As the company grew, providing individualized support for each client became unsustainable. The product team was tasked with creating a solution that allowed clients to:
AvenueHQ
AvenueHQ is an online marketing team for real estate agents, offering clients a near-white glove onboarding and support service.
The Challenge
- Personalize their marketing assets: Clients needed a way to customize their marketing websites, newsletters, and other services based on their specific needs and branding.
- Streamline onboarding: New clients needed a smooth, efficient process for getting their websites and marketing campaigns up and running.
- Access key marketing data: Clients wanted easy access to data such as website stats, ad performance, and testimonials to manage their business effectively.
project overview
To address these challenges, AvenueHQ decided to build a client portal that would centralize all marketing tools and enable clients to manage their marketing services autonomously. Key features of the platform included: Launch Form, Newsletter Customizer, Listings Manager, Ads Tracking and Analytics.
As the Senior Designer, I co-led the design team through the entire process of creating new product features and updates for the client portal. My day-to-day responsibilities included:
- Journey Mapping: Mapping the end-to-end customer journey to ensure that each feature is aligned with the user’s needs at every stage, from onboarding to ongoing marketing management.
- Prototyping: Develop interactive prototypes to showcase new features and gather feedback from the product team and stakeholders before final implementation.
- QA Testing: Collaborating with the development team to ensure that the designs were implemented accurately and performing thorough testing to identify and resolve issues before launch.
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Responsibilities
Launch Form
The objective was to simplify and streamline the onboarding process for new clients, making it easy for AvenueHQ’s team to gather all the necessary details to build a custom marketing website.
As the sole Product Designer on this project, I designed an intuitive Launch Form that asked a series of guided questions to collect client-specific information—such as brand colours, content preferences, and logo uploads. This form was designed to ensure that AvenueHQ’s design team could build the website to match the client’s unique voice and marketing objectives.
Ads Creator
The objective was to simplify and streamline the onboarding process for new clients, making it easy for AvenueHQ’s team to gather all the necessary details to build a custom marketing website.
Billing
The objective was to simplify and streamline the onboarding process for new clients, making it easy for AvenueHQ’s team to gather all the necessary details to build a custom marketing website.
results
We set out to remove the friction from our client onboarding process and give real estate agents more control over their marketing. Introducing the Launch Form transformed the way new clients came on board: cutting onboarding time by more than half and allowing us to launch websites in days rather than weeks. This speed not only freed up internal resources for higher-impact projects but also gave clients a smoother, more confident start.
The rollout of the new client portal built on that momentum, putting powerful, easy-to-use marketing tools directly into agents’ hands. With fewer support requests, our team could focus on scaling the business rather than managing day-to-day client needs. The impact was clear: satisfaction scores jumped 25%, retention rose 15%, and Avenue was positioned to grow sustainably without expanding headcount.
The rollout of the new client portal built on that momentum, putting powerful, easy-to-use marketing tools directly into agents’ hands. With fewer support requests, our team could focus on scaling the business rather than managing day-to-day client needs. The impact was clear: satisfaction scores jumped 25%, retention rose 15%, and Avenue was positioned to grow sustainably without expanding headcount.
What I learned
This project was a pivotal moment in my career as a Product Designer, and it offered several key insights that have shaped my approach to design and problem-solving:
The Importance of User Research
This project reinforced the value of deep user research. By understanding our target users—real estate agents—and their unique pain points, I was able to design features that genuinely addressed their needs. Conducting user interviews, surveys, and usability tests helped me make informed design decisions, rather than relying on assumptions. Listening to users early and often throughout the process ensured that we were building something that truly added value.
Designing for Scalability
One of the biggest challenges was designing a system that could scale with AvenueHQ’s growing customer base. The platform had to serve a variety of real estate agents with different needs and technical skill levels. Balancing personalization with simplicity was crucial to ensuring that the product could be easily used by agents without overwhelming them. This experience taught me how to create flexible designs that can grow and adapt to the business.
Collaborating Cross-Functionally
Working closely with the Product, Engineering, and QA teams taught me the importance of cross-functional collaboration. Throughout the project, I was constantly sharing prototypes, gathering feedback, and iterating on designs in tandem with other team members. This process taught me how to communicate design decisions effectively and be open to constructive feedback from stakeholders. The ability to collaborate across teams was essential in ensuring that the product met both user needs and business goals.
Balancing User-Centered Design with Business Goals
This project reinforced the delicate balance between designing for users and meeting business objectives. While the goal was to create an intuitive and easy-to-use platform for real estate agents, we also had to ensure that the features aligned with AvenueHQ’s broader goals—such as reducing the need for one-on-one support and increasing scalability.
Creating Meaningful, Tangible Impact
Seeing how the client portal improved the onboarding process, empowered users, and contributed to AvenueHQ’s growth was incredibly rewarding. It reinforced my belief that good design can solve real problems and make a measurable difference to both users and businesses.