Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA): Agile Research Driving Speed to Market for High Revenue Training Products
Timeline: 6 weeks
My Role: Leading UX research and design
Team Members: Tobie Piloy (Project Manager), Jeff Woodward (Video Producer), Vivian Leung (Front-end Developer), Nikola Mileusnic (Graphic Designer)
My research and design strategy helped AREA to achieve speed to market and ROI on their new training platform and learning products which provide a strong source of revenue by providing clear value to their members.
AREA engaged my team to create an overhauled training platform and product offerings that would meet new industry competency requirements to help prepare future real estate professionals for required exams. As regulations changed, AREA wanted to fill a new gap in the market. Therefore, speed to market for their learning products was key for commercial success.
Challenges
- Tight timeline of <4 months, achieving speed to market to get ahead of upcoming training offerings from competitors
- Meeting updated industry competency requirements
- Clearly communicating the value of AREA’s training over options from competitors
- Making static learning content and legal contracts easier to digest and reference later, for both aspiring and existing realtors.
- Reducing onboarding friction
- Maximizing user retention
Process & Methods
- Stakeholder interviews to leverage AREA’s 75+ years of local industry experience
- Reimagined static content to create an interactive video-based experience to build an understanding of real estate contracts
- Rapid prototyping in Figma to iteratively create an intuitive experience within the timeline
- User feedback loop throughout design process through think-aloud testing to optimize usability, reduce friction
- Close collaboration with graphic design, video production, and development team members to ensure alignment with AREA’s business and technical requirements
Results
- Successfully launched AREA’s new member experience
- Allowed AREA to achieve speed to market, filling the market gap before competitors
- Strong ROI on the training platform and learning products
- AREA has become the most popular choice for real estate pre-licensing education in Alberta today
- More than twice as many licensing exam takers prepared by using the platform my team created compared to the second most popular provider
