When we first encountered Blackbird, it was a powerful tool on paper, a sleek, data-rich internal platform built by one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms.

But there was a problem: no one wanted to use it.

Despite its capabilities, adoption was low. Brokers avoided it, researchers had to do most of the heavy lifting, and its main users, the people who needed quick insights to guide high-stakes real estate decisions, were nowhere near the product development process.

Designing Without Users is Just Guesswork

Blackbird had been designed without the end user in mind. Or, to be more accurate, without any user in mind.

What was meant to be an interactive tool for exploring market data and property insights had become a confusing interface with no clear workflows. It was technically advanced, but practically unusable.

The organization knew it had something valuable, but couldn't understand why it wasn’t being used. That’s where we came in.

Bringing Users to the Table

At first, our client asked us to make small tweaks to the interface and add a few new features but once we explored the application and heard about its adoption issues, it became clear the problems ran deeper. The team behind it knew it needed major improvements, but the business hadn’t yet prioritized the investment.

Fortunately, a sister application within the same company was gaining momentum, creating an opportunity for both products to benefit. With that, Blackbird received the support needed to make meaningful changes.

We recommended bringing power users into weekly discussions to challenge assumptions and refine the backlog. We also reached out to less experienced users, the brokers, who stood to gain from the product but didn’t know it inside out.

This approach wasn’t just about empathy; it was about strategy. By understanding the real challenges both expert and casual users faced, we were able to reimagine the product to better support everyone’s workflow.

Less Add-ons, More Impact

One of the biggest changes we made wasn’t about adding more, it was about refining what mattered.

Before our involvement, new features were often added based on internal assumptions or long-term wishlists. However, when we started validating ideas with users, it became clear which features actually made their jobs easier and which ones just added noise.

By prioritizing clarity, usefulness, and flow, we transformed Blackbird from a static tool into a truly dynamic experience, one that guided brokers through rich market data in a way that felt intuitive, fast, and even enjoyable.

The Result: Adoption Through Design

When we launched the first iteration of the new experience, the results spoke for themselves:

  • 30% increase in number of users
  • 40% rise in sessions
  • 10% drop in bounce rate
  • Record high hours of use, broken week after week

But beyond the numbers, we saw something even more valuable: users were coming back.

Not because they had to, but because the product finally made sense in their day-to-day work. Blackbird was no longer an internal tool that required a specialist to operate, it became something anyone on the team could pick up, explore, and actually use to drive conversations with clients.

What Blackbird Taught Us

What began as surface level improvements turned into a strategic effort to rethink how the product served its users and the business.

By making space for real user input and by committing to solving real problems (not just adding features), we were able to reshape Blackbird into a product that supported the business and empowered its people.

That’s what a great user experience does. It doesn't just polish, it unlocks value both for the users and for the organizations that invest in it.


Vicky Jaime
Chief Design Officer @ Codelitt
Helping real estate teams build products that users actually adopt.