HousetableRenovation HELOCBorrower onboarding
Rebuilding onboarding
Renovation HELOC · referred by Tower · opened 4 minutes ago
What you could borrow
$780,000 – $915,000
Legal name
Margaret A. Ellison
TowerProperty
1 Main Street, Los Angeles
TowerLoan balance
$214,300
TowerScope
Kitchen, two baths
BorrowerTL;DR
A borrower who arrives already known to their bank was asked to prove who they are, price a renovation nobody had approved and photograph their house, before the product told them one thing they came to find out. The work is not too hard. It is in the wrong order.
22% → 45%
borrowers who see a value range in their first session
4
cheap things in week two that decided everything after
5
decisions, each with the condition that reverses it
01 · The reframe
The ask is a screen problem. The problem is an order problem.
My job in week one is not to accept the brief, and not to reject it. It is to restate it until the person who wrote it recognises their own complaint inside a bigger sentence.
The onboarding form, as it was8 fields
Six of the eight fields were already ours.Two were questions
When the data is wrong the fix does not live in my product, so the correction path exits to the bank rather than opening an editable field.
The loan is sized on what the home will be worth after work that has not started. One clean number would be lying by omission.
A field removed to make onboarding lighter can surface three steps downstream as a proposal that cannot be priced.
02 · What I bought, and what it told me
I do not run research. I buy answers to the things I do not know.
A discovery phase that lists methods is a performance. One that lists uncertainties is a plan. Plotted by what the answer cost and what being wrong would have cost.
Week two · what I boughtOrdered by price
Four cheap thingsdecided everything after
A survey, a competitive audit and a persona workshop are not on this bill. None of the three would change a decision, so none of them gets a week.
Eight screens before the account is even created. It drifts on its own. Drag to take over.
Would they price their own loan if we showed a number first? Seven of eight did, out loud, unprompted.
Is the loan‑amount question a question? No. Seven of eight read it as a commitment.
Can this audience read a confidence score? Two of eight could. Six read a plain range perfectly.
Does anyone expect to switch to a phone at the photos? Nobody. Not one of the eight.
The rule was signed before session one: six or more of eight on one path against fewer than three on another.
03 · The bar
The numbers I agree to be judged on, written before the first screen existed.
Borrower onboarding — success metrics
Agreed in week 2, before the first screen existed. Read per bank, never averaged.
04 · Three directions, tested
Three answers that disagree with each other, and why B wins.
Drawn rough on purpose, so nobody could fall in love with them, and put in front of the same eight borrowers in a counterbalanced order. Every pin below is something that happened in a session, not something I predicted.
Housetable works with Tower Credit Union
Before we start, here is who we are and what happens to the details Tower sent us.
Bank‑level security on every field
Tower stays your lender throughout
No credit check at this stage
Your lender
Tower Credit Union
Referred on
12 March
1Two believed they were still on the credit union’s own site.
2Six of eight scanned this panel for a number and did not find one.
3Three thought the flow had ended here. Continue read as a formality.
Rejected · 5 of 8 never reached the value screen
Step 2 of 4
What your home could support
$780,000 – $915,000
The lower figure assumes the kitchen work only. The upper one assumes the full scope.
Based on public records for 1 Main Street. Tower reviews the final figure, and we do not lend.
Home value today
$612,000
Confidence
Good, for this street
1Seven of eight said a plausible borrowing figure here, unprompted.
2Two read only the upper figure and ignored the lower one.
3Three asked whether the range was an offer. Two of them said “approved”.
Chosen · with two repairs carried into the shipped screen
Getting started
Five things to do. You can pick them up in any order.
Confirm the details Tower sent
2 minPhotograph every room
PhoneDescribe the work you want done
4 minConnect the account you bank with
1 minInvite your contractor
Optional1Six of eight could not say why they should start any of these.
2Nothing here confirms the bank record, so a wrong name reaches underwriting.
3Four opened the photo task, saw it needed a phone, and closed it.
Rejected · moves the drop‑off, and adds a compliance risk
Stated a plausible borrowing figure, unprompted. The rule was written and signed before session one: 6 or more of 8 on one path against fewer than 3 on another, and the calculator leaves the required flow. Met at 7 against 1. One participant read only the upper bound and is counted as a miss, not a partial.
05 · The flow, and the screens
Four screens before the borrower answers anything new.
Under each stage is the branch that breaks it. A flow drawn without those is a happy path with ambitions.
The same moment, before and after
Question 1 of 8Question 2 of 8Question 3 of 8
Why do you need funding?
Five to come, and nothing on screen they did not type.
