Buildium (RealPage) · 2024
Liability Management Solution for Property Managers
Turning a static report into a place to act: one page where property management companies see every security deposit and liability they hold, act on it, and get reminded before a refund or legal deadline slips through the cracks.
- Role
- Product Designer (design owner of the upmarket segment)
- Company
- Buildium (RealPage)
- Timeline
- Dec 2023 – Mar 2024
(~ 4 months) - Users
- Property management companies (upper SMB)
- Core Team
- Product Manager, Tech Lead, UX Researcher
- Research
- 3 moderated usability tests, internal feedback tracker
Context
Buildium is property management software for rentals and associations. As it moved upmarket to win larger SMB customers, one thing scaled badly: more units mean more security deposits and liabilities (money held on behalf of tenants) to track, each with legal obligations attached, like inspections and refunds due on time.
The problem
“As a property manager, I want easy access to see the leases I’m holding liabilities on in one view, and to take action and manage them.”
- Rent Roll, the main lease list, didn’t show liabilities at scale.
- The new Security Deposit & Liabilities report gathered the information, but users couldn’t act on leases from it.
- Managers were left asking: How do I deal with many leases at once? Did I miss a refund? How will I know when a lease ending still has liabilities held?
Goals
Go beyond gathering liabilities, and let property managers act on them:
- See and manage lease-specific liabilities, with direct actions.
- Find refunds that are due or missed, and take the next step.
- Get notified about leases expiring, or already expired, that still hold liabilities.
Why it mattered for the business
Upper-SMB customers expect this information in a manageable format, with direct actions and notifications at scale. Getting it right was part of Buildium’s strategy to attract and retain larger portfolios.
My role
As the design owner of Buildium’s upmarket segment, I led this work end to end: framing the problem with product, running moderated usability tests, designing the solution, and presenting early concepts at the project kickoff to gather feedback from customer-facing teams. I worked closely with UX researchers, product managers and engineers throughout.
Design principles
I anchored every decision in Buildium’s UX pillars and customer goals, chiefly gaining efficiency by removing the burden of manual workflows. Three pillars guided this project:
Focused & streamlined
Only what managers need to clear their liabilities, with actions one click away.
Intuitive & familiar
Build on patterns and places they already use every day, so there’s nothing new to learn.
Tailored yet flexible
Reminders and filters each company can shape around its own workflow.
The solution
01 - Liability Management Page
One page to rule them all (liabilities). A comprehensive management center reached from Rent Roll, the familiar stop, where managers already work, and can act lease by lease or in bulk.
02 - Liabilities dashboard widget
From instant information to an actionable control tower: a glanceable summary on the dashboard that leads straight into the detail.
- Two tabs split what’s already expired from what ends in the next 30 days, with a count on each.
- Each lease shows the liability held, the lease end date and how long ago it expired.
- “View all” leads straight into the Liability Management Page.
03 - Email reminders & custom notifications
Custom reminders tell managers about expiring and expired leases before a legal deadline is missed.
Each manager chooses how far ahead to hear about expiring leases, and how often to be reminded about expired ones.
- Weekly emails for leases expiring in a chosen number of days.
- Recurring reminders about expired leases with liabilities still held.
- A clear count of expired leases with liabilities held, each with its lease end date and how long ago it expired.
- One call to action, “View all expired leases”, back into Buildium.
- The current setting is shown in the email, with a direct link to change it.
Key design decisions
- 01
From report to action
The data already existed in a report. The real value was letting managers act where they see the problem, without exporting or switching screens.
- 02
Meet users where they already are
Entry from Rent Roll and the dashboard, instead of a new destination users would have to discover.
- 03
Progressive disclosure
A light widget for awareness, a full page for action, and reminders for what can’t wait.
- 04
Prevent, don’t just inform
Deadlines here carry legal weight, so the system tells managers before something is due rather than after it’s missed.
What testing showed
To validate the Liability Management Page and its notifications, I ran 3 live, moderated usability tests with users.
“This is very simple, and simplicity is what I look for in software.”
“I really like this. I think it could streamline some stuff.”
“All of these functionalities are better than what we have now.”
“Pretty easy.”
- Participants found the page intuitive and familiar, aligned with what they expect from Buildium, and suggested customization enhancements to streamline their workflows.
- They asked for customizable filters, especially for days remaining on a lease.
- They wanted notifications for expired leases and their upcoming liabilities.
- They preferred a persistent notification, so important updates aren’t overlooked.
These findings shaped the final iteration of filters and notifications.
Measuring success
- Adoption: at least 10% of Rental and Mixed-Use customers using the page and its actions within 90 days of release.
- Notifications: at least 10% of Rental and Mixed-Use customers setting up and using them within 90 days of release.
- Satisfaction: a customer survey on the new pathways and notifications.
A final note. I left Buildium before there was enough data to measure the impact of this feature against these targets, so the results aren’t included here.
Got questions?
I’m always excited to collaborate on innovative and exciting projects.