THE RESEARCH
ISN wasn't bad.
It was built for a different era.
So what makes completing the reports on site so difficult?
To find out what makes the process so cumbersome; we conducted surveys, focus group sessions, 1-1 interviews to find out how their experience has been and the problems they're facing. The primary focus of interest being how do they conduct inspections?
We also had 2 in-house SMEs (2 inspectors who initially were franchise owners but wanted to build solutions for the domain) who we used as soundboards during the entire process.
These were the major problems that we needed to solve for:
I spend 2 hours on the site writing issues on my notepad & capture pictures using a point & shoot camera!
I have to go through a checklist of 500+ items and have to carefully setup templates before time!
I have been using it for 7 years & still can't get around it, so many unnecessary steps!
The app crashes a lot & does not function well in offline-mode, which makes me do the same things twice!
which translated into the base of our what our MVP should focus on
FLOW COMPLEXITY
500+ sub-categories, all mandatory to navigate
To log any finding, inspectors had to navigate: category → sub-category (from 400+) → add remark → attach photo. Every. Single. Time. The checklist drove the inspection, not the inspector's expertise.
Avg. 24 mins lost per inspection
OFFLINE FAILURE
The app failed where inspectors worked most
Network coverage was poor in ~65% of the homes inspected, especially older and rural properties and in the basements. Any feature requiring a live connection failed in the field, forcing double data entry on reconnect.
65% of homes: low signal
RIGID WORKFLOWS
Laggy app with rigid workflows & longer sync timing
The app was slow, prone to crashing, and hard to navigate, especially on older devices. It took inspectors a lot of time to sync data if they were working with their buddies on site. The app also was frustrating to navigate through and required a lot of training.
Avg. 24 mins lost per inspection
PERSONAL TIME TAX
Template management ate into weekends
Inspectors maintained their own remark libraries and templates in their spare time, no centralised system, no standards. Report quality varied wildly across the franchise, and the maintenance burden fell entirely on inspectors personally.
Avg. 24 mins lost per inspection
THE CHALLENGE
Tools built for the hands that inspect homes,
not the desks that manage them.
WIN Home Inspection is a national franchise operating across 45 US states, providing standardised home inspection services. The inspectors performed 35+ different types of inspections booked by homeowners & agents.
By June 2023, the business had hit a tipping point. ISN's subscription costs were rising year on year. The flows were rigid, training was intensive, and maintenance overhead kept growing. More critically: the inspectors were losing 3-4 hours of personal time every single day to desk based report writing that should have been done in the field. 90% of users used ISN (Inspection Support Network) as the backbone of daily work for over a decade.
“Wouldn't it be great", we discussed, “to be able to complete inspections & move on
to the next inspection site without having to worry about the previous one?"
The mandate: build a proprietary in-house app. Move off ISN entirely. And design it around how inspectors actually work; not how a legacy checklist system expects them to.
Inspector's POV
COMPANY
WIN Home Inspection
ROLE
UX Design, Research, Product Planning
& Documentation
PLATFORM
iOS, Android, Tablet & Web
TOOLS
Figma, Figjam, Smartlook & Paper
Converted a US based user group to move into new ideas & ways to perform & deliver home inspections reports at site
Key metrics acheived:
4 hrs → 49 mins (MVP)
4 hrs → 35 mins (LIVE)
100% adoption
in 3 months
Home Inspection
Report Writer
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