StellarThe leading app for home repair contractors and software for maintenance
IntroductionStellar is a home maintenance/construction company that contracts home repair orders to the relevant contractors. In order to do business at scale, the company uses a variety of off-the-shelf software as well as some custom ones. However, the changing industry demands and subpar software have made it hard to grow the business.
Contractor and resident dissatisfaction due to inconsistent experiences and delays.
Property manager frustration due to the problems with work order pricing.
Lack of control over off-the-shelf software leading to cascading issues with limited or no solutions.Pain points and challenges
Stellar CRM, Scheduling and PricingEnterprise AILearn how Salesforce was defeated at their own game of CRM and job scheduling.exploreStellar ProMobileThe best and highest rated contractor app for home repair and maintenanceexplore
NEXT arrow_forwardDesign thinking based researchDesign thinking workshops conducted across 3 tracks:
1. Contractor experience
2. Scheduler optimization
Infrastructure
A total of 3 sessions with 150+ participants were conducted from Feb 2023 to Jan 2024
Insights were gathered to optimize every part of the software offerings from Stellar.
Field research was conducted with several contractors doing live work orders. This exposed things to fix, as well as confirming the workflow hypotheses.
Contractor Insights:
Photo workflows needed the most optimization for efficiency.
Finance and pay information needs to be surfaced sooner.
Need an easy way to handle historical work orders, see what has been done before and plan new work.
In order to address contractor requirements, I created several hypotheses for interaction and workflow. These were tested though several iterations of A/B testing, mid and high fidelity prototypes and several ride-alongs with contractors on real work orders.
Finally, I conducted an extensive 3 month user acceptance phase to launch the pilot and follow with much needed features:
Pay information and finance management
Work order updates
Contractor skill management and tiersResearchDesign thinking at scalearrow_back PREVIOUSNEXT arrow_forwardBecause more than 50% of the work done in a work order happens in the office, optimizing the negotiation, pricing and scheduling process will greatly improve the efficiency leading to increased revenues.Human centered approachesDesign thinking process
In order to understand and establish the workflow for estimators, project managers and logistics experts (LEs) at Stellar, I led the team in conducting a series of activities to discover their needs:
In-office anthropological studies with transcription
Video recorded observation sessions on live work orders
InsightmiscScheduling deep divearrow_back PREVIOUSNEXT arrow_forwardEnterprise CRMDue to the improvements made to the scheduling and invoice/quote generation, Stellar was able to make a generational leap in efficiency.
The inclusion of AI based UX and smart templating in the follow up release led to further improvements, resulting in overall savings of 55% and more than $500k in the first yearGRowth SCALingDefeating Salesforce at Scalearrow_back PREVIOUSProcess and Progress
HighlightsFinance management for contractors: get paid sooner, grow businessManage crews and operate in multiple locationsReal time work order managementIn-office and on-site efficiency and productivityMonthly and quarterly reports, full management dashboardTemplates, Licensing and state /region specific rules built into the app for time savings
ResultsInvoicing Time / CostsTime to invoice - a key marker of productivity improved by more than 50%
Salesforce costs reduced by $500kAutomationScheduling automation implemented and increased by 55%RevenueKey revenue goals on track for 2024
Contractor engagement metrics up by 35% due to the usage of the user centered design thinking approach.
NPSGreatly increased client satisfaction: NPS scores up by more than 10 points.
Work order calendar01Earnings, reports and finances02Foolproof structured repairs 03Handle multiple work orders in real time0495% Customer Satisfaction Rate05Multiple disciplines06