Vrbo

Homeowner dashboard cards

My Role

1 of 8 product designers (me)

2 product managers

5 developers

Tools

Figma

Jira

InVision

The Problem

Vrbo's homeowner platform was a tool owners visited only when they had to — not a place they wanted to be. With over 1.5 million monthly active owners, low engagement meant missed opportunities: owners weren't pricing competitively, weren't staying informed about their market, and were losing motivation to actively manage their properties.

My goal: Design a personalized homepage experience that gave owners a reason to come back daily — surfacing the right information at the right time to help them manage smarter.

Before release

1.5 million

Monthly active users

After release

1.6 million

Monthly active users

15 min

Saved per user per session

3 More bookings per user per month

Interviews with property owners

Together with a research lead and researcher, we conducted in-person usability sessions with current homeowners. Their feedback was candid:

"I spend the majority of my time online using social media."

"I only get on the Vrbo website when I have to."

"I set my daily rates based on how I feel — I don't know much about my neighborhood prices."

"I don't think the website feels visually appealing."

"I don't find it easy to manage my property."

Three clear themes emerged:

Not informed — Owners had little visibility into how their properties were performing relative to their neighborhood or market.

Lack of motivation — Many had lost the drive to actively manage their listings, even though they wanted to keep their business running.

Low engagement — Owners spent an average of only 18 minutes per property per day on the platform — not enough to stay competitive.

The solution: a personalized owner newsfeed

Rather than redesign the dashboard around tools, we took a cue from where owners already spent their time — social media. We designed a personalized newsfeed that surfaced relevant, timely information for each owner's properties: market insights, neighborhood activity, performance data, and management tips.

Each card was purpose-built to do one of three things: inform owners about how their property stacks up in the market, engage them with content that felt relevant and personal, or improve their performance through actionable tips and alerts.

I designed multiple variations of each card concept and tested which performed best — balancing information density, visual hierarchy, and interactive states for both desktop and mobile.

Launch and iteration

The initial rollout had mixed results. While 30% of owners immediately embraced the newsfeed, the majority were resistant — not because of usability issues, but because the change felt unfamiliar.

I addressed this in two ways:

Awareness — We promoted the launch across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and email to set expectations before owners logged in.

Onboarding — I designed a step-by-step onboarding flow that walked owners through each card type and what happens after each interaction — turning a disorienting change into a guided introduction.

Outcomes

Over the following six months, owner sentiment shifted noticeably. Monthly active owners grew from 1.5M to 1.6M — a meaningful gain at that scale, driven by improved engagement and a more motivated owner community.

What I'd do differently

The mixed launch taught me that product adoption is a design problem, not just a communications problem. If I were doing this again, I'd build the onboarding experience before launch — not as a response to resistance. Setting expectations is part of the design.