Approach to creating a Clever Unit application

Growth Hacking 4E Concept

Once it became apparent that B2B market won’t provide the growth and scalability that the company was looking for, the company decided to tailor its product to B2C clients, automating actions for long-term and short-term rentals. Company’s survey identified problems that commonly arise between landlord and tenant and based on competitor analysis the company tries to set itself apart from competitors. Growth Hacking 4E (Experience, Everyplace, Exchange, Evangelism) concept is the basis for the company’s strategy.

Having studied current user experience (Experience), we identified how to digitize a number of processes and removed barriers that usually prevent people from onboarding. For example, simplification of the cumbersome process of listing creation. Statistically, a complex onboarding process causes up to 40% of users to abandon the listing process.

Everyplace’s approach reflects the ability of consumers to access solutions at their convenience. Users access a product anytime and anywhere. Clients are able to choose any location by entering an address or by choosing a point on the map. Automatic language selection supported by locational cookies. The company implemented support for the following languages: Russian, German, French, English, Turkish, Italian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, and the ability to pay by card from anywhere in the world!

Is human interference needed to check documents or to support users?

In today’s world, the price does matter, but in reality, customers pay for value. Does the product represent a good value? Should you be giving users the opportunity to try the product free of charge? Do you need additional barriers in the form of fee-based plans? Most competitors charge a subscription fee from 20 to 200 USD. We decided to forego restrictions on the number of listings or tenants and fee-based plans. Free – forever!

The company decided not only to promote products it sells but more importantly to learn how to turn its customers into brand evangelists. Are you promoting your product through standard channels using SEO, PPC, SMM, Mail? What about the referral program rewards? Or application’s address book integration to send invitations? What features will encourage users to recommend the application to others?

UI/UX design

Despite a thorough approach to mobile app prototyping, we had to redraw the app’s design twice. The main stages that we performed were:

1. User Research – this stage included collecting information about the application, making a list of requirements for each of the roles, analyzing competitors, and identifying problems that the user may encounter. We conducted a survey of landlords and tenants in Europe and also studied the most popular comparable applications on Appstore and Google play.
2. Creation of Mind Map. Using Mind Map, we rendered navigation in the mobile application.
3. Creation of User Stories. User stories were made as cards in Trello. The text of the user story itself describes the role/actions of the user in the system, his need, and the benefit that the user will receive.
4. Flow Chart / Low Fidelity Wireframes – low-quality prototypes generated in Figma clearly displayed all the functionality of the application and provided the ability to test it through the creation of a clickable prototype. The largest number of edits was in this stage.
5. High Fidelity Wireframes – this is the final prototype that shows all the functionality of the application (with real dimensions, padding, etc.).
6. Mood boards, Style Guides, UI Concept – this is a visual part, several options for a mood board. After defining the style, the UI Concept for the application was developed on its basis.

Tactics and tools used

Clever Unit – Convenient mobile app for landlord and tenant, available in Apple Store and Google Play. We focused on improving convenience and simplifying life in apartments and houses. The main scenarios are automation of routine actions for long-term and short-term rental of premises. To create our product, we used the Kubernetes microservice architecture and a modern technology stack: The platform itself is written in: Python, Django, Django REST framework, PostgreSQL. Mobile application on cross-platform Flutter.

Trello is our primary project management tool. Here are some tips on how we use it: 1. A card is created for each task we are working on 2. Different cards are linked on different boards. 3. The board template is used. 3. If an employee has been tagged in the comments, he must respond. 4. A deadline is set. 5. If an employee cannot work on a task, another executor is appointed. 6. The board administrator is responsible for general oversight. 

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