Helping more people enter the property market sooner
Improving how a Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) provider supports brokers and buyers through a clearer value proposition and new product opportunities.
Award: Australian Broker's 5-Star Mortgage Innovator Award | 2023
Impact:
Reframed the role of Lenders Mortgage Insurance to focus on helping buyers enter the market sooner, unlocking new growth opportunities
Designed and launched an award-winning comparison tool that helps brokers explain value and guide better buyer decisions
Delivered a portfolio of new product concepts, including a market-ready Minimum Viable Product
Strengthened internal innovation capability through hands-on training of 50 staff
Timeframe: 9 months
Services provided:
Research
Qualitative ethnographic research
Current-state research
Process mapping
Design
Service design
Experience design
Product (digital) design
User experience (UX) design
Co-design
Journey mapping
Concept creation
Prototype testing
Deliverables
Customer and stakeholder insights report – clarified how borrowers, lenders, and brokers perceive Lenders Mortgage Insurance
Customer journeys and ecosystem maps – identified where and how to improve the experience
Concept portfolio – defined new product and service opportunities for growth
Comparison tool (Minimum Viable Product) – enabled brokers to clearly explain options and the “cost of waiting”
Innovation capability program – equipped staff with practical tools to continue developing new ideas
Context:
Entering the property market is becoming increasingly difficult, with rising costs and complex financial products making it harder for buyers to make confident decisions.
Our client, a Lenders Mortgage Insurance provider, had built a strong market position with a decades-old product that allowed buyers to purchase homes with less than a 20% deposit. However, while the product remained commercially successful, most homebuyers did not understand what Lenders Mortgage Insurance was, how it worked, or how it benefited them.
At the same time, the market had shifted. Rising property prices and the introduction of government schemes were changing how buyers entered the market, placing the relevance of their core product at risk. As a monoline business, this created an urgent need to evolve or risk disruption.
WAVE was engaged to optimise the existing Lenders Mortgage Insurance product and explore new ways to support people entering the housing market.
Approach:
We worked as one team with our client, embedding our designers alongside their Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and engaging stakeholders at key moments to build alignment and momentum.
We began by aligning leadership on a shared vision and building a strong evidence base through a market scan and existing research. From this, we identified borrowers, lenders, and brokers as key audiences and explored their experiences through ethnographic research. Interviews across these groups revealed 20 insights that reshaped how the organisation understood the role of Lenders Mortgage Insurance in the homebuying journey.
We translated these insights into customer journeys and ecosystem maps to identify where confusion and missed opportunities existed. This led to a critical shift in value proposition—from protecting lenders to helping people enter the property market sooner.
Working collaboratively, we generated and prioritised a range of ideas based on customer value, business benefit, and feasibility. This resulted in four key concepts, which we tested and refined through two rounds of prototyping, ensuring they were both desirable and viable.
A key outcome was the development of a comparison tool as a Minimum Viable Product. Designed to support broker conversations, it helps buyers understand their financial position, compare options, and see the “cost of waiting.”
Alongside this, we built internal capability by training 50 staff through hands-on programs, enabling the organisation to continue developing new ideas beyond the project.
Outcome:
We helped our client reposition Lenders Mortgage Insurance from a product focused on protecting lenders to one that supports people to enter the property market sooner. This shift opened new opportunities for growth and strengthened their relevance in a changing market.
We delivered a portfolio of validated concepts, including a market-ready Minimum Viable Product, giving the organisation a clear pathway to evolve their offering.
The comparison tool became a flagship outcome, enabling brokers to better explain options and helping buyers understand the financial impact of delaying their purchase. Following its launch, it received the Australian Broker’s 5-Star Mortgage Innovator Award.
We also strengthened the organisation’s innovation capability. Teams adopted a more customer-focused approach and are now better equipped to continuously improve their products and respond to future market changes.
