Seeing the deal before it slips away
How uncovering a missed business moment in real estate signing led to a fast proof of concept for KeySign.
01. Overview
During some discovery work for our agent platform, I noticed a pattern that was easy to overlook but costly for the business. Agents were meeting buyers in the driveway to draft and sign agreements on the spot, often using improvised tools and disconnected workflows. This moment was not supported by any product in our ecosystem, yet it consistently influenced whether a deal closed or slipped away.
As a principal designer, I surfaced this behaviour, quantified its impact, and framed it as a missed business opportunity that directly affected conversion and speed to close. Once leadership saw the evidence, I was asked to deliver a fast proof of concept for a new signing experience that could meet agents where deals were actually happening.
02. Discover — uncovering unmet needs in real-world, on-the-go signing moments
Through agent interviews, I observed a recurring but underserved behavior: agents frequently finalize contracts with buyers in transitional, high-momentum moments — often right outside the home, in driveways, parking lots, or even in their cars.
These are moments where excitement is high, urgency is real, and losing momentum can cost the deal.
Yet existing tools (DocuSign, Dotloop, Skyslope, Glide, FormSimpli) assume structured environments — a laptop, a calm office, and reliable Wi-Fi. They do not support the fast, tactical, mobile-first reality of in-person dealmaking.
The unmet need
The unmet need is not just mobile signing — it’s real-time, in-person contract creation that preserves deal momentum. In a driveway, with limited reception and clients already preparing to leave, this small omission becomes a 15–20 minute delay. Buyers get impatient, start second-guessing the offer, and the agent loses the sense of momentum and professionalism. A lack of real-time, in-person correction workflows turns tiny mistakes into major friction.
Real-world scenarios (field-validated)
The driveway decision
A buyer loves the house and signals readiness. The agent flips open their laptop on the hood of the car, trying to hotspot their phone because the neighborhood Wi-Fi is weak. They must rebuild the agreement from scratch using half-cached templates. Clients lose patience, and agents lose credibility.
The competitive offer
A buyer wants to submit immediately to beat competing offers. The agent needs to generate, review, and sign the offer right outside the showing. Every minute added increases risk of losing the house.
Multiple showings, one ready buyer
Agents bounce between homes. When a buyer gets serious at house #3, the agent’s forms and data from houses #1 and #2 don’t carry over. They manually rewrite buyer details, dates, disclosures, and offer terms.
The “I’ll do it later” falloff
If the agent cannot produce the contract in the moment, they say, “I’ll write it up tonight.” Buyers go home, cool off, get nervous, or think twice — decreasing conversion.
The missing initials setback
During an in-person signing session at the property, the agent realizes the buyer missed initialing one of the required pages.
03. Define — translating field insights into a clear opportunity for KeySign
F rom the Discover phase, it became clear that agents weren’t struggling with e-signing itself — they were struggling with the context in which signing and offer creation actually happen. The most decisive moments occur immediately after a showing, often in a driveway or car, where agents need to generate a complete, error-proof contract quickly before buyer confidence or competitiveness slips.
Traditional tools treat these scenarios as edge cases, but the research showed they are core, high-intent conversion moments.
The Define phase focused on converting these insights into a precise problem definition, design criteria, and a product opportunity large enough to justify a proof of concept.
Problem statement
Agents need a fast, reliable, mobile-first way to generate, review, and execute contracts immediately after a showing so they can preserve deal momentum, reduce falloff, and increase their chances of winning the home.
Current tools assume office conditions, slow down under real-world constraints, and introduce friction when agents need to move the fastest.
Root causes (synthesized from problem patterns)
-
Current systems break down in transitional environments
Interfaces, load times, and workflows assume stable networks and laptop use. -
Offer creation requires redundant manual work
Buyer details, property info, contingencies, and dates must be retyped repeatedly. -
One mistake creates significant delays
Missing initials, outdated templates, and field reassignment force a restart. -
Momentum is fragile
Every minute of delay increases the chance of falloff or being outcompeted. -
The industry misunderstands where real work happens
Back-office tools dominate, but the high-value moment is the driveway decision.
Functional JTBD
“When a buyer decides to move forward right after a showing, I want to produce a complete, accurate offer on the spot so I can act quickly and strengthen my buyer’s position.”
Secondary jobs
- When I’m preparing my initial response, help me understand the signals that shape this customer’s expectations.
- When an issue feels unclear, help me identify the likely root cause without searching across systems.
- When I’m short on time, reduce cognitive load by showing only what’s relevant to this specific issue
- Help me feel confident that I’m not missing anything important.
Emotional JTBD
When investigating bugs or regressions, I want to Signal Inbox the exact steps users took, so I can debug faster without reproducing manually.
Motivations
- Reduce time-to-resolution.
- Deliver confident, accurate responses on the first touch.
- Increase CSAT and deflection of unnecessary escalations.
Business JTBD
“When support patterns emerge or a new release drops, I want to investigate sessions in bulk, so I can spot usability or workflow problems and influence product fixes with evidence.”
