Homeward

Design thinking and human-centered strategy uncover a disruptive innovation in home lending

Review Summary

Real Estate
Design Strategy
Web portal
10+ employees
USA

We delivered a Design Sprint that uncovered a significant strategic opportunity within the crowded home buying market and supported Homeward in securing $25M in funding with brand strategy and design.

Summary

The Problem

Identifying Blue Ocean opportunities in a highly competitive space

Communicating Homeward’s complex solution to prospective customers in a concise and effective manner

Defining a visual brand to stand out among well-known competitors

Funding the business model and obtaining financial backers

How We Helped

STRATEGY

Uncovered the best competitive opportunity by analyzing the existing landscape and the present day customer journey

Conduct user research on how customers perceive brand

Iterate on copy repeatedly to refine messaging to reflect brand identity

Go through complete brand redesign

BRANDING & WEB DESIGN

Create brand graphics, inclusive of colors, fonts and icon marks

Produced brand identity and supporting visual design assets, including a new website to effectively communicate Homeward’s value proposition

Design and build marketing website from the ground up

Provide tools, via the website, for customers during a home transition

The Outcomes

Homeward secured $25M in funding

User research informed the creation of a homebuyer customer journey and highlighted friction points for innovation

We utilized Jobs to be Done and the Strategy Canvas to design a Blue Ocean strategy that lead to a differentiated mortgage product in an otherwise crowded space

Created cohesive brand, including logo, visuals, and messaging

Provided platform to help needy homeowners achieve their next real estate dream

Helped the owner realize his vision for a better way of helping people transition from their current home to dream home via brand, website, and other supporting materials

The Problem

Homeward is a digital solution for people transitioning from the house they own to the house they will buy. The company eliminates the pain point of trying to sell a current home and buy the next one without being homeless in between. Homeward works by purchasing (“holding”) someone’s new house for them while they’re in the selling phase, then selling it to them once they’re ready to move in. This allows homebuyers to manage the process painlessly.

While Homeward knew who they wanted to be, they struggled to explain their identity and offerings in a way that consumers could easily understand. They also needed to stand out from the competition in their saturated marketplace, using color and style and details.

Homeward came to us looking for help with branding and marketing. They needed a complete visual brand including logo, fonts, voice and a style guide. Once the brand was established, they needed help with a new marketing website design, as well as supporting sales collateral including business cards and yard sign designs, and an investor pitch deck.

How we Helped

Digital Business Strategy

Homeward was looking to undergo a brand overhaul and a complete redesign of their identity. They knew who they wanted to be, but were struggling with the best way to communicate their complex offering and unique value propositions to prospective clients. They needed people to understand what they did and how they could help make the home transition process easier, but didn’t know how.

To begin to get in the heads of customers and learn what messaging and branding would resonate best, we went through an intensive business strategy process including the following:

Created a customer journey map through an exercise

Conducted a competitor analysis

Created a Blue Ocean strategy canvas

Developed mood boards

Conducted user research to understand pain points related to the home-transition process

The processes above revealed insights that guided brand positioning, copy, and design choices. From here, we presented the following deliverables:

Conducted a competitor analysis

Created a Blue Ocean strategy canvas

Developed mood boards

The processes above revealed insights that guided brand positioning, copy, and design choices. From here, we presented the following deliverables:

Positioning statements and language

Messaging deck

On-brand website copy

Fresh design for a public facing marketing website

Branding & Website Design

Once the new brand was established and the logo created, we worked on developing a website for Homeward. As the brand didn’t have an existing site, we built everything from the ground up. To aid in development of the site we presented the following deliverables:

Wireframes

Logo, fonts, branding / style guide, voice descriptions

Click Model (prototype)

Messaging deck

In addition to appealing to prospective customers, Homeward was also facing a challenge related to their business model. They needed investors to back them in order to support the “buying” phase of their process, and they were seeking funding. We supported this aspect of their business by creating a variety of sales enablement materials they could use in meetings with investors, where the new brand messaging was also effective. These included:

Business cards

Yard sign designs

Investor pitch deck

Results/ROI

People in the home-transition face a complex problem, to which Homeward offers a unique solution. Through a rebrand and website design, we enabled Homeward to communicate effectively with their audience and concisely explain what Homeward does and who they help. More importantly, we allowed them to do it within the first visit to their website. The rebrand helps communicate that Homeward is not another home-buying site, but instead offers something completely different. By providing supporting collateral such as a pitch deck and business cards, we additionally supported their leadership team in going forth to create successful sales and brand endeavors in the future. The impact of our partnership has already been felt; Homeward recently secured $25 million in initial funding, having used the new website and deck in the pitch process.