Waltz property
investing ecosystem
Waltz property investing ecosystem
Leading the design in the expansion of Waltz product from an early-stage MVP into a growth state, three-pillared product ecosystem.
Leading the design in the expansion of Waltz product from an early-stage MVP into a growth state, three-pillared product ecosystem.
Industry
Fintech
Proptech
Timeline
Sep 2024 - Dec 2025
Core team
Carlos Postigo - Product Designer
Ayelet Lev Arom - Product Designer
me - Product Design Lead
My role
Insure product growth without losing quality
Organization of design resources
Design author across stakeholders
End-to-end design processes
Introduction
Introduction
Waltz is a digital platform designed to make US real estate investment accessible and paperless for global investors.
With our US investor kit, we unblocked the front door for the investors. However, it was only the beginning; the actual mortgage journey remained a manual, fragmented experience.
As the Product Design Lead, I led the expansion of our product portfolio to bring this journey onto the platform, ensuring we fulfilled our promise of a seamless, all-in-one purchase experience.
Key outcomes
Key outcomes
30% less emails
30% less emails
Reduction on email exchange volumes in first trimester
10% increase in velocity
10% increase in velocity
Initial reduction on the document review velocity (with expected 50% by first 6 months through AI)
1 → 3 growth
1 → 3 growth
Growth in our product portfolio from 1 to 3-pillared ecosystem
2x faster closing
2x faster closing
The team could double the mortgage processing capacity through journey automations
The challenge
The challenge
The core challenge was the "time-to-close" . While our digital onboarding was fast, the mortgage journey was a manual grind that consumed hours of staff time per deal. Document validation alone was a massive drain; because each deal had unique complexities, the team was spending most of their time collecting, reviewing and verifying piles of files for every single investor.
We reached a point where our marketing success was actually creating a bottleneck: the lead pipeline was full, but the manual processes were too slow to sustain our growth.
We needed to unblock "the mortgage machine."
Objectives
Objectives
01
01
01
Unblock the pipeline: Eliminate the operational bottleneck caused by manual "off-platform" coordination, allowing the team to process more mortgages with the same headcount.
Unblock the pipeline: Eliminate the operational bottleneck caused by manual "off-platform" coordination, allowing the team to process more mortgages with the same headcount.
Unblock the pipeline:
Eliminate the operational bottleneck caused by manual "off-platform" coordination, allowing the team to process more mortgages with the same headcount.
02
02
02
Digitize the hidden workflow: Move the mortgage journey from email threads into a centralized, trackable platform experience.
Digitize the hidden workflow: Move the mortgage journey from email threads into a centralized, trackable platform experience.
Digitize the hidden workflow:
Move the mortgage journey from email threads into a centralized, trackable platform experience.
03
03
03
Empower B2B partnerships: Provide tools for the partners to strengthen our referral network and accelerate the speed-to-close for their clients.
Empower B2B partnerships: Provide tools for the partners to strengthen our referral network and accelerate the speed-to-close for their clients.
Empower B2B partnerships:
Provide tools for the partners to strengthen our referral network and accelerate the speed-to-close for their clients.
04
04
04
Design for scalability:
Evolve our design foundations to handle different user densities while preparing the system for AI-driven automation.
Design for scalability:
Evolve our design foundations to handle different user densities while preparing the system for AI-driven automation.
Research & discovery
Research & discovery
To understand the friction, we shadowed our internal teams and investors in their workflows and conducted in-depth interviews.
We discovered:
A visibility gap: The investors signed up for an all-in-one platform, but after the investor kit the experience dropped with no visibility into what came next, forcing users back into off-platform communication.
Partner friction: Real estate agents were desperate to be in the loop about the deal status and to help their clients to move the deal along but lacked the access to do so.
A scattered process: Internally, we found that deals were split between multiple people with different responsibilities, which led to confused communication with multiple staff members.
To understand the friction, we shadowed our internal teams and investors in their workflows and conducted in-depth interviews.
We discovered:
A visibility gap: The investors signed up for an all-in-one platform, but after the investor kit the experience dropped with no visibility into what came next, forcing users back into off-platform communication.
Partner friction: Real estate agents were desperate to be in the loop about the deal status and to help their clients to move the deal along but lacked the access to do so.
A scattered process: Internally, we found that deals were split between multiple people with different responsibilities, which led to confused communication with multiple staff members.
We originally intended to bring every missing piece of the journey to the platform. However, our research revealed that the steps related to documents were the primary time-consumers. We pivoted our focus to solve this specific bottleneck first, as it offered the highest immediate value for both the business and the user.
We originally intended to bring every missing piece of the journey to the platform. However, our research revealed that the steps related to documents were the primary time-consumers. We pivoted our focus to solve this specific bottleneck first, as it offered the highest immediate value for both the business and the user.
Design strategy & execution
Design strategy
& execution
Design strategy & execution
As a small design team managing a highly complex ecosystem, I needed to make sure our design process was optimised for maximum context and zero silos.
Roadmap alignment: I participated in quarter-based mapping to align design resources with company-wide OKRs.
