Case Study
Carrot CRM Dashboard
An overhaul of an underused feature to improve user engagement.
Overview
Formerly InvestorFuse, Carrot CRM is built specifically for real estate investors to manage and automate their lead management workflows. It helps teams track leads, streamline follow-ups, and convert more deals with customizable pipelines and task automation.
Role and Duration
Lead Product Designer
User Research, Interaction, Wireframes and high-fidelity designs, testing
December-April 2025
The Problem
Small business owners and independent entrepreneurs rely on this CRM to manage their leads and client relationships, but the platform’s complexity and industry jargon make it difficult for non-tech-savvy users to navigate and use effectively. With the product recently rebranded and merged into a larger lead management web application, users now face additional challenges in understanding new features, workflows, and terminology — leading to frustration, dropped leads, and missed opportunities in their already overloaded day-to-day operations.
The goal
Redesign and reorganize the “My Dashboard” section of Carrot CRM, a little-used section of the app that was hard to find and did not deliver valuable information or actionable insights.
The objective is to Improve user engagement with the CRM, especially for new users and small teams, to provide help center information and tutorials for users just getting started, and bring to the forefront important information like new leads, actions and a pipeline.
Conduct User Research
We began by talking to members—we conducted “follow-me-home” conversations and asked them about general pain points, what they thought of the app overall, and what was missing. We targeted as many personas as possible—users in larger teams, seasoned investors, and new users.
| Explain your business to me – where are you located, how many employees, what is your primary focus, how long have you been in business, and any other business details that might be relevant. | Wholesaling – buying distressed properties and selling them. Currently one person, but has a couple of VA’s on and off. Been in real estate for five years, but wholesaling just a few months ago. |
| I saw you just recently signed up for the CRM – why did you decide to sign up for the CRM? | 2 days. Has been looking to have a website for SEO purposes so he can be found organically and heard lots of people talking about Carrot. He had also been looking at a different CRM, but saw that Carrot also had one through a google search and signed up for the free plan. |
| Have you used other CRM’s in the past? | Used a ton. Mail Meteor, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, and a bunch of other ones. Found them too complicated, too much going on. |
| Looking at the Dashboard specifically, with improvements would you like to see? | action timeline doesn’t seem very helpful maybe overview? past seven days, today, past month, how many total leads whole overdue thing is turning him away rather see how many leads are coming in every day |
| What is the main thing you are hoping Carrot CRM will do for your and/or your business? | hoping to have a place to capture emails and phone numbers to then ideally follow up right within the platform and add templated segmented emails |
User Profiles
The research revealed distinct ways users interacted with the app, so I organized them into five user profiles based on their unique goals and tasks.
1. Operations/team lead
Tasks performed:
• Connect and coordinate work with the entire team
• Assigns tasks & tracks progress
• Analyze results, share with stakeholders and make important decisions
2. Acquisitions, large team
Tasks performed:
• Checks notifications, follows up with leads
• Takes notes and organizes actions
• Coordinates with depositions
3. Disposition, large team
Tasks performed:
• Sends contracts and due diligence
• Manages negotiations
• Facilitates closing, collaborates with team and provides reporting
4. Small team or individual
Tasks performed:
• Manages lead flow and follow-up
• Manages opportunities and full sales process
• Reviews analytics and makes process improvements
Insights
After conducting the user interviews and analyzing the data, I categorized the areas of focus for this first iteration into three main groups.
Visibility
Right now the application is lacking a centralized location where users can benefit from a bird’s eye view of their current pipeline and action items. Additionally the dashboard was hidden in an infrequently used menu.
Actionable Steps
The CRM offers a great deal of data but did not provide users with clear next steps. We needed to sift through the data for the users and provide them with easy to follow action plans.
Dynamic Content Based on User Experience Level
There is a wide range of users interacting with the CRM, from zero technical experience to highly technical operations users managing large teams. We need to have different views based on user needs.
Analyze/Audit the Current Feature
Because we were working iteratively and have many improvements to make we audited the sections of the app that users mentioned struggling with, and how the dashboard would be found in the navigation. Because CRMS are complex and we have a small team we made note of other feature improvements to return to at a later date.
We also spent time using other CRMS and collecting component inspiration.
Ideate and Prototype
Using the research insights and working closely with the Product Manager, I developed wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes to explore layout options and features. I mapped out improved navigation and created inspiration boards based on other CRM dashboards.
More Tests, Iterations and High-Fidelity
I shared the low-fidelity versions with multiple users as well as internal team members. We incorporated this feedback into the next few rounds of design, and finalized the first iteration (with three different states to start), for hand-off to the engineering team.
Launch (and iterate some more)
After development collaboration, assistance with QA, and final refinements, the redesigned dashboard was launched. Though still early, post-launch analytics are starting to show improved engagement metrics. We have also received positive feedback (and more suggestions which will be incorporated into the next iteration.)
