Help to buy: Apply for an equity loan alpha assessment report
The report from the alpha assessment of Homes England's Apply for an equity loan on the 08/07/2020.
| From: | Central Digital and Data Office |
| Assessment date: | 08/07/2020 |
| Stage: | Alpha |
| Result: | Met |
| Service provider: | Homes England |
Service description
A Help to Buy: Equity loan allows first-time buyers to borrow a percentage of the property’s market value (what it is worth). This reduces the mortgage amount homebuyers need.
When repaying an equity loan, homeowners pay back the percentage they borrowed of the property’s value.
Service users
People who want to buy a home, initially looking at their options for financial support and then later when they have decided to buy with an equity loan.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service met point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team showed clearly how user needs had driven the decision on alpha’s focus. They have worked on the user’s biggest problems of understanding the scheme and making an error free application and used this to test their riskiest assumptions
- the team have worked with a good range of users in terms of first time buyers and the professionals involved in the process. User needs were well understood and presented
- a good range of research methods have been utilised and there was clear demonstration of how the team are involved in user research and how findings drive prioritisation
- practical decisions have been taken around ensuring the service works for accessibility users during the Covid-19 pandemic. The team has good evidence that it’s suitable for those with cognitive impairments. The use of standard GDS design patterns means it is likely to work for those with physical disabilities
- the research plans for working with private beta users were clear and comprehensive
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue their work with accessibility and assisted digital users to ensure the service works for everyone
- undertake as much contextual research as possible to ensure important aspects of user behaviour have not been missed during the pandemic
- have a clear contingency user research plan for private beta in case working on builder’s sites is not possible
- be wary of possible objections from users who may currently benefit financially from first time buyers lack of knowledge about the existing process
- ensure the private beta users are representative of the whole user group
- ensure there are enough researchers to properly manage private beta and start the proposed alpha for the back end system
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service met point 2 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team demonstrated a clear understanding of first time buyer’s needs across the house buying journey
- the team demonstrated that the service was an integral part of solving the whole problem for users and as such are progressing work on developing a cross-government service community focusing on owning your own home
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure where possible that the teams insights gained from user research feeds into wider policy considerations, increasing the feedback loop between policy and delivery, with consideration as to how this is progressed across wider government with departments such as MHCLG
- ensure the “front to back” aspect of the service meets user needs, ensuring there is focus on enhancing the back office service design
- continue supporting the development of a cross-government service community focusing on owning your own home
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service met point 3 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team had a good awareness of the whole service, end-to-end and front-to-back
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- demonstrate evidence of their plan to reduce duplication of content across different Help to Buy websites and channels
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service met point 4 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team systematically tested their riskiest assumptions throughout alpha using a range of prototypes and other tests
- the team could clearly express what they learnt from user research and how that fed into design changes
- prototypes use the GOV.UK Design System and are mostly consistent with GOV.UK styles and patterns
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- understand and design how internal users will process applications
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service met point 5 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team tested all their prototypes with users with cognitive impairments
- the team has a plan for how to help users who struggle to use the online service, evolving the role of the regional agents to provide support
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- do research with users of assistive technologies to further test the accessibility of the service – for example, patterns like the combined radio and table on the ‘Where is the property you are buying?’ page could be complex for screen reader users to understand
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service met point 6 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the multidisciplinary team was dedicated, knowledgeable and had done some great work during alpha
- the Service Owner was fully empowered to deliver for users, demonstrating a strong understanding of the end-to-end service and where it fits in the border landscape
- the organisation is supporting the development of the Service Owner profession
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure they resource the role of Product Manager
- ensure the team plans presented during assessment are implemented enabling continued delivery
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service met point 7 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team evidenced that they are working well in an agile way
- the team focused on showing their work, holding regular stakeholder sessions and show & tells
- the team have reacted well to remote working making best use of tools to support their work
- governance was enabling delivery
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service met point 8 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team displayed a good ethos of iterating and improving frequently and testing with users
- the team iterated and improved itself based on reto feedback
- the team showed good examples of design iteration based on feedback
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service met point 9 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the use of GOV.UK Verify was considered
- secure access for joint applicants has been prototyped
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- show how user data is protected, and which systems and users have access to it
- understand how long user data needs to be stored during the application process
- show how the proposed new APIs will be secured
- carry out appropriate vulnerability and penetration testing
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service met point 10 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team showed a good understanding of the value that data plays within a service
- the team had a well thought through plan for service performance data, ensuring the KPIs were linked to hypotheses being tested and organisational goals
- the team focused on the bigger picture and displayed a good understanding of monitoring longer term metrics
- the team made good use of data already available (such as complaints data) to inform their work
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure they establish a benchmark for their performance data for effective monitoring and tracking of the service performance
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service met point 11 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- guidance on which technologies to use was obtained from the Technical Design Authority
- the service will be hosted on the public cloud
- there is a clear understanding of how the loan application process fits into the wider Help to Buy ecosystem
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- show more clearly how existing Help to Buy infrastructure and systems will be reused or deprecated
12. Make new source code open
https://github.com/gulpdigital/htb-el-alpha
Decision
The service did not meet point 12 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- a snapshot of the prototype code is publicly available on supplier’s GitHub repository
- the team have identified they have some “catching up to do” with regards to open source
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- get access to and make use of Homes England GitHub organisation for ongoing development in the open
- collaborate with other Homes England digital teams on an approach to open source
- encourage a culture of working in the open to set a precedent in Homes England
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service met point 13 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the prototype was created using the GOV.UK Prototype Kit
- GOV.UK Notify will be used
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- assess use of Smart Answers for maximum house price calculation as an alternative to creating, hosting and maintaining a separate “mini service”
- explore how forms are being built and hosted in other government departments
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service met point 14 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has a good understanding of the current number of visitors and transactions per year and the volume of data stored in the back end
- the team has a good understanding of blockers in the existing architecture and dependencies on stakeholders
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- define how the service will be monitored
- understand the expected load profile of the service
- understand if/how updates to the service will affect users who are part way through an application
- encourage a culture of continuous quality assurance testing
Updates to this page
Published 17 July 2020