The Foundations

After spending years working as a property solicitor, Emmet Creighton had noticed home buyers continuously having to face the same problems. The process was extremely complicated and there was little support available to those who needed it.

“How can I make buying a home as simple as buying a car?” Emmett asked himself as he set about solving the problem with the help of his old college friends, Jonathan McLaughlin and Clare Corrigan.

After many months of brainstorming and researching a solution the trio decided to tackle the problem by founding Lintil.

Growing demand

Using their shared industry knowledge and connections, the crew at Lintil set about simplifying the home buying process by turning it into a series of manageable steps.

At each crucial moment of the process, the Lintil team were there to assist their customers, pointing them in the right direction and connecting them with the services needed.

Lintil was an immediate success. Their customers loved the level of support offered and the availability of the team to talk them through the process. But as their community of loyal customers grew into the thousands the team at Lintil realised they were going to need a solution to meet the growing demand.

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Replace the call

‍Lintil and MiniCorp first began their partnership in early 2021. Many of the team members at MiniCorp were recently familiar with the headaches involved with the home buying process and wished they had met Lintil sooner.

In the early stages of the design process an immediate set of objectives were identified; replace the call while maintaining the personal touch and premium level of support Lintil’s customers were used to.

An initial concept was designed that mapped the 8 steps of the home buying journey across a user friendly app. The concept was slick, dense with information and easy to use. All that being said, it was lacking the human element.

The question then became, how can we make this entire app a conversation? Literally!

To truly replace the call we would have to give users an experience similar to interacting with the Lintil team directly. Several brainstorms later, the app was reimagined to fit inside what looked like an instant messaging application.

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Branching paths

‍With the concept now clear, MiniCorp’s engineering team began researching the tech needed to bring this innovative idea into reality while the design team worked with Lintil to map the app’s features across a multiple choice, chat based user flow.

The new flow would have to account for many different user needs. Lintil’s customers would be joining at various stages of their home buying journey. The challenge was to make the experience as seamless and as easy to navigate as possible across hundreds of potential branching conversational paths.

With the user flow now mapped and the technology identified, the MiniCorp engineering team dived into assembling the product over a number of weeks.

Complexity made simple

‍Lintil launched the first version of their new product in September 2021. The result of the many brainstorms, multiple design iterations and engineering work was a truly innovative and simple to use mobile app. The entire app looked and flowed like a messenger conversation while maintaining ease of use.

For Lintil’s customers, the app helped turn what was once the most bureaucratic and complex processes of their lives into a friendly chat.

Since the launch of their new app, Lintil have helped thousands of people with their home buying journey, including Alan, MiniCorp’s head of engineering. Lintil have continued to work with MiniCorp as they’ve explored new ways to innovate their product, scale further and prepare to enter new markets.

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Build it right

‍Are you looking for an innovative way to turn your business into a digital product? If so, let's have a conversation and explore all of the fantastic ways we can help make it happen.

At MiniCorp, we build exceptional digital products and experiences. We don't just build products that work, we build products that thrive.

If you’d like to partner with us to build and grow your digital product contact our team today.