Finding the hidden opportunity inside The Home Depot
TIMELINE
One Semester
TYPE
Service Design, UX Strategy
CLIENT
Home Depot
ROLE
Researcher and Designer
01
Overview
During COVID-19, The Home Depot asked our team to find new ways to reconnect with their consumers. Through research, we uncovered a hidden opportunity inside their existing data infrastructure and narrowed our focus to kitchen remodeling, designing a service solution that projected $45MM in annual revenue and expanded their addressable market in a category worth $7.4 billion.
10%
OF US HOMES ALREADY IN HOME DEPOT’S MEASUREMENT DATABASE
$7.4B
TOTAL ADDRESSABLE MARKET IN KICHEN REMODELLING
$45MM
TOTAL ADDRESSABLE MARKET IN KITCHEN REMODELLING
$99
SITE ANALYSIS FEE SAVED BY CUSTOMERS USING THE TOOL
02
My Role and Scope
I led research, synthesis, and client communication across a four-person team over one semester. I ran stakeholder meetings with The Home Depot's User Experience and Experience Innovation teams, facilitated our internal ideation sessions, and drove the research synthesis that uncovered the key data insight that shaped our final solution direction.
Research and synthesis lead
Stakeholder communication
Service blueprinting
Value proposition development
03
Strategic Challenge
The brief was intentionally open. The Home Depot gave our team significant latitude to explore how they might reconnect with consumers during COVID-19, which meant the hardest challenge was not solving the problem, it was defining it.
We were working with limited visibility into what data Home Depot actually held, what their systems looked like, and what was feasible to build against. Narrowing a broad brief into a focused, defensible solution while navigating those unknowns required as much strategic judgment as it did research.
Early systems mapping that helped us understand the full landscape before narrowing the brief
04
The Pivot
After presenting our preliminary concepts to The Home Depot team, a stakeholder conversation revealed something we had not expected. Home Depot already held an extensive database of home measurements — the result of years of installation work covering an estimated 10% of US homes. It was hiding in plain sight.
That single insight reframed everything. Rather than building something new from scratch, we saw an opportunity to leverage what Home Depot already had. Old home measurements could be made accessible to both new and current owners, removing one of the biggest friction points in the kitchen remodeling process.
Before the pivot
Three broad concepts exploring how Home Depot could reconnect with consumers during COVID-19, none with a clear data advantage or differentiator
After the pivot
One focused solution built entirely on an existing but untapped asset — Home Depot's own measurement database, covering 10% of US homes
“Often we already have the measurements for your house. We install 10% of the floors in the US.”
05
The Solution
The Kitchen Measurement Search is a self-service tool built into The Home Depot website, allowing homeowners to search for existing floor plans and measurements already held in Home Depot's database. For the first time, customers could skip the scheduling, skip the wait, and move directly into their remodeling project.
There is a reason people say measure twice, cut once. Getting measurements wrong in a kitchen remodel means wrong cabinets, wrong fixtures, and weeks of costly delays. The solution addressed that fear directly, giving customers access to trusted, verified measurements and building confidence in both the process and the brand.
Book a pro if not yet in the database
Easy self-service flow to get started
Enter your address to search the database
06
The Outcome
The final solution was presented to The Home Depot's Enterprise and Digital Experience and User Experience and Experience Innovation teams, who responded positively to the direction.
By leveraging an existing but untapped data asset, the solution created something the home remodeling space had never had before — a self-service option that reduced friction, built brand trust, and gave customers confidence at one of the most stressful moments in a home renovation project.
