Development and Design for a Top 10 Real Estate Company in the US
#1
Real estate franchise in the US
Ranked by agent count, with more than 170,000 agents.
100%
Adoption of the design system
Across the products it was built for.
0
Legacy UI left behind
Nothing from the old interface carried forward.
The client
By agent count, Keller Williams is the largest real estate franchise on the planet, employing more than 170,000 agents, and Fast Company named it one of the Most Innovative Companies of 2019.
Its transformation began in 2015, when it repositioned itself as a technology company, investing in its own software, in cloud and in AI, and creating KW Labs as an innovation hub. By October 2019 its Command platform had over 100,000 active users with more than 40 million client contacts added, and Kelle had passed 85,000.
The challengeWhat the teams actually needed
A company moving this fast has to stay consistent across a growing set of products without slowing its route to market.
Challenge 01Consistency across many products
Maintaining one look and behaviour across multiple platforms became critical as the portfolio widened, and the production process had to get more efficient at the same time.
Challenge 02Everything in one tool
Command is an all-in-one platform for agents, and the hard part was building and merging every function into a single place while redesigning what was already there.
Challenge 03Independence from third parties
Almost the whole industry relied on outside technology companies; KW decided to build proprietary software instead, which meant partners who could work inside that decision.
What we did
A 50-strong team across design, software and data
The collaboration started modestly in late 2017 with a single feature; by 2019 more than fifty people were supporting the transformation.
Built from scratch with their team
A new design system was created alongside KW’s designers — visual assets, fonts, colours and UI components — so developers can reuse them across existing products, supported by a wide style guide, shared practices and a hand in the product roadmap.
The all-in-one tool for agents
Frontend and backend engineers support five project teams working on components of Command, the software and networking platform agents use to grow their business.
Command, on the move
A Node.js and React Native team builds the new version of Kelle, the AI-powered assistant, carrying Contacts and Referrals, Maps, Tasks, Notifications and the Sales Pipeline over from the desktop app to mobile.
Historical data, mapped forward
Data engineering helps map years of real estate data into KW’s new listing system, giving agents estimates of how changing a parameter affects an offer’s chances, and consumers a deep-match search based on preference rather than filters.
Client testimonial
Netguru has been the best agency we've worked with so far. Your team understands Kelle and is able to design new skills, features, and interactions within our model, with a great focus on speed to market. Netguru has also been great in terms of having the ability to understand how to balance your own design experience and the best design practices with the outcome of the KW Labs sessions.
Tech stackThe tools that made it possible
01
React & React Native
Frontend and mobile across Command, Kelle and Keller Covered.
02
Node.js
Backend behind the platforms and the new Kelle app.
03
GraphQL
The API layer between them.
04
Go
Also in the mix across KW’s in-house projects.
More like thisOther places we scaled product teams for growth.
What’s next