What you could borrow
$780,000 – $915,000
A range, not a promise. Tower reviews the final figure.
Six details arrived from Tower. The first thing on screen is an answer.
Same person, same minute of their life. On one side they are still working through eight questions. On the other the product has already told them something.
The components that carry the decisions
Not pictures of them. These are the parts themselves, rebuilt here in the product’s own type and colour. Every one of them is the thing an earlier section argued for, and four of the six will answer you back.
Legal name
From Tower · read onlyMargaret A. Ellison
Property
From Tower · read only1 Main Street, Los Angeles
Lien position
Needs your yesFirst, held by Tower
✓Accepted$780,000 – $915,000
Good confidence for this street. The lower figure assumes the kitchen only.
72%
Estimate confidence score
Six of eight restated the range correctly. Two could read the score.
Photograph every room
Best on your phone · about 6 minutes
Confirm the details Tower sent
6 fields · 2 accepted by you
Point the camera at this.
The desktop keeps the page you are on.
We texted ••• ••• 4417.
One message. We do not send a second.
Sent to m•••@gmail.com.
The link works for seven days.
Opened on a phone · 12:06
$400k$1.2m
Priced against eleven sales on this street in the last two years.
Legal name
Margarett A. Elison
Tower holds this record, so Tower fixes it.
We keep your session for 14 days. Nothing you have done is lost.
Four arrive confirmed. The two that attach a lien to the home need a person to say yes, one at a time.
The rejected version is one tap away. Two of eight could read a percentage. Six restated a dollar range.
Three states, one card. Finished work shrinks to a line, so the list visibly gets shorter.
QR leads because it is fastest, but fallback_used is instrumented in case it is not.
The number does not disappear and it does not pretend. It widens, and it says why.
The bank owns the record, so the correction lives at the bank. An editable field here would make two truths.
Six screens, and every decision above is visible in one of them.
Screen 01
Nothing to fill in, and it says so out loud.
Welcome, Margaret.
Tower Credit Union sent us your details on 12 March, so there is nothing to fill in yet. Have a look at what we already have, and we will show you what your home could be worth after the work.
What your bank sent us
Nothing here can be edited on our side. If something is wrong we will take you back to Tower to fix it.
U2 · exactly what both banks send
Six fields, not a wish list. The screen contains no question at all, because 7 of 8 read a question as a commitment.
What I gave up
Personalising by name means getting it wrong in public if the record is stale. A wrong name here is recoverable, and it surfaces staleness at minute one.
Screen 02
Friction placed exactly where the liability is.
Step 1 of 4 · About 2 minutes left
Confirm 6 details
Four are already confirmed. Two of them attach to the loan on your home, so we need you to read those and accept them one at a time.
m•••@gmail.com
Mobile number
••• ••• 4417
Property type
Single-family home
Year built
1957
Legal name
Margaret Anne Ellison
Read and acceptProperty address
1 Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 98827
Read and acceptThe button stays inactive until both highlighted details are accepted.
U3 · two fields attach to the lien
Those two need an affirmative act. The other four are pre‑confirmed and read‑only, with the source and date on screen.
The action is named
The button says Confirm 6 details, not Continue, and it stays inactive until both are accepted, with the reason underneath rather than in a tooltip.
Screen 03
The payoff arrives third, before we have asked anything.
Step 2 of 4 · Nothing to fill in on this page
Based on what your bank sent and public records for 1 Main Street
After the work, your home
could be worth
$780,000 to $915,000
This is a wide range on purpose.
We have your property records but not your renovation plans or photos yet. Both of those narrow it, usually to within about $40,000.
What that could mean for the loan
Available to borrow
$120,000 to $186,000
Against today’s value
$640,000, from county records
Your bank’s decision
Tower reviews the final figure. We do not lend.
C2 · a range, and why it is wide
No score, because 2 of 8 could read one. The confidence is a sentence that says what narrows it.
Who decides, said plainly
“Tower reviews the final figure. We do not lend.” One line, and it prevents the most damaging misunderstanding this product can create.
Screen 04
The two questions the contractor trace saved from the cut.
Step 3 of 4 · Two questions, and you can skip both
Right now
$780,000 to $915,000
This updates as you answer
What do you want done?
Pick as many as apply. This is also what a contractor needs in order to price the job later.
When would you start?
If you skip, the range stays wide and your Getting Started list will say why.
U6 · what I am not allowed to delete
Scope and timing feed the proposal three stages downstream. They do not go back to the front, they come after the number.
Tuning, not filling
The current range sits above the questions and the button says See the new range. Same questions as the old wizard, reversed motivation.
Screen 05
A list you can see the end of, and a wait with a name.
