Green home improvements are a hassle. Users need to browse financing options, local contractors, ideas for their project, calculate prices, and deal with the emotions this complex process brings.
We wanted to help them perform all of these tasks in one place, or at least minimize the complexity of the process by reducing their time spent on these tasks by over 30%. We also wanted to boost the customers' interest in taking out a loan from our institution or using one of our financing options.
Find a way to engage users during the eco-friendly home improvement planning process in a way that everything they need is in one page: cost estimator, contractor search, incentives and rebates, and renovation ideas. Everything detailed in this case study pertains to the early stages and initial research of this feature.
For this project, we used the Design Thinking method. We were asked to only focus on the first four steps: empathize, define, ideate, and prototype. This is because the organization wants to prioritize ideas and shaping them up first before carrying out comprehensive testing.
There are different ways to help customers with loan applications to create an eco-friendly home, but first, we thought about what our product would look like two years from now.
Carrying out home renovations is more than just choosing how you want your house to look like. There are many steps involved from choosing a financing method to hiring the best contractor to perform the renovations.
To empathize with users that go through these complex tasks, we performed desk research followed by user interviews and consulting with Subject Matter Experts within the company.
There is certainly a market available for a green home improvements platform that makes the process easier and several problems that we could solve. However, we needed to know more about these problems and challenge our assumptions.
My team and I looked into the many things involved in the home renovations process, which left us wondering what aspects are the most challenging for customers.
I created an assumption map to visualize my team and I's guesses regarding customer behavior.
Based on our desk research, I categorized the assumptions by known and unknown. The known assumptions are the ones that had enough evidence, whereas the unknown ones must be investigated further.
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I coordinated user interviews to challenge assumptions and get more information regarding pain points by talking to users.
My team and I asked questions pertaining to how they pay for home renovations, their interest in eco-friendly materials, and their experience during the green home renovations process.
For the contractor, we asked these questions:
For the homeowners, we asked these questions:
We didn't stick to this script, and we asked more questions based on the interviewees' answers.
The interviewee is an engineer in his early thirties with a Master's Degree in Engineering. He has been in the construction field for two years, and has done ten remodeling projects. Some of his projects include kitchen and bathroom renovations.
Here are important notes from the contractor's interview:
My teammate interviewed a homeowner in her early 50s who lives Canada. She has renovated her home in the past, specifically for energy efficiency because she prioritizes saving money. Here's some of the interview insights:
Here are important notes from the contractor's interview:
I interviewed a homeowner in her mid 60s who lives in Puerto Rico. She owns three properties and has carried out a fair amount of green home renovations.
Here are the insights:
I interviewed a homeowner in her late 40s who lives in the south coast of United States. She owns a home and installed solar panels in the past.
Here are the insights:
By leaning on our Subject Matter Expert's knowledge, we found out that lots of financial institutions have their own green home renovations financing and planning programs.
The SME also described how customers typically use Home Equity Loans for their green home renovations, and that a portion of them need to be educated about financing options for these projects.
"Every customer's situation is different, so there will be a need to choose the best loan or financing option that fits their needs. A common mistake that homeowners make is not shopping around for the right loan and lacking the knowledge needed to determine if, for example, they can benefit more from a home equity line of credit."
I made this empathy map that summarizes all of the research we have done so far and visualize the pain points better.
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There's an opportunity here to help users streamline the green home improvements process. Now that we understand their attitudes and feelings, we identified the following pain points:
Based on the pain points identified, here are our key questions:
Planning green home renovations is challenging for homeowners because cost calculation, financing, and hiring a contractor is overwhelming.
How might we help homeowners estimate project costs, choose a financing option, and find a contractor in order to make the process easier and less time-consuming?
Based on our user research, insights, and analysis of pain points we found, we created user personas. I was in charge of creating the Sarah user persona.
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To brainstorm ideas, we used lightning demos and the Crazy 8s exercise. Lightning demos involve looking at any website that solves a similar problem described in the problem statement.
The purpose of it is to find inspiration and see how other companies handle similar issues. The one that stood out the most was Home Depot's remodeling platform, which offers cost estimation, renovation ideas, and content to educate users.
We wanted to do something similar to that with our future solution called Green Home Hero.
Before brainstorming ideas, I created this user journey map to visualize the steps in the renovations process.
Here are the ideas I generated. I imagined a solution that would show a list of loans and financing options with additional information about each option. Also, I imagined a cost calculator that clearly states how much you can save in addition to any federal incentives or rebates available based on their location.
I included my idea of providing a list of approved contractors as well as an extra feature that gives users green home renovation ideas so they can educate themselves about the topic.
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I identified two financial institutions that offer green home solutions. My intention was to see what other financial institutions are doing so that we can find a competitive advantage and offer something our users need that they don't offer.
Pros:
Cons:
Pros:
Cons:
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After analyzing everything so far, we decided on the following solutions:
We created a storyboard to present it to stakeholders and to also have a clear picture of how our solution would solve the users' problems.
Our storyboard depicts a woman who wants to lower her electricity bills using solar panels, but doesn't quite know where to start nor how to finance them. After doing some research on solar panel installers and their prices, she realized a loan is a great option given the high cost of solar panels.
I created a low fidelity prototype using my team's feedback. This is the solution's main page. The intention is to showcases the value of what we offer as well as attract our customers' attention by telling them how we are able to save them time.
The page will automatically detect the user's city and state to provide them accurate numbers regarding project costs because according to our research, prices may vary according to location.
They will see the average cost based on their location when they select an option from the Renovation Project dropdown menu. The options will be energy efficiency renovations because our research indicated that users are more interested in saving money in electricity bills.
I also wanted to demonstrate how our organization is committed to going green by showing the users eco-friendly home ideas.
On this page, users are able to quickly access a list of approved contractors and compare financing options.
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If I was a user wanting an estimate on my solar panel project, our Green Home Hero solution would guide them. It will state how much they can save on their electricity bill using location data. It will provide financing options too.
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By having our organization select and vet contractors, our customers will feel like they are provided with trustworthy alternatives. We want to make sure our partners are legitimate so that users can feel less overwhelmed during the contractor shopping process.
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We will partner with several departments to test this solution and keep improving it based on the findings. Currently, we are collaborating with Subject Matter Experts and other designers to shape up this solution more.
This process taught me that testing out assumptions is important. I started this project with the assumption that there is not much interest in eco-friendly renovations because it's too expensive, so people decide to go for the traditional methods.
That wasn't the case. I ended up finding out through our primary and secondary research that people are interested in going green, especially when it comes to energy efficiency.
I learned the importance of iterating and helping team members make the most out of their diverse skills. Efficient collaboration ensures better results, and it motivates team members enough to contribute with their unique skills.
