Open Book: Ashlee Perry
Hear how Ashlee used her own home buying experience to gain deeper empathy with our customers.
Open Book is a series of interviews where you get to meet our creative design team at Opendoor.
Hi Ashlee, what do you do at Opendoor?
I’m a product designer for our Seller Growth team. I work on bringing more potential customers to Opendoor by providing the most immediate value to their selling experience. This means I work on everything from marketing, to our onboarding and input flows, to continuous engagement with Opendoor.
You recently moved from SF to Denver! Can you share a bit more about how the pandemic has changed your personal and professional life?
Like many of us, the beginning of the pandemic kept me inside with only video calls to stay connected with my co-workers, friends and family. Working from my San Francisco apartment, I realized I wanted to be closer to my childhood friends and family long-term. SF had such a positive impact on my life, but I was ready for change and a new adventure.
With the ability to work remotely, I packed up and headed to Denver. Moving back to my hometown has helped me expand my creativity, and connect with individuals that have very different everyday lives than I do working in tech.
How have you adjusted to working remotely with teammates?
Working in the office sitting next to other designers all day definitely had it’s perks. You’re able to tap someone on the shoulder to quickly get feedback or chat about where you feel stuck while hanging out at lunch. Fortunately, early on I was working very closely with my teammate Gavin and we had to quickly find a way to keep that close collaboration possible once remote. Although our company uses collaboration tools, we found that it can be cumbersome to have to make meetings or ping someone every time you need to chat. So we tried Tandem, an app that allows you to easily see when someone is online. You can simply click on their name to start talking and video chatting with them instantly. When we’re on the video and working on projects, it feels as if your teammate is right next to you, in-person.
We also use Figma at Opendoor. This tool makes collaboration and working together on projects very easy and seamless. We also have taken to using FigJam when doing design sprints, it’s helpful they created an effortless way for us to collaborate.
The biggest thing I’ve learned? Be proactive and reach out to teammates. It may not feel natural at first, but the more you do it, the more smooth and expected it feels. I even try to reach out to teammates I don’t directly work with — a fresh perspective is always very welcome.
You just closed on a house as well! Does going through that process affect the way you view the real estate industry?
In order to effectively design for customers, you need to gain deep understanding and empathy for their motivations and the problems they face. Although we’ve developed many ways through research, user testing and industry experience to best understand our customers, sometimes, the best way to accomplish the deepest empathy can be through doing it yourself. Gaining this type of experience can be challenging living in San Francisco, where being able to achieve milestones such as buying a house may, at times, feel like a pipe dream. With the ability to move back to Denver, I unlocked my potential to not only accomplish my goal of buying a house but also, my ability to gain a clearer understanding of what our customers go through. I learned that:
- You may fall in love with a home but find there’s already a handful of offers on it, which is heart crushing. It can take a long time to find a home you want to spend your life savings on.
- Everyone has unique features, amenities, and styles that are most important to them in their home search. And as a homebuyer, if you know exactly what you want, you’re in the best position to find your dream home.
- Once the offer is accepted, there are many steps that follow and at times can be unclear. When doing this, especially by yourself (like me) you can start to feel unsure about your decision. Am I getting a lemon? Am I paying too much for the house? How do I get insurance? Will the inspection uncover issues?
- I had no idea exactly how much money I’d have to pay until the day before. When you’re saving money for a down payment, make sure you’re also saving a cushion for all the fees and costs that come after moving in.
So, outside of Opendoor, what are some things that bring you joy? How do you like to spend your free time?
I’m a Colorado kid, so getting outdoors for hikes or even a picnic in the park with friends gives me life. Summertime here was full of that. I also love creating and building just about anything. With a new house, I’ve been consumed with crafting a vision for each space of my home. I can’t wait for all the projects I have planned for to come to life, and am even more excited to invite people over to see them!
Looking ahead, what are you excited about in Opendoor’s future?
There’s still so much work to be done to truly empower people with the freedom to move. I’m excited by all of the innovative ways we’re enabling our customers to not only sell but also buy their homes. We’re trying to understand all of the problems people face when wanting to sell and buy their dream homes; And what we can offer is different from what’s historically been possible. When we start to combine all of these ideas into one experience the possibilities for our customers become endless. I’m excited to build a place where people can buy, sell, buy+sell, and finance their homes all in one place — a place where there’s transparency and education every step of the way.
I see a future in which the largest transaction of your life comes with less stress, more confidence and the freedom to get exactly what you desire.
Other entries in the series:
P.S. If you liked what you read and are interested in learning more, check out our jobs page! We’re always hiring.
