CASE STUDY
Field Operations + Vendor App
This project aimed to address the inefficiencies in communication and task management between field operations teams and vendors. By designing an intuitive mobile and web app, we empowered users with tools for real-time updates, task assignments, and seamless collaboration.
My Role: UX Lead | Timeline: 5 months | Team: Cross-functional (USA + China) | Tools: Figma, FigJam, Dovetail, Hotjar, PowerBI, Userlytics
Problem
A single-family home portfolio company with thousands of homes across the United States was facing several challenges impacting its operational efficiency, resident satisfaction, and cost management during the process of preparing homes between residents.
🏚️ Turnover cost:
$15K per home vs. $5K goal
⏳ Turnaround time:
55 days vs. 30-day goal
🧹 Low move-in readiness:
Resident satisfaction at 45/100
📉 Fragmented ops:
Poor visibility, disconnected apps, manual processes
🗣️ Communication gaps:
Delays, miscommunication between vendors + teams
Where are we missing the mark?
We conducted vendor and team interviews, mapped pain points, and reviewed competitors.
What we heard from vendors:
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Poor connectivity → failed uploads
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Unclear expectations → confusion during inspections
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Scattered comms (email, calls) → delays
What we heard from internal ops teams:
13 interviews, 200+ pain points
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No standard workflows → inconsistent execution
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Manual data entry → wasted time
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Scope misalignment → budget overruns
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Limited photo evidence → poor auditability
We also mapped the full home prep timeline to align tasks and identify dependencies across 13 teams.
Strategy
Our research revealed that two disconnected platforms (web for post-move-in, mobile for pre-move-in) were causing inefficiencies.
We decided to unify both into an end-to-end vendor platform, with these key features:
✅ Guided checklists for inspections, scope walks, and turns
🗂️ Project/task management with dependencies
🧰 Maintenance request handling
💬 In-app communication to reduce delays
🔍 Live progress tracking and audit trails
Initial designs
1. Home
2. Work Orders
3. Scope Walk Checklist
4. Comments
We conducted usability testing with six vendors
We tested the app’s checklist and turn features, along with communication and task management.
Overall, usability was strong with a 92% task success rate, except for adding rooms and reviewing past issues.
Vendors liked the app’s simplicity, clean layout, easy issue reporting, and clear To-Do vs. Completed sections.
“It’s almost self explanatory. Even if one of our guys had to jump into this new app I don’t think too many people will have issues trying to figure everything out.”
We got feedback on the design including …
We shared checklist feedback with operations and found that while it improved consistency, it also slowed down scoping. We began simplifying it by marking non-essential tasks as optional to speed things up.
Midway through, the company announced a merger, and the project was paused to prioritize data migration and other new initiatives.
Post-release plan & goals
After the app launch, our post-release plan focused on evaluating its impact and gathering feedback for continuous improvement. This included:
- Reviewing post-move-in survey results to assess improvements in the resident experience compared to pre-launch.
- Analyzing turnover downtime and costs to measure efficiency gains.
- Interviewing and surveying vendors to ensure the new app meets their needs.
Goals of our app
- Reduce downtime from 10 days to 1–2 days
- Increase resident satisfaction score from 45 to 70 in post-move-in surveys
- Achieve a CSAT score of at least 4.0 for the vendor app
Final designs
1. Home
2. Scope Walk Detail Page
3. Scope Walk Spaces
4. Scope Walk Checklist
5. Scope Walk Checklist Item
6. Report Issue
7. Scope Walk Evidence
8. Open Work Orders List
9. Field Work Checklist
10. Field Work Check Out
11. Work Orders Comments
12. Account Info
Key lessons
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Solution ≠ Technology
Bringing stakeholders into research created alignment and trust across global teams. -
Balance matters
Standardization improved quality, but over-detailing slowed vendors. We adjusted for clarity + efficiency. -
User voices shape better products
Feedback from vendors led directly to solving usability blockers—especially around communication and task tracking.