Homey

Contributions

As part of the founding team of three, I took on entire product ownership: from idea conception and user flows through research, process modernisation, product design, management, customer relations, recruiting, and frontend development. I also developed the go-to-market strategy for product and company.

• £550,000+ pre-seed funding raised
• £600,000+ ARR with initial customers

Stakeholder complexity

The conveyancing process involves an estate agent, a buyer, a seller, a solicitor on either side, mortgage brokers, lenders, and surveyors. Each of these have distinct circumstances, needs, motivations, incentives, and mindsets. I met with every single one, interviewed them, and studied what they do on their day-to-day.

Then we built a comprehensive insights database, mapped complete stakeholder journeys, and designed a platform whereby all of these distinct characteristics may complement one another and advance the process at a faster, more efficient pace.

Estate agent

Seller

Buyer

Seller's lawyer

Buyer's lawyer

And many more...

Understanding the process

From this customer research and deep legal research, I quickly built myself up to become a domain expert in the subject matter. We built up a database of insights to organise the flood of data points we were capturing. From this I was able to synthesise the various problems, to identify patterns, and to map out the entire journey that the stakeholders have to go through from start to end.

−20%+

Go-to-market

The market was flooded was many products, each claiming to solve a particular step of the conveyancing process — there was even a product that tried to link all of these fractured solutions together.

Based on my research, it was determined that the product (and by extension the startup) we were to build had to integrate all of these solutions into a single package: a compound startup. And, all of these stakeholders had to be present and active in this single solution — each transacting, communicating, collaborating with one another in a market network.

Entry point and design principles

A key strategic question was: what's the earliest point that we can enter the lives of our customers? The answer was the seller valuation request with an estate agent — the very first step in the journey.

The goal from here was to start at this point and then sequentially build each block, in future product releases. This initial step also aided our go-to-market, acting as a wedge into the industry, gaining us our first customers.

Panel Management System

The first major product, delivered in three months, automated seller and buyer onboarding, solicitor instruction, invoicing, and information collection.

Auction automation

After shipping the product above, we spent a month addressing bugs and feature requests. I often travelled to the customers' offices to spend the day with them, watching them use our product, more deeply and empathetically understanding their experience, problems, and needs.

We reduced the conveyancing timeline from 4+ months to approximately one month by minimising friction and duplication — auto-collecting documentation from partners and authorities, and implementing decision-tree questionnaires throughout the process.

−20%+

Design system

I'm a big believer in starting off organised, with a design system organically coming to life as I design solutions and as the brand develops. At this point, it shouldn't be so rigid and mature. Although some components will be standard, the design system should allow for new components to be created and reimagined if needed.