Much More Than Just a Redesign: The Portugal Homes Discovery Process

Design Thinking is central to meaningful and relevant change in any kind of business. Its human-centered and empathetic approach focuses on the problem rather than the solution, enabling innovative outcomes that could not be achieved otherwise. The more deeply the issue and its context are understood, the more creative and effective the solutions become.

The key concepts here are “Empathize” and “Discovery”, which are essential to properly understand users, stakeholders, and the entire environment surrounding the business. With this in mind, Buzzvel proposed a unique and impactful discovery process for Portugal Homes, a luxury real estate and immigration visa company in Portugal seeking to improve its digital user experience. Buzzvel collaborated with key Portugal Homes stakeholders in a two-day, in-person discovery workshop to gain a deep understanding of pain points, challenges, goals, and opportunities.

More than a redesign, the process focused on aligning business, brand, and user experience.

The Process

Over the course of two days with Portugal Homes, it was possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the company across its many dimensions.

Day One — Alignment and Foundations

The first day focused on building a shared understanding between Buzzvel and Portugal Homes. Through collaborative workshops, we defined the brand’s personality, clarifying its primary traits of competence and reliability, supported by sincerity and empathy.

We then identified a key strategic shift: repositioning Portugal Homes with a stronger focus on real estate, in response to changing market conditions. This included redefining priorities for the new website, from modernizing its image to improving usability and lead quality.

To support this direction, we mapped the main user profiles, from investors and immigrant buyers to internal teams and real estate agents, uncovering their needs, pain points, and expectations. The day concluded with defining brand voice and SEO foundations, aligning tone, keywords, and initial information architecture.

Day Two — From Insights to Structure

The second day translated insights into actionable experience design. We transformed personas into real-world user stories, clarifying goals, motivations, and decision contexts.

Based on these stories, we collaboratively designed key user flows, ensuring the future website would support clear, efficient paths for discovery, property exploration, and lead generation.

Finally, we restructured the site architecture, simplifying navigation, reducing redundancy, and prioritizing real estate content. The outcome was a clear foundation for a new digital experience focused on clarity, relevance, and usability.

Main Takeaways

The discovery workshop allowed Buzzvel, in just a few hours, to transform dispersed information into concrete and actionable strategies that will significantly impact product success. Key insights included:

• Strategic Repositioning – A primary focus on real estate, while balancing visa-related services, reinforcing Portugal Homes’ position as a reliable and intelligent real estate platform.

• Clear User Understanding – Personas, user stories, and flows provided structured insights from multiple perspectives.

• A New Digital Experience Direction – The need for a complete redesign became clear, aligning stakeholder expectations, business goals, and user needs through simplified navigation, optimized search, and a stronger ecosystem.

• Aligned Identity – Involving stakeholders in the process enabled the creation of a clear brand identity defined by competence, innovation, intelligence, empathy, and reliability.

Conclusion

Discovery is an essential step in creating groundbreaking digital products. It is not about post-its or small talk; it is about aligning businesses, users, stakeholders, and systems to ensure everyone is on the same page and that the product truly serves user needs. While the world has access to infinite information, only a few have access to the right insights.

The success of a digital experience begins before any visual design. It starts with listening, empathizing, mapping, and understanding.