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Boomin was a property portal and CRM, with a suite of products for estate agents and their customers
Overview
SmartVal allowed homeowners to get an online property valuation from local estate agents, offering more accuracy than algorithm-driven market estimates.
Boomin wanted to increase engagement by allowing homeowners to request valuations outside of office hours, aligning with TV advertising campaigns, while ensuring estate agents didn’t feel pressured to respond instantly during non-working hours.
Key challenge: Updating a complex notification system with multiple states, rules, and new out-of-hours handling while keeping it intuitive for agents.
WHO?
Estate agents using Boomin's CRM to receive and respond to SmartVal valuation requests
WHAT?
The SmartVal notification system alerted estate agents to new valuation requests from local homeowners. It ensured agents could manage leads efficiently, balancing response times with availability settings
WHEN?
Agents received lead notifications in real-time during business hours, with a new update allowing out-of-hours requests to be captured and retrieved later.
WHERE?
Notifications were integrated across Boomin’s CRM, mobile, SMS, and email, ensuring agents could stay informed regardless of their device or location.
WHY?
To increase lead generation from evening TV campaigns while ensuring agents had control over their availability, preventing unnecessary pressure to respond outside working hours.
The Process
Discover
Understanding The Problem
The existing system only handled leads during office hours, limiting engagement from homeowners who interacted with SmartVal in the evening (especially during TV advertising campaigns).
Agents had strict response times (15 minutes to accept, 15 minutes to submit a valuation), but out-of-hours leads introduced new complexities:
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The business wanted to increase lead volume but avoid creating unnecessary pressure on agents.
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Expectations had to be clear to homeowners and landlords - when would they receive a valuation if it was submitted out of hours?
Original SmartVal notification component: 11 variants for each in-hours scenario
Problem Statement
We needed to update the notification system to accommodate this flexibility, ensuring:
Agents clearly understand this updated feature and the rules associated to both in-hours and out-of-hours leads
Leads were handled consistently across weekdays, weekends, and holidays
Homeowners were given realistic expectations on when to receive their valuation.
Define
Establishing the Solution
Key Decisions & New Logic Defined
After mapping the current variants and gathering further requirements from stakeholders, I established the logic needed to deliver this feature update.
We needed a way to:
Allow agents to set their availability for out-of-hours leads
Establish lead expiration rules and adjust the notification component to account for each different scenario
Create a new system for storing these out-of hour notifications so that agents can retrieve them within working hours
Ensure designs support agents understanding of each stage
Mapping current variants and their scenarios
Develop
Implementing the Logic & System Changes
Since this feature was business-driven with a tight deadline, no user testing was conducted before launch. Instead I focused on refining the notification & lead management system.
Refining the Notification & Lead Management System
Expanded notification variants from 12 to 19 to cover:
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Agent status (active, offline, logged out)
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Lead expiration handling (time-sensitive vs. stored for later retrieval)
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Saves vs. lettings leads for clarity
Created a SmartVal Dashboard section where agents could retrieve missed out-of-hours leads.
Built logic for offline agents:
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If an agent was logged out, the system stored missed notifications.
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A login notification alert was added to inform them of past leads.
Defined copy & messaging clarity for notifications and lead statuses
DELIVER
Bringing the Solution to Life
With a clear plan in place, it was time to roll out the new notification logic and lead management system. Since this was a logic-heavy update, a smooth handoff to developers was critical.
Collaboration & Execution
Worked closely with UI designers to refine messaging across CRM, email, and SMS notifications - ensuring agents always knew what action to take next.
Mapped out every notification trigger and condition - from lead expiry rules to how agents would be alerted when logging back in.
Built out a clear dashboard flow so that agents could easily retrieve missed leads without disrupting their workflow.
Handover to Developers
To ensure a seamless build, I created a detailed handover document covering:
How the new notification logic worked - when, why, and how notifications were sent.
Lead expiry and reassignment rules - so no lead was lost.
How the new dashboard section integrated with the existing SmartVal system.
I also stayed involved during development, answering questions and helping the team iron out any unexpected complexities.
Retrospective & Next Steps
What went well
Mapping the original notification components upfront was a game-changer – By visually laying out the existing logic, it became clear what needed to change, making early conversations with developers and product managers much more focused and constructive. It also helped surface edge cases and overlooked scenarios before jumping into design.
Collaboration with the UI designer was smooth and efficient – Because we had a well-documented breakdown of notification states and triggers, we could work together seamlessly to refine the messaging and ensure consistency across all channels (CRM, email, SMS).
The handover document made development much more straightforward – By clearly pointing out how the previous notification system needed to be updated, the development team was able to ticket up the work efficiently. This reduced back-and-forth and ensured there was no ambiguity about what needed to be built.
Implementation went off without a hitch – Thanks to clear documentation and thorough planning, the feature was developed and released on time, with no major issues post-launch. Agents immediately had a more flexible and functional notification system without any disruption to their existing workflows.
What could have been improved
No user testing before launch – Given the tight timeline, there wasn’t an opportunity to validate the new experience with agents before release. A follow-up round of usability testing would have been valuable to fine-tune how agents interact with the notification settings and lead retrieval flow.
Missed opportunity for automation – While the new system gave agents more flexibility, further automation could have prioritised leads based on agent responsiveness. For example, if an agent consistently responded quickly, they could be given priority access to leads instead of following a fixed rotation.
Longer-term impact tracking could have been built in – While we monitored initial adoption, setting up longer-term analytics (e.g., tracking how often out-of-hours leads were retrieved, whether agent opt-in rates changed over time) could have helped measure ongoing success and identify areas for further optimisation.