OurPetPolicy

OurPetPolicy represents a team of lawyers, landlords, and property managers from many different states and backgrounds working on a platform that aims at creating the best possible pet management experience for the landlords and tenants.

My role
  • User research
  • Competitor research
  • User interviews
  • User flow diagrams
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • Visual design
Platform(s)
  • Desktop, mobile
Location
  • Yerevan, Armenia
Year
  • 2020-2022

1. Discover

When property owners or managers lend their properties to tenants apart from legal regulations regarding the lease contract, additional issues occur when a need for pet management arises.

Sometimes property damage caused by pets owned by tenants reaches quite significant amounts. Another significant issue that the property managers are facing is the existence of fake ESA letters that are sometimes used instead of real, verified ones in order to fraudulently avoid pet fees and damage costs.

Handling those issues and regulating the relationships with tenants is of primary importance for property managers. On the other and, the tenants are looking for a single united platform for recoding and managing their pet-related information both for current and future use.

User research

The sphere of pet and property management is quite well-established with some common existing behavior patterns and certain management culture. The aim of the competitor and user research was to identify the possible gaps in the existing processes and to come up with an innovative centralized solution both for property managers and tenants.

Users and the details of research

Method

Remote semi-structured user interviews in the format of Q&A sessions.

Interviewees

5 property managers managing 700+ properties in different states.

Sample questions asked

The talks with potential and current users never stopped and we were constantly gathering information about their activities and needs. Thus some of the most important questions we wanted clearly answered were as follows:

  • What does a typical house renting procedure with tenants who have pets look like?
  • What are the main risk factors when signing a rental contract?
  • What do you usually pay the most attention to when preparing the contract packages?
  • How much time does it typically take to verify all the information and sign all the necessary documents?

2. Define

Key takeaways

Based on the initial results, some of the main takeaways of the interviews were:

  • One major problem the property managers and owners mentioned was the inability to always check the ESA letters for accuracy and authenticity. Since ESA and Service animals are not considered pets they have a different way of addressing issues like property damage and traveling as well as pet fee policies so sometimes tenants purchase fake ESA letters to avoid those costs.
  • Issues like pet damage and collecting pet fees is a major problem when left without a clear tracking system in place.
  • Allowing tenants to create a reusable track record of their pets in case they want to move to another apartment or house.

Summing up the research data

As a result of the interview and brainstorming sessions two main user persona types were identified.

Ashley Smith persona photo

Ashley Smith

Overview

Ashley is a young and active woman living in a duplex apartment with her dog. She takes care of her pet and makes sure to handle all her pet-related responsibilities properly.

Key challenge

Ashley needs a secure and easy-to-use platform to be able to keep track of her pet related activities and to report that to the property owner.

Location

Idaho, USA

Age

32

Anthony Brown persona photo

Anthony Brown

Overview

Anthony has a property in Idaho that he's willing to give for rent to responsible people.

Key challenge

Anthony would like to have a place where all the pet information of the tenants is filled in and regularly updated.

Location

Idaho, USA

Age

69

User personas made

User flow diagrams

The platform enables multi-level user access. With the help of its easy-to-use functionality, the tenants, the property owners, the property managers and the system administrators acquire full control over pet-related information flow and contract management.

Salespack creation stepper

3. Develop

Wireframing

Both low-fidelity wireframes originally made on paper and later transformed into digital wireframes helped to describe the main flow of the product and to outline the main areas of focus.

Some of our low fidelity wireframes

Dashboard design

The analytical dashboard created for the property managers encompassed the most significant data they need for smooth operation and easy control. New features and analytic capabilities are also discussed and added to the system.

One of the dashboard screens with summaries
Application management screen

Property management

The system takes care of the entire pet management process from pet registration up to legal regulations.

A screen set from the property management flow

Design system

A thoroughly component library and design system fundamentals help preserve the consistency and the product quality for the rapidly growing functional scope.

One of the design system boards

Colors and typefaces

The combination of a vibrant yellow with deep black are toned down with a soft gray background to counterbalance the active accents.

Colors and typefaces

4. Deliver

User testing

User testing sessions follow each major feature release to ensure constant improvement of the existing features and the ease of use of the newly presented ones. The formats range from heat-map testing to moderated interviews depending on the particular situation and needs.

Business website design

In parallel with the product design I also worked with the marketing team to create a website for the company that would illustrate the value proposition and the benefits of using the platform. In addition to making sure the website emphasizes the most important aspects of the platform we also created a dynamic ROI calculator allowing landlords to quickly calculate their savings if they decide to use OurPetPolicy.

Screenshots from the responsive ROI calculator

Summing up

This project has been a magnificent opportunity to make a huge leap forward in professional development. It also introduced great new challenges in terms of collaborating with different specialists and testing my time management skills in a multinational and diverse environment.