Opendoor Home Access
How I increased home access rates by 23% to sell homes faster.
Opendoor created an innovative home-buying experience by allowing people to self-tour homes on their own time without pressure from a real estate agent.
Customers have praised the ability to unlock homes and self-tour as one of the most delightful home buying experiences.
Project timeframe: 4 months
Role: Trust & Safety Designer
A major defect for self-tours is when customers are unable to get inside for a variety of reasons. I storyboarded the negative experience when customers can’t get in (and luckily it rhymes).
Identifying complexities and opportunities
I mapped the entire home access experience to identify opportunities, users, and responsible teams in each stage of the journey.
My product team went on the field to observe Home Project Managers setting up security devices and interview them about pain points.
We discovered through anecdotes and trying to install devices ourselves that improper set up of the front door smartlock and network hubs was a huge reason people were having trouble getting into homes.
Brainstorming ideas
I collaborated with my Engineering, Product, and Operations partners to brainstorm and align on a general strategy to increase security device set up quality to avoid door jams and devices going offline.
We focused design on our internal tablet app, since that's what operators were relying on in the field.
I mocked up a manual checklist to ensure Home Project Managers confirm what’s set up and that they’ve tested everything.
Weakness: Unreliable data, since Home Project managers can just check everything off to move along.
Next, I thought up a walkthrough experience where the system auto-detects and confirms what is set up and working.
Engineering pushback: System detection data would have to come from a third party vendor.
Conclusion: Achieved engineering alignment after some persuasion and research.
High-fidelity designs: The Home Setup Walkthrough
Final designs featured a home walkthrough test where the Home Project Manager must walk the house as a buyer might, checking the front door lock and all security device signals to make sure each device was working as expected.
The Home Project Manager starts at the front door and can check device vitals and confirm the keypad is in working order.
The Home Project Manager must walk the house as a buyer might, opening and closing windows and doors and walking through rooms to make sure all sensors catch activity.
User feedback and field trials
I conducted user tests with 5 Home Projects Managers to validate designs. Then we field tested the feature with a select group of users.
"Great long term benefits!"
— Senior Home Project Manager
“More upfront work eliminates smaller repair tasks in the future.”
— Junior Home Project Manager
“It’s good to raise setup standards across the board.”
— Operations Team Lead
Impact on the business
With higher quality device setup, device offline rates fell by 23%, allowing more customers to tour homes, leading to faster sales.
The auto-detection walkthrough increased setup thoroughness and raised quality expectations across the board.
Less home access issues led to less customer support calls and on-the-field repair visits, which saves the business money.