Motivations
- Drive systemic improvements and remove UX friction.
- Detect usability pain points early.
- Improve top call drivers and reduce volume through insights.
Define phase insight
The opportunity isn’t “a better e-signature tool.” It’s a mobile-first, context-aware contract engine purpose-built for the exact moment where buyer commitment peaks.
This reframes the POC vision around the on-the-go contract creation experience—a workflow no existing product optimizes for.
The defined opportunity for KeySign
Design a mobile first contract creation and signing experience that empowers agents to complete offers in minutes, anywhere, with anyone, and without breaking momentum.
Be reliably fast in unstable mobile conditions
No heavy templates, no long load times, no dependency on strong reception.
Automate redundant inputs
Reuse buyer info, property data, and common fields across multiple showings.
Be error-proof
Automatically detect missing initials, outdated forms, and incomplete fields before agents send or sign.
Maintain deal momentum
Every interaction should reinforce speed, confidence, and a sense of progress.
04. Explore — generating, testing, and narrowing the most promising paths forward
W ith the problem clearly defined — agents need a fast, reliable, mobile-first way to generate and execute contracts during driveway signing moments — the next step was to explore a broad range of solutions that could solve for speed, accuracy, and confidence under real-world constraints.
This phase focused on translating the problem into concrete solution directions while staying grounded in the realities of mobile networks, cognitive load, and the emotional pressure agents feel when buyers are ready to move.
Remove redundant effort
How might we eliminate repeated data entry, especially for buyer details and property information?
Increase speed in low-connectivity environments
What can be cached, preloaded, or simplified so the workflow performs well even on weak networks?
Reduce cognitive load for agents under pressure
How can interface structure, automation, and defaults decrease stress and uncertainty?
Make error handling proactive, not reactive
What would an auto-checking, auto-correcting contract engine look like?
Exploration goals
Through early concept exploration, it became clear that the most impactful direction lived at the intersection of speed, automation, and error-proofing—delivered through a mobile-first contract builder designed for real-world, on-the-go workflows. Rather than reinventing e-signature, the opportunity was to remove the friction agents experience in driveways, cars, and parking lots by making offer creation feel instant, guided, and impossible to mess up.
This insight shaped the focus of the POC and ensured every idea we explored aimed to preserve momentum, reduce cognitive load, and help agents act with confidence at the exact moment buyer intent is highest.
From exploration to delivery — narrowing to the highest-impact solution
A fter evaluating multiple concepts against speed, error-proofing, mobile performance, and POC feasibility, the strongest direction emerged clearly: A mobile-first contract builder that combines automation, offline reliability, and proactive error detection.
This direction solves the most critical friction in the driveway signing moment and aligns with the business need for a fast, credible proof of concept.
The Deliver phase focuses on turning this validated direction into an experience that demonstrates:
How fast offer creation should be
How little an agent should have to retype
how confidently they can work beside the buyer
How reliably the workflow performs in the field
This is where KeySign transitions from problem clarity to a compelling POC that proves the missed business opportunity is solvable — and worth investing in.
05. Deliver — building a proof of concept that demonstrates speed, clarity, and confidence
T he Deliver phase focused on bringing the prioritized concepts to life in a way that showcases KeySign’s ability to transform the driveway signing moment.
Rather than building a full-scale product, I designed a focused, high-impact proof of concept that demonstrates the core value: agents can generate and execute a complete offer in minutes — anywhere.
A smart offer builder removes manual effort
Key fields auto-populate from prior showings, buyer profiles, and system defaults.
Offline-first templates eliminate load delays
Forms open instantly even on weak mobile data.
Auto-detecting missing fields prevents costly errors
Agents see real-time prompts that catch missing initials or signatures.
Face-to-face signing becomes effortless
A simplified signing surface lets buyers scroll, sign, and confirm quickly.
A confident, momentum-preserving finish
The completed packet packages itself instantly and prepares for sending.
What the POC proves
The POC validates not only a better workflow — it validates a business opportunity. It shows how KeySign can meaningfully improve agent performance at the peak moment of buyer intent, where speed and credibility directly affect conversion and revenue.
Unlocking a high-value moment the industry overlooked
KeySign began with a simple observation: agents often need to create and sign offers in driveways, cars, and parking lots — yet no signing tool is designed for that moment.
By validating this unmet need, reframing it as a business opportunity, and prototyping a mobile-first solution, the project demonstrated how a focused design approach can materially improve speed, confidence, and deal conversion.
The proof of concept showed that KeySign can create a differentiated advantage by owning the driveway signing moment — the highest-intent, highest-value point in the transaction.
The proof of concept showed that KeySign can create a differentiated advantage by owning the driveway signing moment — the highest-intent, highest-value point in the transaction.
This work highlights the value of identifying problems before they’re formally requested.
The POC proved that offer creation is a fast, in-the-field workflow—not a back-office task—and that speed, clarity, and error-prevention matter far more than feature depth.
KeySign transforms one of the most stressful parts of real estate into one of the most confident — proving that better tools at the right moment can change outcomes.