form the key personas of the end-user. Charting how they expect to interact with a real estate website assisted in forming concise user needs. We also looked at previous data from website traffic and SEO reports from existing Push Property clients to chart the most common layouts, workflows, and processes completed by the average end user.
Delivery planning
Feature prioritisation
The challenge was determining a MVP that cornered a different market segment. We had to be careful not to cannibalise our existing real estate clients hosted on our more comprehensive platforms. We examined competitor offerings, such as Siteloft, Stepps, and Agent Point.
The team came together to workshop the core deliverables for Skyrocket. The service will be built and maintained internally as a ring-fenced product. This meant that hosting and marketing tools will be managed through us directly. As a result, we came to the conclusion that the service would be subscription-based. This ensured transparency with a constant price, and allowed us to support and optimise the platforms simultaneously.
Service design blueprint
As we were designing a B2B product, it was important to consider the relationships between different stakeholders in the customer journey. It was important that we understand the needs of all users involved with our product.
I have deliberately omitted steps in this section that contain important information that identifies specific details about the business product.
Solution and outcomes
Solution and outcomes
Features
The solution we developed has four core key features
i. Essential features — covering the essential features and information architecture that a real estate agency requires.
ii. Marketing tools — built-in tools to help build audiences and reach more customers in local markets.
iii. Design and customisation — flexibility to personalise layouts, fonts, colours and behaviour to match agency brand identities.
iv. Security and reliability — embedded security and privacy tools, as well as constant updates to improve performance and reliability.
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![Purpose-built templates]()
Purpose-built templates.
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![Developer-supported CMS.]()
Developer-supported CMS.
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![Configurable SEO and meta tags.]()
Configurable SEO and meta tags.
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![Visual design system integration.]()
Visual design system integration.
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![In-house configurable map tools.]()
In-house configurable map tools.
Results
Results
Achievements
The product was well-received when presented to new enquiries into Push Property with user needs that met the requirements of Skyrocket. The business continues to apply a user-centric strategy when pushing out updates and patches, as client feedback is reguarly encouraged.
This initiative has also allowed the business to review its process for clients with more comprehensive needs in their real estate websites, to identify existing pain points and growth opportunities (such as optimising the support and care experience for customers). Positive outcomes could be seen in the increasing sign-ups to the Skyrocket service.
product design; service design; ux; ui; adobe xd; ux writing