Getting started
2 of 5 done · About 20 minutes of work left, and you can stop between any of them
Confirm your details
Done · 12 March
Tell us what you want done
Done · 12 March
Photos of each room
About 15 minutes, on your phone. This is the one that narrows your range the most.
Invite your contractor
About 2 minutes. They will get their own login.
Review and send to Tower
Opens once the photos are in. Nothing here is final until Tower reviews it.
Your estimated range
$820,000 to $880,000
What happens after you send it
1 to 2 days
5 to 10 business days
When you are ready
We will email you at each of these. You do not need to keep checking.
Three facts the old flow never gave
How much is done, how long the rest takes, and permission to leave between any two tasks.
The wait is designed, not hidden
The right rail names the longest silence in the product and gives it a duration. A spinner would have been faster to build and worse in every other way.
Screen 06
Three ways across, and a desktop that stops going quiet.
← Getting started
Photos of each room
Five photos per room, taken on a phone. This is the step that narrows your range the most, and you can stop and come back to it.
Continue on your phone
Point your phone camera at this
You stay logged in on this computer and this page keeps up as photos arrive.
No smartphone in the house?
Book a 20 minute call and we will walk through it with you on the phone.
Arriving now
2 of 25 photos
This page updates on its own. You do not need to refresh it, and you can close it and come back.
0 of 8 expected to change device
So the transfer is named before it happens. QR for the confident, SMS for everyone else, email as the fallback that always works.
The live panel is the actual repair
The screen the borrower is looking at reacts when the phone does something. Per‑room state, because four rooms done is progress, not a failed submission.
06 · Rollout, records and risk
How it ships, and what would make me take it back.
Every decision carries the condition that reverses it, written now rather than reconstructed later. It is the only field in a decision record that does not decay.
Weeks 1–4
Instrument and baseline
- Six events ship in the current sprint.
- Four weeks of baseline per bank.
- No user‑facing changes yet.
Weeks 5–7
Build behind a flag
- Screens 01 to 04, Tower only.
- 100% of Tower, 0% of Patelco.
- Cleaner signal than a split.
Week 8
Read and decide
- Three numbers against baseline, plus guardrails.
- The go decision is written before the read.
Weeks 9+
Second bank, then the rest
- Patelco inherits the flow.
- Mapping repeats per bank.
- Integration does not generalise.
D-01
The calculator leaves the required flow and becomes a tool in the dashboard.
Reverses whenLoan closure falls below 38% among borrowers who never open it. 41% today. Usage falling is the plan working.
Was
Step 6 of 8
What loan amount do you need?
$Required to continueIs
Getting startedCalculator ✦
$780,000 – $915,000 Optional. Opens from the dashboard.D-02
Six fields come from the bank. Two require explicit acceptance.
Reverses whenA single field is confirmed and later corrected. Not a rate, a count. Zero since launch.
Was
Legal name
Type your full legal nameProperty address
Start typing…Is
Legal name
From TowerMargaret A. Ellison
Property
From Tower1 Main Street, Los Angeles
D-03
Renovation intent survives, and moves to after the value screen.
Reverses whenCompletion of the intent step falls below 60%. 71% today. Then the question is wrong, not misplaced.
Was
Second of eight questions
Is
Third of four, and skippable
D-04
The wizard becomes a task list with a visible end.
Reverses whenMid‑flow abandonment rises past 18%. 12% today. My own assumption, and the one I trust least.
Was
Step 3 of 8
Is
2 of 5 done
D-05
The handoff offers QR, SMS and email, and the desktop shows arrivals live.
Reverses whenfallback_used exceeds QR completions in any month. 0.34× today. Then the email leads.
Was
Continue on your phone.
No link, no code, and nothing else on the page.
All eight stopped here.Is
Three ways across
Opened on a phone · 12:06
Risk · high
The packet gets thinner and the wait gets longer
Everything here makes the front lighter. If the file arriving at underwriting is thinner, the silence after submission grows and I have moved the pain rather than removed it.
Risk · medium
A wide range reads as incompetence
The comprehension task tells me they can read it, not that they trust it. Watched through the drop between the value screen and the intent step.
Risk · medium
The second bank does not behave like the first
Every metric is reported per bank, and an average across the two is the number I refuse to look at.
What shipped
Nine weeks, five decisions, and not one made on the strength of somebody being sure. The expensive part was never the screens. It was the four cheap things in week two: two hours with engineering, two calls with compliance, half a day tracing what the contractor needs, and one paragraph agreeing what result would prove me wrong.
Week two · two hours · two calls · half a day · one paragraph
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