A bit of context

The rental experience in Brazil has always been a slow, laborious, and tedious process. The sheer volume of paperwork, excessive bureaucracy, and lack of trust have always frustrated everyone involved: both tenants and landlords.

To make matters worse, real estate agencies are often seen as unnecessary and expensive middlemen.

In this scenario, no real relationship is built: landlords often list their properties with multiple agencies, and tenants prefer to rent directly from the property owner.

The rise of the digital age

The advancement of digital solutions has allowed some market players to stand out.

The combination of app usage and process improvements brought about a notable shift, causing traditional companies to feel the impact on their customer base.

But would simply digitizing the current process be enough to make it better?

The challenge

Within this new reality, Lello, a Brazilian company with 67 years in the market, realized it was time for a change. With this goal in mind, they decided to completely rethink the rental experience, starting from a new business model where everyone felt heard and viewed the agency as a close and reliable partner.

Lello invited us to carry out a complete Service Design process in partnership with their innovation team, using a Design Thinking framework to understand the customer and design a business model that offers the best possible experience.

After all, finding a place to live should be seen as a dream coming true, not an unpleasant chore.

The design process

The project included all stages of a comprehensive Design Thinking process: Immersion, Analysis, Ideation and Materialization.

The walls of the Lello office were gradually covered in sticky notes as insights began to emerge. During this phase, deconstructing false perceptions of reality was just as important as identifying new opportunities.

Throughout this process, the user's perspective was gradually understood, and an improved journey began to take shape.

Immersion + Analysis

Benchmarks:

Comprehensive research to understand the status and availability of similar products in both the Brazilian and international markets.

In-depth interviews:

Interviews conducted to extract information and insights about the process from clients and key company stakeholders.

Behavioral profiles:

Creation of comprehensive profiles based on the behavior of property owners and tenants.

Survey:

Quantitative research to gather further insights and validate the distribution of the created personas among the respondents.

Ideation + Prioritization

Journeys:

Based on the different behavioral profiles, ten user journeys were mapped to help identify pain points, user actions, key checkpoints, channels, and touchpoints for both tenants and owners.

These journeys were then used to guide the ideation workshops.

Co-creation workshops:

1. Co-creation workshops with specific prompts on different business models.
2. Over 800 Post-its with ideas, clustered into 45 groups and organized into 7 main categories.
3. Value Engineering dynamic with multiple voting sessions and business model building.
4. Consolidation of a new Business Model, unifying the selected concepts with other prioritized features.

Making the impossible possible

Through the ideation phase and prioritization sessions, a new business model was structured along with an implementation roadmap in collaboration with the Lello innovation team.

The most valuable insights were used to select the best features for the new service. During the process, a massive amount of information was also generated to support business decisions in the coming stages.

Materialization:

Prototyping:

To prototype this new service, we created Habta, a fictional brand.

Three functional landing page prototypes were created for the new service, along with the entire simulation experience for owners, and tested online with real users.

Each version focused on a different communication strategy to validate the Value Proposition.

From Habta to Loog‍

The Habta prototype was crucial for testing the viability of the new service, and the results were surprising! During the tests, we could see people simulating and attempting to hire the new service.

With all this material in hand, the Lello team was able to base their work on refining certain features to finally develop the final platform.

Loog, the actual service, was built based on the most important features mapped out during the process. The service can be accessed online via the link: https://loog.digital/

Loog Highlights

For Tenants:

Interchangeable Properties: Easy switching between Loog properties.

Smooth Moving: Professional help to move quickly, safely, and hassle-free.

Quick Move: A service package to get the property perfect during the moving process: painting, cleaning, and repairs.

For Property Owners:

Immediate Profit: The property starts generating profit from day 1 (even if it is not yet occupied by a tenant).

Everything Paid: Gas, water, electricity, and other bills are always up to date and paid by Loog.

Hassle-Free Contracts: Issues between property owners and tenants are fully managed and resolved by Loog.

‍