Transforming a failed launch into a product builders trust
Primary role
Lead Product Designer
Time frame
2024-Present
Collaborators
3 full product teams, 2 directors and 2 executives
Background
Buildertrend is a platform used by residential construction companies to run their jobs—everything from estimates and schedules to client selections and budgets. In 2023, the company introduced a new initiative called Buildertrend Purchasing, aiming to help builders save money and streamline material buying.
The first feature launched under that umbrella was a rebate program offering cash back on select supplier products. But it was built outside of product and design—contracted through two vendors and launched with little customer validation. By the time our team took ownership, it was already struggling to gain traction.
Square one
While our team was still on the sidelines, I began interviewing builders to understand what was going wrong.
The feedback was blunt: customers didn't understand…
how to participate and use offers
what actions they had to take to earn incentives from purchases
when they’d get paid
whether any of this was even worth the effort
We weren’t just fixing a usability issue—we were trying to make sense of a product that didn’t yet have a coherent value story for customers.
The MVP had confusing offer logic, no onboarding, and no reliable way for builders to get paid. Internally, there wasn’t a clear answer to what the product was supposed to be—or why builders should care.
Making pogress but missing the point
As we surfaced early feedback and regained ownership of the feature each team took on a major friction point to get going:
Blue Sky focused on making rebates automatic, so builders didn’t have to submit them manually
Red Sky simplified the setup process for builders to connect their distributor accounts
Silver Sky focused on product-matching infrastructure, helping us recognize eligible purchases more accurately
These were meaningful improvements. But, after two quarters in, we were still asking ourselves hard questions: Are we solving the right problems? Do these changes add up to something builders want to use?
Even with a vision statement on paper, we didn’t have a shared picture of what this was becoming—or where it was going.
Behind the scenes, our CTO was growing impatient. He supported the mission but wasn’t confident we were all heading in the right direction—and he said so more than once. Teams were putting in effort, but we didn’t yet have momentum or trust.
The turnaround
To break the cycle, I stepped back and reframed the big picture—starting with the customer journey.
I mapped how builders discover, engage, and grow with Buildertrend Purchasing, then brought stakeholders through a working session to align on what success looks like at each stage. That journey map became our north star—or at least, a way to stop circling the same questions.
From there, we started fresh and learned more in 3 weeks about how to turn the product around than we had in the last 3 months before.
We looked at each part of the core experience from the ground up, exploring ways to restructure key objects, workflows and the system around a clear behavior loop: Understand the offer → Make the purchase → Get paid → Repeat.
We prototyped and dug in to test the direction with a group of loyal (but skeptical) builders. Before showing anything, we benchmarked their trust, understanding, and perception of value. Then we walked them through the concept.
They didn’t just “get it”—they told us this is how they expected the product to work from day one.
That validation helped shift the narrative inside the company. Our CTO re-engaged. The team regained confidence. And we finally had a vision people could rally around.
Piece by piece
We didn’t go dark and relaunch months later. From that point on, we shipped iteratively—refining the experience step by step, with builder feedback guiding us along the way.
A company-level enrollment flow to reduce friction
A new dashboard split by offer type, showing what’s automatic vs. manual
Simplified status tracking and clearer earnings visibility
ACH setup upfront, so builders could actually get paid
A full content overhaul to align language with how builders think
We also renamed the feature to Cashback & Discounts—a shift that reflected what we actually offered and helped builders understand it at a glance.
Sticking the landing
We relaunched at the International Builders’ Show 2025—one year after the MVP had flopped. Since then we've seen…
70% increase in daily engagement
1,000%+ growth in offer impressions
60% of users rate the experience as "easy" or "very easy" to use
$1.5M+ paid out to builders, with some earning thousands
Our “One Vision” model became a blueprint for how we align across teams
The customer advisory loop is now used across the product and engineering organization as a best practice
Yet, we're just getting started. We’re moving into the next phase of expanding Buildertrend Purchasing into the full job lifecycle; helping builders plan more efficiently and suppliers understand market demand more fully.