Solving the vendor compliance nightmare that helped land $1.5 million in contracts
Building a vendor management system that automates compliance tracking and reduces the administrative burden for property managers.
Lead Product Designer
Feb 2023 - Dec 2023
Outcome
We launched the new system in February of 2023 which helped us sign some of the biggest property management firms like Colliers, Avison-Young, and Tribe.
$1.5M
in new contracts
15,000
new vendors added
$100,000s
in new MRR
Team
As the Design Lead, I was responsible for managing the timelines for design deliverables, executing on core features, and tying together new UX with the existing platform.
My team consisted of another Product Designer, a Product Manager, 5 developers, and a business lead.
We also worked very closely with leadership, sales, and customer success throughout the process.
Discovery
This project initially started as a strategic project for the business but we still needed to get an intimate understanding of the their problems and user needs.
We conducted discovery calls with 12 enterprise leaders and property managers from various property management companies to understand their needs.
Problem
Property managers maintain fragmented vendor lists across multiple properties with poor compliance tracking.
Manually chasing documents across an entire portfolio is unscalable - creating dangerous compliance risks that expose companies to million-dollar lawsuits and regulatory penalties.
Furthermore, large property management companies had complex compliance needs that our existing solution couldn’t meet.
Solution
A centralized vendor management platform that gives property managers complete visibility and control over vendor compliance across their entire portfolio.
Centralizes vendor documents across all properties.
Automatically flag compliance issues and highlight risk.
Seamless vendor document uploads and management.
Set custom requirements across all properties.
Designs
This was 6 projects in one and we approached each section as follows:
1
Map user needs to design requirements and translate to flow maps, IA maps etc.
2
User story mapping to translate user needs into design requirements and assess impact areas.
3
Usability testing on wireframes for initial feedback.
4
High fidelity designs, usability testing, and iteration.
6
Handoff to developers and repeat.
In total, we conducted 30+ usability tests with users from Avison-Young, Colliers, and CBRE along with 15+ sessions with vendors.
Impact
The launch of the new system generated $1.5M in new contracts and established the foundation for future vendor monetization.
1
50% increase in vendor compliance rates.
2
15% increase in award rates and reduced time to award.
3
25% increase in onboarding conversion rate (requirements + subscription).
4
10% increase in property manager retention rates.
Reflection
Introducing a new, complex system comes with its challenges. We were already managing a lot of technical debt and we were now introducing a boatload of features that would impact the entire product.
We had to make several tradeoffs to make sure that the project launched on-time. There were many areas this feature would impact but we had to ruthlessly prioritize the most important areas first and re-visit the others after.
Furthermore, managing two user groups was difficult and this emphasized the importance of having clear user needs to inform what tradeoffs we make for each.
© Chris Tran 2025 All Rights Reserved
Solving the vendor compliance nightmare that helped land $1.5 million in contracts
Lead Product Designer
Feb 2023 - Dec 2023
Outcome
We launched the system in February of 2023 which helped us sign some of the biggest property management firms like Colliers, Avison-Young, and Tribe. This also enabled us unlock new MRR through vendor compliance subscriptions.
$1.5M
in new contracts
15,000
new vendors added
$100,000s
in new vendor MRR
Team
As the Design Lead, I was responsible for managing the timelines for design deliverables, executing on core features, and tying together new UX with the existing platform.
My team consisted of another Product Designer, a Product Manager, 5 developers, and a business lead.
We also worked very closely with leadership, sales, and customer success throughout the process.
Discovery
This project initially started as a strategic project for the business but we still needed to get an intimate understanding of the their problems and user needs.
We conducted discovery calls with 12 enterprise leaders and property managers from various property management companies to understand their needs.
Problem
Property managers maintain fragmented vendor lists across multiple properties with poor compliance tracking.
Manually chasing documents across an entire portfolio is unscalable - creating dangerous compliance risks that expose companies to million-dollar lawsuits and regulatory penalties.
Furthermore, large property management companies had complex compliance needs that our existing solution couldn’t meet.
Solution
A centralized vendor management platform that gives property managers complete visibility and control over vendor compliance across their entire portfolio.
Centralizes vendor documents across all properties.
Automatically flag compliance issues and highlight risk.
Seamless vendor document uploads and management.
Set custom requirements across all properties.
Designs
This was 6 projects in one and we approached each section as follows:
1
Map user needs to design requirements and translate to flow maps, IA maps etc.
2
Wireframes, usability testing, and incorporating feedback.
3
Usability testing on wireframes for initial feedback.
4
High fidelity designs, usability testing, and iteration.
6
Handoff to developers and repeat.
In total, we conducted 30+ usability tests with users from Avison-Young, Colliers, and CBRE along with 15+ sessions with vendors.
Impact
The launch of the new system generated $1.5M in new contracts and established the foundation for future vendor monetization.
1
Increase in vendor compliance rates.
2
Increase in award rates and reduced time to award.
3
Improved onboarding conversion rate (requirements + subscription).
Reflection
Introducing a new, complex system comes with its challenges. We were already managing a lot of technical debt and we were now introducing a boatload of features that would impact the entire product.
We had to make several tradeoffs to make sure that the project launched on-time. There were many areas this feature would impact but we had to ruthlessly prioritize the most important areas first and re-visit the others after.
Furthermore, managing two user groups was difficult and this emphasized the importance of having clear user needs to inform what tradeoffs we make for each.
© Chris Tran 2026 All Rights Reserved