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Empowering Real Estate Brokers
Streamlining Lead Quality and Client Matching for Deal Meridian’s CRM Tool
WHAT I DID
I led stakeholder interviews and contextual inquiries to uncover pain points in property matching. Using research insights and competitive analysis, I brainstormed and ideated screens for a renter app, broker CRM dashboard, client profiles, and communication interfaces to streamline workflows.
SKILLS USED
Desk research, semi-structured interviews, competitor analysis, contextual inquiry, survey design, user journey mapping, wireframing, prototyping, information architecture, usability testing, stakeholder collaboration, CRM benchmarking.
TEAM AND MY ROLE
Our team of eight HCI students collaborated on this project, where I contributed as a UX Researcher and Product Designer.
TOOLS
timeline
August - December 2024
PROBLEM
Real Estate Brokers Struggle to Meet Client Needs Efficiently
While researching the Indian real estate market for our Project Sponsor, Deal Meridian, we observed that brokers face significant challenges in managing client preferences, streamlining workflows, and maintaining clear communication. Despite their efforts, these inefficiencies often lead to missed opportunities and suboptimal client experiences. This highlighted the need for a solution to enhance their capabilities and foster tailored property solutions.
SOLUTION
A Centralized CRM Tool to Empower Real Estate Brokers by Leveraging their Local Knowledge
Using proptech data analytics to help brokers make informed decisions during lead qualification and onboarding
Quickly glance over user data and assess if the opportunity is worth converting into a viable lead.
View key user preferences and set action items according to client’s needs.
Focus your time and energy on clients who demonstrate long-term commitment to the business relationship.
Manage all client conversations on one platform
Share targeted property listings and helpful resources through chat based on what clients are looking for.
Track how clients respond to shared properties to better understand their preferences and make improved suggestions.
Identifying latent needs by dissecting captured user data
Get a summarized version of the client’s preferences over time.
Analyze clients' property search patterns by examining their essential criteria, applied filters, and shortlisted properties.
RESEARCH
Understanding Stakeholder Perspectives
Our deep dive into the real estate market combined desk research, surveys with 60+ property seekers, in-depth interviews with 20+ renters and buyers, and contextual inquiry of 10+ people during their property search. Additionally, we analyzed 14+ broker interviews from our project sponsor to identify critical market challenges. This comprehensive approach revealed the following key insights:
Human Reliance in Property Tech
Despite increasing digitization, renters and buyers still depend on brokers for personalized finalization, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of human empathy and expertise.
Fragmented Brokerage Market
With over 200,000 brokers in India's top cities, the lack of standardization has resulted in inconsistent practices and services, creating challenges for both brokers and clients.
Lead Verification Challenges
Brokers face time-intensive processes to verify lead authenticity, with no guarantee of conversion, highlighting inefficiencies in existing systems.
Trust Gap in Online Platforms
Outdated and incomplete property data on digital platforms leads to a significant lack of trust among users, making it harder to secure client loyalty.
Communication Inefficiencies
Coordinating across multiple platforms creates friction for both brokers and clients, adding to delays and miscommunication in deal closures.
Evolving Expectations
Rapidly changing client preferences prolong deal closures, leading to increased drop-offs, underscoring the need for adaptive and responsive solutions.
competitor analysis
Lessons from the Competition
We did analysis of 4 Proptech giants based in India and realized that platforms struggle to balance digital efficiency with personalization, trust, and adaptability. This highlighted a significant opportunity to design a solution that seamlessly integrates human touch, reliable data, and AI-driven adaptability to meet evolving client and broker needs.
OPPORTUNITIES
Key Themes for Our Design
Our deep dive into the real estate ecosystem also showed that brokers represent that very important bridge between seekers and sellers, using their expertise to help clients through complex transactions. We came up with three compelling opportunities that would enhance the broker experience:
01
Preference Matchmaking
Incorporating an algorithm that will speed up the broker’s process to recommend properties based on client preferences and needs.
02
Effective Information Management
A centralised platform that contains all contacts, leads and property information that will reduce the broker’s administrative tasks and enable them to focus more on client engagement activities.
03
Streamline Communication
A CRM tool with a mobile version that enables brokers to send property information and communicate with their prospective clients easily.
IDEATION
Getting the Basics Right
Extensive brainstorming sessions post research led to a vision of a centralized CRM platform that focused on the pain-points of brokers managing real estate transactions. However, the initial idea leaned heavily on automating broker-client interactions, which lacked the human touch critical to building trust. This phase laid the groundwork for the realization that personalization and adaptability would be key.
PIVOT
Rethinking the Core
Insights from expert feedback revealed that the original approach missed the mark on balancing automation with human connection. Recognizing this gap, the team did interviews with 10 real estate brokers and pivoted to redefine Deal Meridian in the following ways:
Human-Centered AI Integration
Instead of fully automating broker-client interactions, the platform leveraged AI to enhance, not replace, human expertise.
Personalization & Flexibility
The CRM can be restructured to enable brokers to customize client interactions, providing workflows and features that can adapt to various client needs while ensuring a high level of personalization.
Trust & Transparency First
Adding features that emphasized credibility, including client preference tracking, transparent lead management, and verified broker profiles.
FINAL SOLUTION
Deal Meridian Advantage
We ideated more and finally came up with a solution that bridges the gap between digital efficiency and human connection, offering intuitive dashboards, customizable workflows, and AI-driven insights. Our design reflects a user-centered approach aimed at transforming how real estate deals are managed.
The CRM Dashboard centralizes lead management, task tracking, and client organization. Brokers can quickly access new leads, add offline referrals, take notes, manage daily tasks via an integrated calendar, and track lead sources to optimize engagement.
The New Leads popup provides brokers with key client details—property interests, location, contact info, and past activity—helping them quickly assess lead quality and decide whether to add the client to their database.
Introducing a quick flow to manually add an offline client into the database and allowing the broker to input all the necessary data about the respective client.
The Client Progress screen tracks preference changes, deal status, and planned activities while allowing brokers to add notes, ensuring a clear overview of client interactions and progress.
Communication screen centralizes client interactions, showing liked properties and enabling direct messaging via CRM, WhatsApp, or calls, while allowing brokers to quickly share relevant listings.
REFLECTION
My learnings
Value of Adaptability
Initially, we believed automation would be the key to improving broker workflows, but through feedback and testing, we learned that human relationships remain central. This taught me the importance of adapting designs based on real-world needs rather than assumptions.
Bridging Business and User Needs
Balancing the sponsor’s business goals with user expectations was a challenge. I realized that a successful design isn’t just user-friendly—it also needs to align with business objectives to be sustainable.
Designing for Real-World Constraints
While creating the CRM, I learned that even the most innovative features need to fit seamlessly into existing broker workflows. Understanding user habits and constraints is just as important as introducing new solutions.
Power of Iteration
Seeing how our concept evolved after multiple rounds of feedback reinforced the idea that no design is ever final. Iteration isn’t just about fixing problems—it’s about uncovering better opportunities.
Interested in what you see? Let's collaborate and explore how I can bring your vision to life with thoughtful, human centered design
Made with coffee and love by Apoorvaa Balasundaram
