TL;DR

Our goal was to develop a value proposition that could drive additional revenue for the company. I led the end-to-end design process to create a personalised experience that helps homeowners find the right estate agent through our platform, while enabling agents to receive more high-quality leads. Within 5 months, we validated the value of this new proposition with measurable results and successfully developed it into a commercial product.

The context

We aimed to develop a new value proposition to encourage users to contact agents through our platform, which we track as a "Valuation Lead," in order to support our North Star goal and drive company revenue growth. In this project, our team partnered with another team to explore the problem space and design the initial MVP.

The goal

To identify and validate our new value proposition and assess whether it improves the quality of Valuation Leads.

The impact

In January 2025, we launched the first MVP. Over the past 5 months, the Valuation Lead conversion rate has increased by 15% and the number of unique vendors has grown by 20%.

Importantly, lead quality has also improved—the instruction conversion rate within 90 days has risen from 15% to 35%, a 20% increase, which is a strong indicator of value.

We’re now focused on commercialising this experience for estate agents, positioning it as a new value proposition to drive additional company revenue.

My role

Led the design of the Find Agents experience.
The team consisted of a Product Manager and 3 Product Engineers.

The discover

Uncovering service gaps

I started the project by examining user needs and pain points throughout the Seller's journey to identify a potential value proposition. This exercise was to pinpoint gaps or drop-offs in our current service funnel, enabling us to brainstorm potential solutions.

Two images are displayed side by side. The left image shows a 'User Journey Map' that outlines the seller's end-to-end journey, including user goals, actions, pain points or needs, and potential solutions. The right image is an 'Effort and Impact Matrix,' where potential solutions are prioritised based on their effort and impact. — I consolidated all past research findings and developed a comprehensive user journey map. I also collaborated with the product manager to brainstorm possible solutions for the identified gaps. Together, we prioritised these ideas based on their potential impact and the effort required for implementation.

Identifying barriers

Our data revealed that while 1 in 4 listings on Zoopla originated from our registered users, only 3% of these users contacted an agent through our platform in the 6 months prior to listing.

To explore why users aren't engaging with agents on our platform, I investigated their current methods and the reasons behind their choices. The survey aimed to uncover user needs for contacting agents, providing insights to help prioritise ideas that encourage more users to contact agents via our platform.

Through the responses, we discovered 2 strong themes:

Theme 1: Lack of agent insights

When asked about using a property website to find an agent to sell their home, the majority of responses expressed a strong desire for an easier way to compare and choose agents based on their specific needs. There was also a clear need for social proof to validate an agent's reputation and performance, ensuring user satisfaction.

Theme 2: Low awareness of the feature

We also discovered that about 40% of users are either unaware or unsure that they can find an agent on Zoopla, indicating a potential awareness issue with our Find Agents features.

A pie chart showing participant responses about finding and contacting agents on Zoopla. 59% said they were able to, 39.5% were unsure, and 1.5% said they couldn't.

The design

Guided by the research insights, I began addressing these specific user problems.

Problem #1

How might we help Sellers find the right agents that best meet their needs?

Historical research revealed that sellers typically look for key information to evaluate agents. With this insight, We leveraged Zoopla’s database to showcase each agent’s performance, enabling sellers to make informed decisions and find their ideal match.

Comparision view

In the design, I focused on creating a layout that enables easy, column-by-column comparison of agent performance, helping users quickly assess key metrics across different agents.

To enhance this experience, I also added sorting functionality that allows users to reorder agents based on their preferred performance criteria, making it easier to identify top-performing individuals according to specific priorities.

A design mockup displays a list of estate agents, allowing users to select multiple agents for their home valuation.

Simplified mobile comparison with pinning

Since comparison can be challenging on smaller devices due to limited screen space, I introduced a ‘Pin’ functionality to improve the user experience. This feature allows users to shortlist and pin specific agents to the top of the list, making it easier to focus on a smaller set for direct comparison. By doing so, users can more efficiently identify the agents that best meet their needs, even on compact screens.

Collapase view on mobile

The overall view can be difficult to digest on mobile due to the volume of performance insights. To reduce clutter, I designed the cards to show only the sorted performance criterion by default. Users can expand the cards to view all insights, and the displayed data point updates automatically when the sorting changes.

Problem #2

How might we improve the awareness of Find Agent features on the Zoopla website?

To maximise the visibility of this new value proposition, we decided to introduce it in the top navigation. This placement will help drive more traffic to the funnel and increase awareness of our 'Find Agents' features.

Scoping the MVP

Once we locked in our ideas, I worked with my Product Manager and stakeholders from other teams to define our focus for the first MVP. With just a month to launch, we identified the key functionalities and highlighted potential technical and product constraints during the session.

A whiteboard covered with many post-it notes outlining the key functionalities of the MVP.

Visualising the solution

After defining the scope of the first MVP, I teamed up with a Product Designer and a Content Designer from the other team to create wireframes for the end-to-end user journey. During this stage, we refined the designs in greater detail, incorporating feedback based on estimated effort and timelines provided by the engineering team.

An overview of the wireframes for the MVP — 70% of our users access the website on mobile devices, which is why we adopted a mobile-first design approach.

As we moved on to the hi-fi mockups, I ensured we considered all the user cases, outlining the design patterns and behaviours for those scenarios.

Takeaways

Taking stakeholders on a journey

With this project, the stakeholders were involved in the discussions and workshops so they understood and supported the decisions we made. This also meant that we were all on the same page in terms of what we were delivering, how, and when.

Making big bets backed by evidence

Creating a new value proposition came with many unknowns. However, we relied on historical research and data to guide our decisions. These insights gave us the confidence to make bold, high-impact bets with greater clarity and reduced risk.

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