Portfolio Deals
Berkadia’s RedIQ software is a leading platform in the commercial real estate industry, dedicated to streamlining the analysis and underwriting of multifamily properties. While we have established ourselves as the industry standard in multifamily underwriting, analysis, and management, we recognized that our users sought even greater capabilities from our platform. From my first day with Berkaida’s RedIQ team, Portfolio Deals emerged as a top priority for our users. Through ongoing feedback loops I led to better understand our clients' needs and expectations, it became clear that this feature could significantly enhance client retention and attract a substantial number of new customers.
Quick Summary
A Portfolio Deal is a collection of properties that can be bought or sold together or individually, but are grouped together for various reasons. After establishing our design patterns in RedIQ with the new design system, I saw an opportunity to enhance the creation of Portfolio Deals—a feature not present in the classic version. Building on the recently completed create-a-deal functionality, I extended it to support multiple deals simultaneously. Through user feedback, cross-functional stakeholder collaboration, and usability testing, I designed the process for creating, viewing, and managing Portfolio Deals, leading to the successful development of the MVP.
Pain points
Limited Organization
Through Feedback Loops we learned portfolios were organized in numerous ways, none of which were ideal and required the user to come up with their own system.
Analyzing Data
The only way a user could compare data for properties in a portfolio was through building a comparables report, which takes extra time because it requires a user to find each individual property and select it manually.
More Reliance on Excel
Although not a direct competitor, Excel on its own was an indirect competitor where our users would build their own models and handle all of their data analysis for a portfolio via Excel.
Project Research
Deliverables
We utilized our underwriter persona shown below to have a better understanding of what our target users were. I also worked on user flows and a results slide deck to present to stakeholders once usability testing had completed.
Qualitative
We held multiple feedback loops, conducted usability tests, interviewed users, and discussed with all stakeholders the importance and features needed for Portfolio Deals to be a success.
Quantitative
When it came to quantitative outcomes to this new design, we focused on ensuring the task success rate was 100% and the System Ease Questions (SEQ) was in a passing range of at least 5.
Personas
Personas are incredibly important in the research phase. Although we knew through many feedback loops what our users wanted out of Portfolio Deals, I needed a deeper understanding of who I was designing for.
OLD Design
As previously noted, Portfolio Deals did not exist in the earlier version. Users would navigate to the “All Deals” screen, where they could see all the properties they were underwriting, managing, or had sold. To review financials, they had to click into each property individually. Comparing an entire portfolio required using the “build a comparable report” feature, which was time-consuming, as it involved searching for and selecting each property in the portfolio manually.
*note: Some data needed to be censored/blurred due to an NDA.
All Deals Page
This is the page users see right after they login to RedIQ. It contains all their deals, and if it has briefcase icon that indicates the property or “deal” is part of a portfolio. If you hover over that icon you can view what portfolio the property belongs to and be able to navigate to the portfolio overview for that property. You will also notice a dedicated Portfolio Deals tab which nicely organizes all your portfolios in accordion style format.
One Checkbox
Immediately upon selecting a checkbox for a property you will have the option to add that property an existing portfolio by selecting the “Add to Portfolio” button in the top right corner.
2+ Checkboxes
Once more than one checkbox is selected the “Add to Portfolio” button changes to “Add or Create Portfolio” and also the “Create QuickComp” button appears allowing users to quickly create a comparable report.
Create Portfolio
Once a user clicks on the “Add or Create Portfolio” button they are navigated to the “Create Portfolio Modal.” Users can determine if they want to add the properties to an existing portfolio or create a new portfolio. Users can also ensure they selected the right property by opening the accordion for that property and looking at the main characteristics. We determined what characteristics to show based on usability testing.
Overview
The Portfolio Overview is the area users can go to analyze all the data they need for all properties within the Portfolio. It includes a map, property document updates for each property, financial information combined for all properties, including access to Rent Rolls and Operating Statements combined.
Analysis
Users typically analyze two files on RedIQ; Rent Rolls and Operating Statements. Rent Rolls are a comprehensive financial document that details the rental income and tenant information for a multifamily property. Operating Statements are a detailed financial report that summarizes a property's income and expenses. Now users are able to navigate between the “Rent Roll” and “Operating Statements” sections to see data for all properties in the portfolio in one place. Here are the two key dashboard designs for both files.
Next Steps
Pendo Analysis
Through Pendo we’ll be able to track how users interact with the new Portfolio functionality as it provides analysis on every portion of RedIQ.
Feedback Loops
Talking to new and existing clients that we haven’t spoke to before about the functionality is critical to determine whether or not we designed Portfolio Deals to cover every aspect they desired. Although Usability Testing was great, we know there’s always room for improvement.
Looking Back
I was incredibly proud how we managed to create Portfolio Deals. This was a feature I had to wait over a year to start working on. I felt confident after all the collaboration sessions with Design, Product, Architecture, and Engineering, I was creating something that would provide incredible value to our users. I also knew our sales team would soon be able to reach out and get more clients to return and get new clients that were turned away when they found out we didn’t support Portfolio Deals. With usability testing confirming my thoughts about the design, the design was a major success. I felt this project was a great example of how powerful research and collaboration with the team can be. If I were to rate my satisfaction with the final research, design, and collaboration on this project, it would be a 10 out of 10 and is one of my proudest designs.