Feature-based ownership: I assigned ownership by feature rather than platform to ensure every designer understood the full mortgage lifecycle. Because every feature (like document upload) touched all three user types, the designer was responsible for the end-to-end workflow across the entire ecosystem.
Peer review culture: I encouraged a culture of mutual feedback through design critique sessions, ensuring consistency and elevating the overall craft of the design team.
Cross-functional collaboration: I assured we worked in a tight loop with engineers and product managers through daily syncs and weekly design reviews. Company wide reviews with stakeholders (management, sales, legal) to ensure early alignment on high-stakes features.
Dev-friendly handoffs & QA: I worked with engineers to establish standardised and dev-friendly design hand-offs and QA procedures to assure most optimal workflows.
As a small design team managing a highly complex ecosystem, I needed to make sure our design process was optimised for maximum context and zero silos.
Roadmap alignment: I participated in quarter-based mapping to align design resources with company-wide OKRs.
Feature-based ownership: I assigned ownership by feature rather than platform to ensure every designer understood the full mortgage lifecycle. Because every feature (like document upload) touched all three user types, the designer was responsible for the end-to-end workflow across the entire ecosystem.
Peer review culture: I encouraged a culture of mutual feedback through design critique sessions, ensuring consistency and elevating the overall craft of the design team.
Cross-functional collaboration: I assured we worked in a tight loop with engineers and product managers through daily syncs and weekly design reviews. Company wide reviews with stakeholders (management, sales, legal) to ensure early alignment on high-stakes features.
Dev-friendly handoffs & QA: I worked with engineers to establish standardised and dev-friendly design hand-offs and QA procedures to assure most optimal workflows.
The solution
The solution
We architected an ecosystem of three interconnected products. This ensured that every stakeholder—investor, partner, and operator—was working from a single, real-time source of truth.
Investor platform: We transformed the post-onboarding experience into a hub where investors manage the critical milestones of their mortgage journey—including document uploads, loan application, source of funds, and 5+ additional core features—finally being closer to our “all-in-one” promise.
Partner platform: A dedicated dashboard for real estate agents to track their client pipeline and proactively assist in the process via a custom permission layer.
Internal back office: A robust, high-density utility that empowers our team to manage deals with increased flexibility. By moving off-platform communication into this centralized system, we gave operators the visibility needed to handle complex transactions with higher velocity and fewer errors.
AI at the core: The breakthrough for our operational scale was an AI validation feature for document requests. We built a specialized engine that allows our team to set specific validation rules for different document types and flag or pre-validate documents in minutes without sacrificing the accuracy required for mortgage approval.
We architected an ecosystem of three interconnected products. This ensured that every stakeholder—investor, partner, and operator—was working from a single, real-time source of truth.
Investor platform: We transformed the post-onboarding experience into a hub where investors manage the critical milestones of their mortgage journey—including document uploads, loan application, source of funds, and 5+ additional core features—finally being closer to our “all-in-one” promise.
Partner platform: A dedicated dashboard for real estate agents to track their client pipeline and proactively assist in the process via a custom permission layer.
Internal back office: A robust, high-density utility that empowers our team to manage deals with increased flexibility. By moving off-platform communication into this centralized system, we gave operators the visibility needed to handle complex transactions with higher velocity and fewer errors.
AI at the core: The breakthrough for our operational scale was an AI validation feature for document requests. We built a specialized engine that allows our team to set specific validation rules for different document types and flag or pre-validate documents in minutes without sacrificing the accuracy required for mortgage approval.
The impact
The impact
This project marked Waltz’s evolution from an early-stage MVP to a mature, growth-state ecosystem focused on operational speed. We proved that we could maintain a "white-glove" investor experience while leveraging AI and automation to handle the operational heavy lifting. Our work resulted in measurable impact:
This project marked Waltz’s evolution from an early-stage MVP to a mature, growth-state ecosystem focused on operational speed. We proved that we could maintain a "white-glove" investor experience while leveraging AI and automation to handle the operational heavy lifting. Our work resulted in measurable impact:
1 → 3
1 → 3
1 → 3
Growth in our product portfolio
Growth in our product portfolio
Growth in our product portfolio
30%
30%
30%
Reduction on emails
in first trimester
Reduction on emails
in first trimester
Reduction on emails
in first trimester
10%
10%
10%
Initial increase on the
document review velocity
Initial increase on the
document review velocity
Initial increase on the
document review velocity
300M$
300M$
300M$
Contributed the company
to process mortgages for
the value of +300M$
Contributed the company
to process mortgages for
the value of +300M$
Contributed the company
to process mortgages for
the value of +300M$
Waltz property
investing ecosystem
Leading the design in the expansion of Waltz product from an early-stage MVP into a growth-state, three-pillared product ecosystem
Industry
Fintech
Proptech
Timeline
Sep 2024-Dec 2025
Core team
Carlos Postigo - Product Designer
Ayelet Lev Arom - Product Designer
me - Product Design Lead
My role
Insure product growth without losing quality Organization of design resources
Design author across stakeholders
End-to-end design processes