Quick Start Plan
Problem
Business
Most customers only return to Thumbtack when maintenance emergencies arise, limiting re-engagement and revenue growth. Helping users kickstart a home maintenance checklist (plan adoption), will turn reactive users into proactive users.
User
Homeowners are primarily focused on immediate needs and often miss out on proactive home care strategies that could save them time and money in the long run.
"How might I help guide users in creating a customized home care plan that aligns with their specific needs?"
Research
Goals
I partnered with my researcher to:
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Understand where homeowners currently seek out inspiration and guidance for home projects.
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Validate the selection of projects based on topics that our target audience is interested in.
Method
We surveyed 250 homeowners
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Non-Thumbtack participants
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Equal mix of genders
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Mix of homeowner experience levels:
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17% novice
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69% somewhat knowledgeable
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14% experienced
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Key learnings
Homeowners are extremely likely to seek inspiration before starting home projects
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88% of participants stated they were extremely likely to spend time researching their home projects upfront
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89% of homeowners look for inspiration on YouTube
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The other most common sources of inspiration are:
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Pinterest (57%)
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Instagram (46%)
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Reddit (46%)
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Competitive research
In addition to the apps mentioned above, I looked at experiences that have curated recommendations based off of the user's actions and specified interests. This included streaming platforms, food delivery services, and retail sites.
Common themes included:
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Easy to scan a long list of items
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Quick add / save functionality
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Copy that explains the value of adding your interests to receive more personalized recommendations
Design
Placement
The team and I decided to place the new plan adoption feature in onboarding to:
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Help users start building a plan from day one.
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Introduce Thumbtack as a trusted home-care partner.
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Capture early signals from a broad audience.
90% of users currently complete the entire flow and are dropped directly into the app without clear direction on what to do first. We believe this leads to lower plan adoption and depth. Qualitative feedback suggest that users are more likely to engage with a lighter weight version of guidance at the end of onboarding.
Old flow
New flow
Low-fi
I shared my first round of mocks with design, product, engineering, and data science for feedback. I’m a big fan of using Loom videos for async updates before design handoffs—it saves meeting time and helps catch overlooked edge cases. At this stage, I also collaborated closely with my content designer to fine-tune how we frame the question and determine the right number of projects to display without overwhelming users.
High-fi
Scalability was a key focus, as this feature has the potential to significantly drive plan adoption. The new card design is versatile enough to be repurposed across the app, offering quick, relevant guidance wherever users need help deciding their next steps at home.
Partnership language to build trust in our guidance
Tile photos to emphasize the project name over the stock images
Toast to confirm the action and introduce them to their plan
Static groupings of projects based on geographic popularity
Insights
Product evolution
This feature has been instrumental in driving deeper plan adoption. Since the initial launch, we've conducted several experiments to further boost these metrics. Today, 85% of plan task volume today is coming from a user’s day of signup. Key improvements include:
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User goals: Instead of a static project list, we began tailoring projects based on the user goals identified during onboarding.
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Ranking updates: Adjustments to the user goals-to-task mapping to better guide customers toward optimal projects.
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Copy testing: Experimenting with different messaging styles (e.g., question-based vs. partnership-oriented) to determine the most effective engagement.
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Custom projects: Introducing the ability for users to add their own projects, making their plans more personalized and accessible.
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Quality enhancements: As part of our company's Experience Quality Week, I animated the bookmark and added haptic feedback when users save a project to their plan, introducing an extra layer of delight.
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Categorized popular projects ranked by priority
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Listed value props for each project
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+7% to plan adoption
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Categorized projects by the user's goals they selected on the previous screen
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Removed the value props to reduce the amount of text
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+12.2% to plan adoption
Custom add
MVP
User goals + ranking
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Allowed users to custom-add their own projects at this step
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+1.6% to plan adoption