Homebuyer Education Lender Research

challenge & outcomes

Homebuyer education (HBE) is designed to educate homebuyers about the potential benefits and risks of owning a home. HBE is typically offered as part of an affordable loan program, often as a requirement.

In partnership with Fannie Mae's Single-Family Affordable team, we conducted research with lenders on the HBE experience in order to:

  • Tactically: Determine the most seamless process for a lender and borrower to onboard and receive certification for the new mobile app

  • Strategically: Understand the HBE delivery process and its key actors to inform the HBE product and strategy moving forward

my role

I led synthesis, insight writing, presentation content, and presentation design. I played a significant role in conducting research, visualization, writing user stories, facilitating ideation and prioritization, and writing report content.

I joined this project as research was kicking off. Alexis McNutt Unis led the project and developed the research guides with Yvonne Tran, who managed the project. We alternated in leading and attending research engagements and all contributed to synthesis. Vy Vu led the final visual design.

research

We worked with teams across Fannie Mae to gather data that helped us identify our research participants, including:

  • Lending institutions with a diversity of affordable loan delivery volumes, average area median incomes, geographic regions, and business models

  • Affordable deliveries by loan officer so we could speak with individuals who had experience working with affordable products and HBE offerings

  • Zip codes for each loan officer's loans to ensure we were getting perspectives from particular areas of interest (for example, rural areas and persistent poverty counties)

We facilitated interviews with 28 individuals at 12 lending institutions. 22 interviews were on-site at lenders' offices. Our interviews were conducted one-on-one or in small groups at the interviewees' place of work. Most interviews consisted of:

  • 30 minutes of Q&A: to capture high-level stories and attitudes

  • 30 minutes of a structured journey mapping activity: to capture specific examples

  • 15 minutes of prototype testing: to demonstrate and evaluate two different processes for onboarding in the new mobile app

synthesis

As we conducted our research, we gathered feedback from lenders about HBE and the original web-based course. We also continually sketched visualizations to help our partners and stakeholders understand the HBE ecosystem and process, creating two final visual deliverables:

  • HBE ecosystem map, which shows all the places and levels at which consumers get information about homebuying

  • HBE process map, which shows where various types of HBE come in during the homebuying process

We developed four key findings and created a list of corresponding recommendations. They fall into four themes:

  • Messaging and Communication

  • Timing and Cadence

  • Technology and Integration

  • Partnership with Lenders and Others

Finally, our research and synthesis process led us to form a strong perspective on HBE and the stance Fannie Mae should take when developing their strategy. We led with this perspective in our presentation and report, which received positive feedback.

prototype testing results

In addition to the higher-level interviews and journey mapping activities that got us to our insights and visualizations, we also shared prototypes from the app team that demonstrated two different approaches to onboarding. Our research participants clearly preferred one approach, which we shared with our partners and their stakeholders so they could fully build out that process.

impact

We generated a set of 14 user stories based on our findings and recommendations. They could be seamlessly integrated into the development timeline for the mobile app. We facilitated a session with our primary business partners and their leadership to combine these user stories with existing priorities.