Houzz product sense: find the biggest gap and propose improvements

Houzz is a home design and remodeling platform: homeowners browse photos of rooms for ideas and find local professionals, and those professionals use it to market their business. How would you make it better? ```hint Walk a project through the product Trace one remodeling project from first idea to finished job, for the homeowner and the professional alike, and note the stage where people leave Houzz to get the next step done somewhere else. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should I focus on homeowners planning a project, or on the professionals who pay for visibility and business tools? - What is the goal behind the improvement: more engagement with ideas, more homeowner-to-professional connections, or more revenue from professionals? - Is this the mobile app, the website or both, and is any market beyond the US in scope? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A short read of how Houzz works and makes money, and a goal for the improvement tied to it - A chosen user segment and the reason it beats the other candidates - Pain points tied to a specific stage of a home project, not general complaints about the app - Solutions prioritized by impact and effort, including their effect on the other side of the marketplace - Success metrics with guardrails, and the main risks ### Follow-up Questions - Your improvement mainly helps one side of the marketplace. What could it cost the other side, and how would you notice? - A remodel can take months, so the outcome you care about arrives late. How would you test the feature and decide quickly whether it works? - If a competitor started offering vetted contractors at a fixed, guaranteed price, would your roadmap change?