Online Home Buying Case Study
Ownly
Overview
I worked for two years as a Product Designer in Ownly, an e-commerce platform that disrupted the way new homes are purchased and sold online. Buyer's journey includes digitally discovering, personalizing, and reserving homes. The platform also allow builders to improve conversion and sales productivity.
My user experience work spanned three main projects: ReserveNow (an online reservation system), Verified (trust and buyer qualification), and Build & Price (interactive home building tool).
Role
Problem
The legacy path for buying a home is manual, time-bound, and lack of transparency. Buyers follow traditional sales centers, get delayed pricing, and have to repeat conversations. Home builders face manual quoting, poor lead quality, and after-hours opportunity loss.
I worked for two years as a Product Designer in Ownly, an e-commerce platform that disrupted the way new homes are purchased and sold online. Buyer's journey includes digitally discovering, personalizing, and reserving homes. The platform also allow builders to improve conversion and sales productivity.
My user experience work spanned three main projects: ReserveNow (an online reservation system), Verified (trust and buyer qualification), and Build & Price (interactive home building tool).
Role
- Led research, UX strategy, and end-to-end design for buyer and builder workflows
- Partnered with product, engineering, compliance, and builder clients
- Delivered flows, prototypes, testing, and implementation support
Problem
The legacy path for buying a home is manual, time-bound, and lack of transparency. Buyers follow traditional sales centers, get delayed pricing, and have to repeat conversations. Home builders face manual quoting, poor lead quality, and after-hours opportunity loss.
The opportunity was to create a self-serve digital journey that increased buyer confidence while improving builder conversion and operational efficiency.
Key Initiavites
Reserve Now - Online Home Reservation
Allows buyers to hold homes online with a deposit, not restricted by time of day.
Impact
- Captured reservations outside business hours
- Increased engagement and buyer conversion intent
- Supported builder-specific workflows through configurable deposits
ReserveNow created a new always-on sales channel for builders.
Ownly Verified - Buyer qualification
Created a digital identity and financial verification flow that pre-qualifies buyers and builds mutual trust.
Impact
- Increased qualified lead quality for builders
- Improved buyer confidence in purchase readiness
- Differentiated Ownly through integrated digital pre-qualification
Early testing showed 75% struggled to find entry > redesigned onboarding placement. Verified shifted conversations from qualification to confirmation.
Build & Price - Interactive Home Configuration
Enabled buyers to customize homes and see real-time pricing, replacing manual spreadsheet quoting.
Impact
- Less delays in quoting and sales negotiations
- Heightened purchase intention and buyer confidence
- Generated behavioral data for sales follow-ups
- Higher conversion among configurators users
Build & Price evolved into primary differentiator and sales enablement use case.
Design Process
Across all initiatives I followed a consistent model:
- Research & Discovery: Interviews, sales shadowing, support data, journey mapping
- Concept & Strategy: Multi-solution exploration with CTO + engineering
- Prototyping & Testing: High-fidelity flows tested with target users
- Iteration & Delivery: Continuous refinement through agile development
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Alignment with engineering, compliance, marketing, and customer success
This ensured solutions balanced user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility.
Results
Buyer Experience
Builder Outcomes
Platform Growth
These features helped shift Ownly from a lead-generation tool to a true transaction platform.
Buyer Experience
- Faster, more transparent digital purchase journey
- Increased confidence in pricing and qualification
Builder Outcomes
- Higher lead quality and conversion efficiency
- Reduced manual quoting and repetitive qualification conversations
- Stronger marketing-to-sales funnel continuity
Platform Growth
- Increased engagement (account creation, saved homes, configuration usage)
- Expansion across major builder partners
These features helped shift Ownly from a lead-generation tool to a true transaction platform.
Reflection
This work reinforced designing for trust, flexibility, and high-stakes digital transactions.
I strengthened my ability to balance user empathy, technical constraints, and business outcomes while leading complex, cross-functional product initiatives. The experience shaped my approach to building scalable, user-driven platforms in complex industries.
01 CPQ Case Study
Proposify
02 Reimagining an Editor Case Study
Proposify
03 Online Home Buying Case Study
Ownly
04 Throughout My Role
Bolster (formerly CostCertified)
Calgary, Alberta
Canada