THE CHALLENGE

Only 9% of buyers contacted the bank or lender before diving into the home buying process (NAR, 2022). It’s common that a buyer starts looking at homes online, connects with a Realtor, and is referred by a Realtor to the lender they prefer.

As a digital lender, overcoming a personal referral can be a significant hurdle to winning new or returning business. We needed a product to attract people who want to buy a home, before they have money. So the question became, "Can we be the brand that helps them save faster?"

I dove into further research to begin to develop the projects north star and develop clarity around the problem to gain leadership buy-in.

THE APPROACH

As a team of three, I made significant contributions to both the app offering and pitch deck, effectively gaining support for the project. Having personally gone through the challenges of saving for a home, I recognized the difficulty many first-time home buyers face in accumulating enough money for a down payment and closing costs when transitioning from renting to owning.

I was stoked when the project got full support. This was a huge risk and opportunity for Lower being a new start up.

TRUST THE PROCESS

Before the project was approved, I began to ideate and iterate on a variety of ideas. My process is always informed by a user-centered approach defined by design thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement). In my experience, this type of approach has led to differentiation and competitive advantage.

My goal was to keep the primary actions of saving and our cash match feature in focus, while allowing the other features (goals, credit, and interest rates) to be easily accessible. Each design also heavily relied on gesture based, dynamic content, and quick-actions to allow users to flow through the app.

"The future of mortgages"

The app simplifies saving for a home by delivering a frictionless experience, including gesture-based actions, rewards for adding deposits, dynamic content, and smart savings goals, to make the process of buying a home easier.

LAUNCH 🚀

The app launched with a campaign focused on the core benefit of the app that resonated with consumers, "You save. We match."

The campaign focused on advertising on social channels, Youtube, and the Google ads platform. I was the lead on this initiative and provided creative and strategic direction.

THE RESULTS

Raving reviews. Awards. Press. The app not only helped people saved for a home faster, but it created an experience that people loved. This led to stronger referrals and customers who preferred us as a lender.

I was thrilled with the response from users and look forward to continuing to iterate on this product.