Integrated Marketing & Client Experience
Four years of using human-centered design principles to incorporate a brand's look, feel and tone into every client-facing channel and interaction.
Featured Projects
Detroit Housing Network Website
The Detroit Housing Network & CHN Housing Partners
Uniting Detroit’s Most Respected Housing Service Providers in One Place
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Brand Strategy
Brand Architecture
Copywriting
Design
Vendor Management
Wordpress
Wireframe Design
Web Design
UX & UI
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Wireframes
Wordpress Website
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City of Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department
Bridging Communities
Central Detroit Christian
Jefferson East, Inc.
Matrix Human Services
MiSide Wealth (formerly Southwest Solutions)
Wayne Metro CAA
Rocket Community Fund
The Detroit Housing Network (DHN) brings together the services of seven housing organizations under one brand and access point. Before DHN, each organization - now known as Network Members - described their housing services differently and dedicated different levels of resources to outreach. This created inconsistent experiences for residents depending on which organization they worked with.
Developing DHN’s website as an opportunity to unify these services and create a single, accessible front door where Detroiters could clearly understand and connect to housing support.
“We are now connecting all of these resources under on centralized place, through the Detroit Housing Network”
Our collective goal was to simplify the way Detroiters access housing services – so we let that be our north star and began designing an experience that was free of the obstacles that one might encounter on a Federal, State or outdated nonprofit website. Instead of bogging down our site with information about funders or partnership like many nonprofit sites do, I designed and wrote copy that positioned us as an organization that provides a service.
I began by auditing member websites, then built a naming system that organized services into intuitive categories. Using terms like “property tax assistance” rather than program-specific names helped residents quickly identify the type of support available, while allowing housing counselors to guide them to the right program behind the scenes.
We also balanced consistency with storytelling, ensuring the site honored the histories of Network Members while keeping the overall experience clear and uniform.
Today, the DHN website welcomes thousands of visitors each month and functions as a true digital front door, mirroring the accessible experience residents have over the phone and in person when seeking housing services.
The Detroit Housing Network & CHN Housing Partners
A Digital Front Door for Housing Services in Detroit
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Copywriting
Client Journey Mapping
Design
Salesforce Experience Cloud Site
Wireframe Design
Web Design
UX & UI
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Salesforce Experience Cloud Website & Client Account Portal
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Cities Reimagined
NorthPeak Developers
Rocket Community Fund
City of Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department
Bridging Communities
Central Detroit Christian
Jefferson East, Inc.
Matrix Human Services
MiSide Wealth (formerly Southwest Solutions)
USNAPBAC
Wayne Metro CAA
From its inception, the City of Detroit’s vision for the Detroit Housing Network (DHN) was to have a unified intake experience for all housing services and all Network Members. A simple, standardized intake form would allow DHN to collect essential demographics about clients that work with our Network Members. These essential data points would allow us to identify gaps in service delivery, arming us with data that could be used to advocate for better housing programs. DHN’s first iteration of this intake form was a not-so-simple online Form Assembly form that we used for two years.
After simplifying our form as much as we could, we saw on opportunity to leverage our Salesforce CRM to create a digital experience that further simplified our intake process. By integrating the front end of our intake process with the back end of our database, clients could sign up for new services and update their information when logged into their account. Most importantly, it would decrease the burden on our clients by ensuring we would never have to ask them for the same information again when applying for new housing services.
“Here you are harnessing the power of technology, but you don’t have to figure that. As a Detroiter…the technology does it on the back end. It connects you to the right organization and the right people.”
We first held focus groups with clients, housing counselors and internal staff to understand existing pain points that could inform our new intake process. We then worked with a human-centered design firm to develop iterations that our stakeholders could test and provide feedback on. As a senior member of the team, and the owner of our brand’s look, feel, voice and tone, I was a key stakeholder in this process. After a four month long process, we co-created a secure client portal that began with one minute account registration followed by an intake process that took less than seven minutes.
I used our Salesforce Experience Cloud site to develop wire frames for each stage of the client journey - login, account registration, intake, new program application and more. I worked closely with our design firm and our Salesforce developers to ensure I was designing an experience that worked within the boundaries of Salesforce, while also adhering to the vision that we co-created and tested together.
After the portal was built using the wireframes I designed, I wrote copy for over twenty five portal pages and just as many Salesfoce flows that would move a user through the various functionalities of the site. I wrote simple, instructional copy that guided the user through applying for new services, updating their information and more. My goal was to create an on-brand, accessible experience that used consistent language and intuitive design throughout.
We launched our new Housing Service Portal in May of 2023 with a mayoral press event and a city-wide marketing campaign. Today, over 1,000 people utilize our portal to access essential housing services every month.
The Detroit Housing Network & CHN Housing Partners
Creating Clear Client Communications for Essential Housing Services
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Copywriting
Copyediting
Design
Salesforce
Stakeholder Engagement
Project Management
Program Strategy
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Automated & Templated Salesforce Communications for Email and SMS
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Bridging Communities
Central Detroit Christian
Jefferson East, Inc.
Matrix Human Services
MiSide Wealth (formerly Southwest Solutions)
USNAPBAC
Wayne Metro CAA
The Detroit Housing Network (DHN) was created to simplify the way Detroiters access housing services, however, it was also created to centralize the work of our housing counselors. This meant housing paperwork and key data points, as well as logging all client communications and touch points. Before DHN, housing counselors would write and send each communication via email, which resulted in hundreds if not thousands of manual emails every month.
With Salesforce as the technological foundation of DHN, we saw an opportunity to decrease the burden on our housing counselors and begin automating communications when certain actions were taken in the system. This would save housing counselors countless hours while also ensuring unified messaging with clear and consistent next steps, across all of our Network Members.
175 Client Communications Written at a 6 - 8th Grade Reading Level
While our main goal was to slowly automate client communications, the first step in that goal was centralizing all of the communications that had been written already. So we compiled email templates that were being used inside and outside of DHN’s Salesforce to begin the re-writing process.
After developing the first handful of automated communications, I led the onboarding, integration and usage strategy of a fully-integrated SMS platform called Mogli SMS. Mogli could be used to develop templated and automated text messages that could be sent out with the existing email automations we were already creating.
Today, we have over 175 client communications that are housed in DHN’s Salesforce and managed by my small team. We kept all communications simple, clear and warm while balancing accessibility - all communications are written at a 6 - 8th grade comprehension level. As a result, housing counselors have been able to reallocate their time to other tasks while easily keeping track of all communications their clients have received in Salesforce.