Refocusing Trustwork

Overview

Trustwork is an on-demand platform for property services, designed to help property managers quickly source and manage work like turnovers, cleaning, and maintenance.

When I joined, the product lacked focus—trying to serve as a marketplace for buying, selling, hiring, and job searching—which resulted in a fragmented and confusing user experience.

I led a 6-month redesign to refocus the platform around a core use case: on-demand property services. The goal was to simplify how users request work, improve trust in hiring professionals, and create a scalable way to track jobs across multiple properties.

Customer Experience

Pro Experience

01. Understanding the User

To ground the redesign in real workflows, I conducted interviews with:

• Property managers actively using Trustwork

• Independent landlords managing multiple properties in Austin

This uncovered three core needs:

Efficiency

Posting jobs was too time-consuming. Users wanted to create and submit requests in minutes—not navigate complex forms.

Trust

Finding reliable professionals was a major pain point. Many users were willing to pay more for vetted, high-quality service providers.

Organization

Managing dozens (sometimes hundreds) of jobs created cognitive overload. Users needed a clear, centralized way to track job status at a glance.

02. Defining the Focus

From these insights, we narrowed the product to three critical workflows:

1. Clear Job Offers (for Pros)

Design a scannable, decision-friendly interface that highlights:

• Pay

• Location

• Scope of work

• Time commitment

→ Enables professionals to accept or decline jobs quickly

2. Fast, Frictionless Posting (for Customers)

Reduce cognitive load by:

• Structuring inputs into simple, guided steps

• Allowing quick entry with optional details

• Supporting flexible scheduling

→ Turns job creation into a <2-minute task instead of a 10-minute process

3. Simple Job Tracking

Create a lightweight dashboard where users can:

• View jobs by status (open, in progress, completed)

• Track multiple properties easily

• Stay organized without manual effort

→ Provides clarity at scale, even with high job volume

03. Design & Iteration

We translated these priorities into low-fidelity wireframes, focusing on:

• Reducing steps in job creation

• Improving information hierarchy

• Designing for quick decision-making

We validated early concepts through user testing with property managers, then iterated into high-fidelity prototypes using Sketch and InVision.

Testing helped refine:

• The job posting flow (removing unnecessary fields)

• Offer cards (making key info immediately scannable)

• Scheduling interactions (balancing flexibility with simplicity)

Outcome

The redesigned experience transformed Trustwork from a fragmented marketplace into a focused, task-driven platform tailored to real estate workflows.

• Simplified job posting reduced friction and time-to-submit

• Clearer job offers improved decision speed for pros

• A centralized dashboard enabled better job tracking and organization

Most importantly, the product shifted from “trying to do everything” to doing one thing well—helping property managers get work done quickly and reliably.