Product, Service Design & Innovation Leader
Service Design
The Challenge
I completed this project during my time at Isobar, an experience-led digital transformation agency, where I was an Associate Director Strategic Design and worked with a Senior Experience Designer from Isobar and the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety of Western Australia (DMIRS).
Our aim was to develop a new strategic direction for residential tenancies with a focus on the end user's experience.
The original catalyst for this body of work was updating the processes for tenants and private landlords who are currently required to complete various government paper forms for residential tenancy and bonds administration.
In this project we went through a discovery phase that involved exploring and uncovering the needs and experiences of landlords, agents, government employees and tenants.
Throughout this phase we uncovered a lot more opportunities than originally expected, these have been documented in a future journey which sets out a vision for a future experience.
Role:
Associate Director Strategic Design
Company:
Isobar
Initiative:
Develop a new strategic direction for residential tenancies with a focus on the end user's experience
Therefore, the team (Isobar and DMIRS) have determined it is too early to produce wireframes for the future state which was originally the final deliverable for this project.
Together with DMIRS we have further interrogated the future journey and here have provided further rationale and documentation for the key concepts outlined in this proposed vision.
From this we suggest this new flow of tasks is tested with users and a plan and roadmap developed to bring it to life. You will find the details of the concepts and the project to date in this document and in the four supporting documents delivered with it.
Staying within the limits of budget and timeframes we involved a sampling of all relevant parties to arrive at solutions that involve all parties affected by the existing bonds administration process.
In doing so we are able to gain real personal insights into their problems with the existing systems and also co-design solutions that meet their needs and expectations.
Parties involved:
Current tenants who have moved home recently
Current private landlords who have had tenants move in recently
Real estate agents active in the rental property market
Staff from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety
Staff from the Department of Communities
Participants
Over the course of 4 months we held a series of activities to understand the current state of rental bonds in WA and to ideate on how this could be improved for the future.
Discovery - Current State
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Current State Workshop #1 - Tenants, Landlords & Real Estate Agents
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Current State Workshop #2 - Edge Cases / Complexities & Conflicts
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External Tenants Workshop (user research)
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External Landlords / Real Estate Workshop (User Research)
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Meeting with Department of Housing
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Meeting with DMIRS BA to understand back end processes
Mapping out the current process flow with staff and directly with customers
A snapshot of the iterative development of the current state blueprint with input from multiple stakeholders and customers
Ideation and prototyping during the co-design workshop with customers and gov staff
The two final current state blueprints one for Tenants with Private Landlords and one for Tenants dealing with Agents.
Define - Future State
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Future State Workshop #1 - Vision, Personas & Expectation mapping
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Future State Workshop #2 - Future State Journeys
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Co-design Workshop with DMIRS, Department of Housing, Tenants, Landlords and Agents (User Research)
Program of Work
A major deliverable from the first stage of this project was a blueprint of the current state customer journey.
By completing this exercise we were able to document all the various processes, systems and policies used by all the actors including tenants, landlords, agents and various government employees to perform and manage the bond and legal agreements.
The journey was first mapped together with government staff and later validated through customer research workshops with tenants, agents, landlords and other government subject matter experts.
Through this process we also uncovered many of the pain points the various actors experience throughout their journey. We mapped these along the bottom of this map to clearly show the opportunity areas.
Current State Blueprint
Research Findings
Research findings were consolidated into the Current State Research Findings Document. Insights where mapped from input from landlords, agents, tenants and government employees.
Insights included pain points in the current journey, attitudes of various groups, verbatim quotes and the motivations and goals of each group (including their jobs to be done).
By triangulating these insights we arrived at the following high level findings:
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Landlords, agents and tenants have a fragmented view of government
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There is an unmet need to allow for digital submissions throughout the process
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There is an opportunity to make all parties more accountable by providing equal access to the all
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A focus and improve the Property Condition Reports
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In addition to this a general distrust was discovered amongst parties, i.e. Landlords not trusting tenants to look after their property, or Tenants believing the system was not designed with their interests in mind.
