I joined Zillow in late 2019, to work on the new Zillow Offers team. Zillow Offers was Zillow’s iBuyer (buying and flipping homes) operation, and the primary way customers entered the funnel for getting a Zillow Offer on their home was through upsells. This funnel was very leaky, and many that entered it had already started making a plan to sell.

I synthesized a bunch of existing research, led a design sprint to generate new customer centric ideas for providing homeowners (“Harriet” in Zillow Persona Speak) value on the Zillow platform so that when it came time to move, they would consider selling to Zillow.

The Problem

Single Track Approach — The business wanted to get more Synchronous movers (buyers that are also selling to buy the next house, aka “Betty-Sue” in Zillow persona speak) to ask for Zillow Offers. Our existing customer acquisition strategy was to present ads to visitors on the For Sale Listings page. These ads increased cognitive load on a surface where the traffic was mainly buyers, many of whom did not have a home to sell.

Ineffective growth hacks — Research and metrics told us that upsells just didn’t work well. Only 6% of leads entered the funnel via these upsells; the number of users in a given month that are actually selling and buying another home amounts to 3 out of 1000, or 0.003%. 50% of those 3 had already started planning to list their home with an agent.

Only 3 out of 1000 people are selling and buying at the same time in a given month

Lack of customer value — Moving is an incredibly stressful, emotional and complex process. Zillow research confirmed as much, yet the existing approach ignored multiple touch points where we could provide our customers with value.

The Opportunity

Massive audience of pre-movers — Data tells us that over 40% of buyers are current home owners. That is a significant, yet ignored, portion of overall site traffic.

Untapped customer value — How might we provide those home owners with value before they make a plan?

Concepts

Output from an internal audit, competitive analysis exercise, and a remote design sprint workshop with cross-functional stakeholders. All of these concepts have either since been shipped or were in some stage of development when Zillow Offers was shuttered in late 2021.

Track home Value — Upsells that focus on customer value and lead to a new and information rich owner dashboard.

Go beyond the Zestimate — Offering a home evaluation and equity tracking to help home owners more deeply understand their current home’s value.

Affordability & Buying power — Search for homes that are within your “Affordability Range,” informed by your current equity.

For Sale Home listing modules personalized with Home Owner Affordability insights.

So much went into this project, drop me a line if you’d like to know more!