Compass · Case study

Listing Presentations

A tool for agents to customize, preview, and save printable listing templates, surfacing only what matters from dense MLS data.

Role: Senior Product Designer
Team: 2 designers, 1 researcher, 2 PMs
Timeline: 3 months, from July 2021
Platform: Web

500unique listing page sessions a day since launch, with agent listing page views rising steadily

3clicks from a listing page to a printed document

“I can’t tell you how much easier this makes my job.”

Sheri, an agent in Boston

The problem

Agents were leaving Compass to print

Agents still run on paper: listing records go to showings, inspections and signings. When one agent mentioned in a test how little they could print, we surveyed 60 agents across 5 regions. About 80% had left Compass to print from their MLS in the past three months.

Compass’s only print option was Marketing Center, a flyer editor that was hard to find from a listing and didn’t hold enough property information. So agents kept two windows open, cross-referencing Compass and the MLS.

Before: Compass Marketing Center, a flyer editor, used to print a single listing — Before: printing a listing meant a detour through Marketing Center, a flyer editor

Key decisions

Familiar first, then flexible

Print where agents already are

What we learned: In 15 interviews across 5 regions, agents showed us how the MLS puts Print right on the listing page. On Compass it was hidden, and sent them to another product.
What I did: Added “Print full listing details” to the Print menu agents already knew, on the listing page and in search, where they can select several homes at once.

A Compass listing page with the Print menu open, offering Print full listing details — Print, from the listing page itself

Two templates, built from what agents used

What we learned: Agents used only 2 or 3 MLS templates: an agent version with private remarks and showing instructions, and a client version. Ours were hard to read and too thin.
What I did: A Client and an Agent template that follow the listing page’s order, stay readable, and fit on two pages. It took 10 rounds, and a lot of printer ink.

MLS templates from three regions compared with the new Compass templates — MLS templates from three regions, against the new Compass templates

Keep customizing out of the way

What we learned: In 9 usability sessions, a wall of checkboxes distracted agents who just wanted to print. As one put it: “I’m in quick print.”
What I did: The panel opens on the template choice. Adding or removing sections sits behind an Edit toggle, and the preview updates as you go.

The solution

From listing to paper in three clicks

One print modal: pick a template, tailor it if you want, and print, download or email it. Agents in the final round called it as good as their MLS, or better.

Impact & reflection

Agents stayed in Compass

Print shipped with the Agent Page Redesign in Q3 2021, to universally positive feedback. Agents praised printing without switching to the MLS, customization beyond what their MLS offered, and templates that read better. Since launch it’s averaged 500 unique listing page sessions a day, with page views on agent listing pages rising.

As Sheri put it: “I was having to keep two windows open, cross referencing addresses from Compass to the MLS, bouncing back and forth. This is just way better.” Next, print joins Toursheets, so agents can add photo sheets and driving directions between homes.

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