Future Tenants Personas
To guide with creating human centred solutions we co-designed three future tenants personas.
These were created by combining insights from the research phase along with strategy sessions to understand who the future tenants in Western Australia could be.
A persona is a profile of a fictional person who might use a product or service.
Often visualised as a one page profile it allows teams and organisations a shared understanding of the customer so that solutions can be built with empathy and understanding for their unique needs.
For this exercise we focused on tenants as they are a common element amongst all rentals. By creating three personas we were able to capture a broader range of tenant types.
These are:
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Tenants sharing with a group of adults
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Tenants caring for others (i.e. with children)
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Tenants renting long term
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These personas also feature special considerations for changes in a personas abilities such as vision loss.
Experience Vision
During a Future State workshop together with DMIRS, we developed the below experience vision statement.
The Experience vision is the first step in creating a unified strategy which enables us to be centred on what matters to customers.
This ensures that everyone is aligned on the direction for the Future State.
Future State Blueprint - Co-design & Iteration
Our proposed future experience was a vision for the future of residential bonds in Western Australia.
This was a result of consultation with the public, a carefully chosen group of agents, landlords and tenants with recent experience.
Along with the government staff who run bonds administration and bond assistance loans. Through this process we identified the various tasks, opportunities and pain points in the current process.
“An equitable system for protecting the rights of all involved in renting in WA.
Through this system all parties play an active role in the rental contracts they engage in, this results in greater accountability, clearer responsibilities and cleaner dispute resolution.”
Together as a group of customers, government and designers we explored many ideas and solutions.
After the co-design session we continued to iterate and refine solutions that take the needs, opinions and behaviour of all stakeholders on board to arrive at a solution that leverages digital technology to create a usable and equitable system for all parties.
Current experiences, pain points, attitudes, quotes,
expectations, goals and tasks of customers.
Co-design and ideation with staff and customers
Iteration, feedback and refinement of the proposed flow
Sources of inspiration
Together we have shared and sourced inspiration from across the world and closer to home.
With this in mind we were able to propose solutions that can build upon existing technologies or draw inspiration from them.
There are too many to list on this page however some notable examples have been included.
One click checkout on amazon.com allows customers to purchase items in a single click by storing their payment and delivery details securely in their profile.
Citizens of British Columbia can now settle civil disputes out of court using an online portal called the Civil Resolution Tribunal.
Simplified onboarding for tenants with 1Form allows agents to onboard new tenants with a single online form that stores their details for various government forms.
The federal government's myGov platform could provide a unified login for Australian citizens, DigitalID by Australia post provide identity services in their Australia wide offices.
Amazon 1-click, Google translate, Microsoft inclusive design, Reddit's ell community
myGov verification, Digital ID by Australia Post, Ethereum smart contracts, Resolution Tribunal of BC Canada
Rental tech brands that are changing the way people see renting: 1Form, Rentberry, Airbnb, Domain, realestate.com.au
Future State Journey
The future state journey envisions how tenants and landlords/agents might interact in the future.
Solutions here are based on problems identified by landlords, agents, tenants and the government using the current solution.
Together with ideas from co-design sessions with these groups and Isobar's own experience designing services, the following journey details how all parties could use a central computer system to provide a more equitable experience for all.
The journey is broken up between the simple path along the top which should help most people navigate the system with ease.
Below this are a few pathways that are designed to resolve the conflicts which will inevitably arise along the way.
Bringing it to Life - Realising the Concept
Now that we have a vision and concept which is squarely aimed at the customer. We can look at bringing it to life.
To maintain momentum the next stage it to assess the impact across customers, organisational fit, industry and policy change.
This will further validate and iterate on the concepts here to provide a new and sustainable set of solutions for renting in Western Australia.
Together we have uncovered a potential for innovative and positive change in Western Australia’s rental market.
We will work with you to develop a roadmap that can be operationalised whilst maintaining the same customer centric minds.
