OTTO BY OXFORD
The Challenge: Transform an expensive and under-utilized tenant engagement app—plagued by poor internal adoption, inconsistent usage, and a damaged reputation—into a functional, value-driving platform.
The goal was not only to repair and standardize the app across both Canadian and U.S. portfolios, but also to reposition it as a strategic tool that strengthens tenant engagement and long-term retention, while streamlining day-to-day operations for on-site property teams.
The Delivery: Over the course of a year, I surveyed 25 site teams to gather feedback on pain points, priorities, and operational needs—defining what a successful tenant engagement app should deliver.
Using this input, I identified key opportunities, prioritized them by impact and effort, and built a focused product roadmap. Core improvements included a redesigned interface aligned with Oxford’s brand, simplified navigation, work order integration, and an enhanced event registration process to capture more robust tenant data and insights. These updates transformed the app into a more intuitive, efficient, and valuable tool that has become a daily staple for both tenants and property teams.
Redesign Touchpoints & Project Scope:
I focused the redesign on key touchpoints that play a vital role in the tenant user journey. This included refreshing the microsite, tenant user guides, app store listings and reimagining high-traffic app pages such as Urban Retail, Amenities & Services, Events, Resources, Homepage, and the Welcome Page—areas that tenants interact with most frequently.
Digital Work Order Management Solution:
When the operations team decided to sunset their call center in favor of a digital solution, I helped them launch a web-based system that enabled tenants and their employees to create accounts and submit requests online. Each ticket was integrated with MRI Angus for seamless data capture and processing. At the same time, I worked with our vendor, VTS, to integrate the new work order system into the Otto app using SSO/SAML, eliminating the need for a separate login. The solution ultimately drove user and cost efficiencies, contributing to the overall stickiness of the platform.