rbc amplify
empowering homeowners for their next renovation
While interning at RBC Amplify, I partnered with Smart Reno, an RBC Venture, to tackle a business issue in the home renovation industry. Serving as the business analyst and designer on the project, I spearheaded the development stages from concept to implementation, established the product roadmap, and crafted the wireframes, prototype, and branding for the completed solution. Due to an NDA, I am unable to present the finalized prototype, but feel free to scroll down to learn more about the strategy, design methodology, and concluding solution visuals!
TEAM
Sabrina Wen
Aman Jina
Madhura Gaikwad
Matthew Huynh
MY ROLE
User Research
UX/UI Design
Product Strategy
Branding
TOOLS
Figma
Material UI
TIMELINE
May 2022 — August 2022
01 | THE CHALLENGE
How might we improve transparency in the renovation process by helping homeowners prepare for their first renovation?
02 | SOLUTION
Renoplan: a web-app platform that empowers homeowners to plan for their next renovation project
journey down to discover the process ▾
03 | RESEARCH
renovations can be exciting, but very stressful
Renovations represent new beginnings and fresh starts, but the process can often be a headache. Through conducting 10 user interviews of current homeowners who have experienced a renovation, and receiving 18 detailed survey responses from RBC employees, we discovered underlying root causes and major pain points that homeowners faced when doing a home renovation.
01
Lack of transparency
02
Unable to clearly communicate vision
03
Knowledge gap between contractors and homeowners
Brainstorm notes on solution scope and competition.
04 | SCOPING
helping homeowners to plan
The full renovation customer journey includes multiple stages each with its own pain points. After assessing the user journey, we decided to focus on the planning stage.
Choosing the planning stage
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Users experienced high stress levels and felt overwhelmed when they plan and prepare for a renovation. We prioritized addressing pain points earlier in the user journey so that future problems such as cost/scope creep or lack of transparency can be mitigated.
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From a business perspective, the planning stage creates a user acquisition funnel for Smart Reno and financing options at RBC.
solving for homeowners doing renovations for the first time
Homeowners like Hammy
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Individuals doing renovations for the first time are the most vulnerable and have the fear of being taken advantage of from costs and scope of the project.
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Large renovation projects require greater financial investment. Millennials who are working or early in their careers may be more sensitive to the cost and would require more financial and planning assistance.
05 | SOLUTION DETAILS
value proposition
01
Improve transparency in the renovation process
02
Prepare homeowners for their first conversation with a contractor
03
Give homeowners the confidence to be more informed decision makers
initial sketches
Sketches for the home dashboard, questionnaire flow, and layout for various screens.
06 | FEATURES
empowering homeowners to prepare, learn and dream
PREPARE. Using the renovation project data gathered from a questionnaire, machine data algorithms can provide the user cost and time estimations on their product such as chance of additional costs and estimated time of delay.
LEARN. We aim to educate the user on tasks they need to consider like getting a permit, and aspects that might incur additional costs like asbestos remediation. Users can select tasks that are relevant and might want to bring up with their contractor
DREAM. For users to effectively communicate with their contractor, they need to be able to show their vision through images, blueprints and other visuals. This section is dedicated for them to upload related files.
REVIEW. Lastly, the user can review all the information and save a PDF copy that can be sent to the contractor.
07 | THE FINALE
ampexpo showcase
At the end of the summer, we pitched our solution in front of RBC senior executives. During the booth walk, we got to showcase our prototypes and development to RBC employees.
We handed off our product requirements document to the Smart Reno team for future deployment.
08 | KEY LEARNINGS
make timely decisions
Due to the nature of the program, it was crucial that we made decisions early so that there was enough time to design and develop the MVP. Fail fast, iterate fast. We had A LOT of features and directions for the first iteration, but had to strongly consider feasibility for execution and viability for the users. As a result, we made a product roadmap for current and future state to keep track of the different tasks and keep our long-term vision on the radar.
simplify complex interactions
Let’s say you were doing a bathroom renovation, would you have considered tasks and the cost of getting a permit or levelling of floors? Part of challenge was to relay detailed information to the user in a way that they would understand and can draw an implication. I learned to simplify my interface designs by using familiar layouts such as dashboard cards and Notion-like databases to organize tasks. I emphasized the CTAs and takeaways centralized around sensitive user pain points like additional costs and time delays. The feedback from user testing was positive, with many users saying that this would be helpful information when planning their next renovation.