Case | Real Estate Startup | 5x leads & 3x operational capacity

This Real-Estate Startup used OKRs to test an innovative solution in the Brazilian Market

Context: In Brazil, selling your apartment to buy another one is particularly difficult. In this Real-Estate Startup I worked with we were trying to fix this pain with a Buy-Before-You-Sell (BBYS) product, which is pretty common in the US.

Challenge: This was prioritized as a strategic business unit that needed to deliver fast results, but the ordinary Brazillian homeowner never heard about BBYS. The challenge had two sides to the same coin: (a) we needed more leads to sell more, (b) but we could not increase headcount. Therefore, two product development squads were allocated - one for lead generation and one for increasing operational capacity. The cerry on the top was that the operations team and the product team were siloed, which usually jeopardized results.

Solution: We cross-functional product and operations OKRs. Product and Operations met weekly to ensure lead generation and capacity goals were being met, as quick results were needed.

Results: At the end of the semester, we were able to make the best of both worlds. With a combination of product + operations efforts, the number of leads increased 5x. We were also able to increase the operational capacity by 3x, so there was no headcount increase needed. This gave us peace of mind to test BBYS in the Brazilian Market.

PS: We found out there is a large demand for BBYS in Brazil. Unfortunately, the solution itself is not economically viable in Brazil due to its high interest rates. But we were only able to confirm this due to the fact that we talked to many potential customers, result of this structured OKR approach.