Bilt Rewards
Designing Trust at Scale: Simplifying Financial Flows in Bilt’s Home Buying Product
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CASE STUDY:
Bilt Rewards — Home Buying Flow
OVERVIEW
As Head of Product for the Consumer Banking vertical at Bilt, I owned the UX strategy behind two of our most complex product features: Rent Reporting and Buy a Home. I worked closely with designers and engineers to ensure these tools were not only innovative, but intuitive—so users could feel confident every step of the way.
Type: Team collaboration | UX Strategy + Product Design Thinking
Role: Led UX vision, journey mapping, and cross-functional design strategy
Problem
Financial UX is typically dense, overwhelming, and mistrusted. Bilt wanted to launch a first-of-their-kind feature in fintech—but without sacrificing clarity or user trust.
PROCESS
User Journey
The Home Buying feature lives where Bilt users already interact with their housing—right alongside Rent Day and “Pay Rent.” From the moment the user taps “Buy a Home,” they’re greeted with a personalized, data-driven estimate: a monthly mortgage cost tailored to their credit score, income, and liabilities. By anchoring the experience in an all-in monthly payment—mirroring the rent they already pay—we grounded a traditionally overwhelming process in something familiar and digestible. This sets the tone: no guesswork, no cold starts. The user is not asked for data upfront—they’re given clarity first, then invited to refine.
With that foundation, users enter a scrollable, curated feed of homes that match their affordability range and filter selections (school districts, neighborhoods, bedrooms, etc.). Each listing surfaces rich photos, personalized pricing, and key benefits—like Bilt Points earned on closing or the ability to apply points toward a down payment. Tapping into a listing reveals a full financial breakdown and the option to schedule a tour directly with a partner agent. Throughout, the user is nudged—not pushed—toward next steps, supported by just-in-time education, transparent personalization, and reward-based motivation. It’s a product experience designed to convert interest into confidence, and confidence into action.
STRATEGY
UX Decisions
Every UX decision in the Home Buying flow was rooted in one question: how do we make homeownership feel possible for someone who’s only ever rented? That meant prioritizing emotional clarity over data density. By showing users exactly what they could afford before asking them to filter or choose, we removed early friction and built trust. We avoided traditional mortgage jargon and instead designed microcopy and UI patterns that spoke plainly and helpfully—especially in our mortgage optimization filter, where users could learn about down payment trade-offs in plain English, without leaving the flow.
We also integrated Bilt’s rewards system natively into the experience—surfacing points earned at each step, not as an afterthought, but as a value-enhancing incentive. Users always knew what they’d get for taking action, whether that was browsing, scheduling a tour, or closing with a Bilt-affiliated agent. We kept the experience quiet, clean, and emotionally resonant: large visuals, soft UI, and intuitive motion guided users forward. The result was a product that didn’t just serve as a home search tool, but as a financial and emotional bridge—transforming renters into confident, first-time buyers.
RESULTS
Outcomes
The Bilt Home Buying experience launched as a first-of-its-kind feature that reimagined the transition from renting to owning—not just as a financial transaction, but as a personalized, confidence-building journey. Within the first weeks of rollout, the feature drove strong organic engagement from renters already embedded in the Bilt ecosystem, validating our hypothesis that positioning homeownership as an “upgrade path” (not a separate app experience) would reduce barrier to entry.
Early data showed that users who engaged with the Home Buying flow spent 3x more time in-app and had significantly higher retention over a 30-day window. The majority of users completed the full affordability onboarding and viewed multiple listings in their first session. Importantly, the “Schedule a Tour” CTA saw a high conversion rate, and partner agents reported that users came in well-informed—thanks to our just-in-time education and personalized UX. We also saw a notable lift in Bilt Points usage and awareness, indicating that rewards messaging woven into the UX helped reinforce brand value across this new vertical.
Qualitatively, user feedback highlighted how “calming” and “clear” the experience felt, with several users noting they “had no idea buying a home could feel this doable.” That emotional signal was one of our core design goals—proof that the product resonated not just functionally, but psychologically.
CLOSING
Final Summary
The Bilt Home Buying experience was designed to turn a daunting process—mortgages, rates, closing costs—into a journey that felt empowering and even exciting. By embedding personalization, behavioral cues, and transparent UX patterns throughout the flow, we created an experience where users could understand their options, feel financially confident, and move toward homeownership with clarity.
My role as VP of Product was to lead cross-functional design strategy, ensuring that engineering feasibility, user emotion, and brand trust were aligned in every decision. This wasn’t just a feature—it was a product ecosystem designed to support renters becoming homeowners, while rewarding them meaningfully for doing so.
REFLECTION
What I’d Do Differently
Introduce progressive disclosure even earlier.
We gave a lot of valuable information upfront—but some users may have benefitted from a light onboarding moment to ease into the mortgage logic step-by-step.
A/B test listing layouts for different buyer mindsets.
Some users are visual-first, others financial-first. Testing alternate views (e.g., finance-first vs. image-first) could deepen engagement by matching how people naturally browse.Integrate point-earning simulation.
While points were messaged clearly, showing users a dynamic “how many points you’d earn as you browse” calculator could have made the rewards feel more real-time and motivating.Build a version for users who aren’t quite ready to buy.
Adding a “Help me prepare” mode—focused on saving, credit building, or educational content—could serve future buyers and keep them in the Bilt ecosystem longer.