Home buying in the blind

In Nordea, both home buyers and home owners faced confusion and stress while going through the home buying process. Moreover, the team responsible for the "Home Journey Hub" encountered challenges in prioritizing and focusing their product backlog. Although they discussed various features to develop, the team lacked direction and a comprehensive overview, resulting in negative feedback from customers and advisors. With only one UX resource employed, the team required assistance from me (as Service Design lead) along with a colleague, to provide them with methods and research to get insights that would guide their approach towards a customer-centric mindset, and an insights-driven backlog. In this article, I will describe the process and outcomes of the project that aimed to shift the team's focus from "inside-out" thinking to a more customer-centric approach.

Home buying in the blind

In Nordea, both home buyers and home owners faced confusion and stress while going through the home buying process. Moreover, the team responsible for the "Home Journey Hub" encountered challenges in prioritizing and focusing their product backlog. Although they discussed various features to develop, the team lacked direction and a comprehensive overview, resulting in negative feedback from customers and advisors. With only one UX resource employed, the team required assistance from me (as Service Design lead) along with a colleague, to provide them with methods and research to get insights that would guide their approach towards a customer-centric mindset, and an insights-driven backlog. In this article, I will describe the process and outcomes of the project that aimed to shift the team's focus from "inside-out" thinking to a more customer-centric approach.

To gain a better understanding of our customers' experiences when buying or owning a home, we conducted 24 interviews and some surveys across the Nordics, resulting in valuable insights into their pain points.
Solution: "The timeline" addressed one of the prioritised pain points around uncertainty around the progress and timing when buying a home and getting a mortgage.
Used the Design Thinking process as an iterative guiding tool
Selecting the appropriate design methodology and tools plays a crucial role in achieving an effective process. In this project, we utilized the Design Thinking model, as it offered a framework to establish internal direction and drive customer insights. This helped us co-create a shared vision that enabled us to set a clear direction. 
Below is the result of the research. Five themes showing the key factors that cause stress and uncertainty in the home buying & owner experience.
Through workshopping and prioritisation exercises based on viability, desirability and feasibility we chose to begin by focusing on the customer need around "Uncertainty around progress and timing".

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