For Marisa Parsons, developing her team is at the heart of her work at Realtor.com. “I’m passionate about helping our designers grow in their careers, and I’m excited to coach them and create opportunities for them to further their skills,” she says. “It’s our job to solve complex problems and deliver work with the highest level of craft. The best way for us to do that is to keep learning and growing.”
Since joining Realtor.com, Marisa’s had the chance to grow in her own career. She started out as a Principal Service Designer, helping to evolve our lead forms experience into a service to connect consumers with agents. Now in her role as Senior Director of Product Design, not only does she have the chance to mentor and lead her team, she’s having an impact on work across the full line of products and services at Realtor.com. She’s been integral in helping advance our new design aesthetic, creating tighter and more efficient processes for teams, and challenging product design work to be world-class. Marisa has worked on most of the lines of business at Realtor.com, giving her a keen ability to see a holistic picture of how to serve the needs of our consumers while also helping our partners and customers grow their own businesses. As the real estate market goes through periods of change, and the business itself has to flex under demanding conditions, Marisa remains a steadying force—not just in Design but across our Product and Engineering groups as well.
We sat down with Marisa to learn more about her role, her drive to support consumers, and how she’s empowered to be her authentic self at Realtor.com.
Q. What does a Design Director do at Realtor.com?
Marisa: I’m responsible for building, leading, and mentoring a design team that works across a number of our product areas. I work closely with product and engineering leaders on strategy, planning, and execution of new product ideas. I also work closely with the other design leaders in the company to coordinate work and design operations and processes.
Q. What excited you about joining the team?
Marisa: I was really excited by the property tech space that Realtor.com operates in. We have so many opportunities to innovate and redefine the way people find home in every form. I was also really eager to get more hands-on with data. I wanted to work closely with the Data Science and Analytics teams to run experiments and then understand how design decisions impact user behaviors on the site. I was looking for access to statistically significant quantitative data to really understand whether something works or not and to be able to use this in conjunction with qualitative user research to understand the what and the why so that my team and I could design better experiences. I’m pleased to say I’ve found all those things at Realtor.com.
Q. Tell us about a current project that you’re working on.
Marisa: Along with my team, I’m working on many projects within the company. We’re making improvements to our finance products and adding more features to our homeowners’ product called My Home. Within the finance team, we are working on an initiative to help educate people about programs for down payment assistance. There are many different programs across the United States, but they are often difficult to find. We want to change that and make it possible for more people to buy their first home. For My Home, we have some really interesting new features we’re about to ship that will help homeowners better understand the value of their home and ways to increase it.
Q. What does your typical day look like?
Marisa: As a leader, I spend much of my day talking to cross-functional partners and designers on my team. First thing in the morning, I check what meetings I have to go to and ensure I’ve got my priorities set out for the day. I’ll often be involved in team syncs where we talk about project status, direction, and strategy. I have regular one-to-one meetings with each person on my team during the week, so on average, I typically have one of those conversations every day. I make sure all of our work is moving forward smoothly and jump in to unblock the team or provide clarity when needed. We have regular design critiques with the whole team with the ethos of helping each other do our best work.
Q. How has your career grown or changed since you started working here?
Marisa: I started at Realtor.com as a Principal Service Designer but quickly moved into my current management position. I’ve worked with many different Product teams across our consumer experience, including Renters, Buyers, New Construction, Owners, and Sellers. The team has grown significantly, so where I spend my time day-to-day has shifted, and the focus of my time has changed.
Q. What part of your job feels most meaningful to you?
Marisa: Helping our designers grow is especially meaningful for me. I sit down with each designer to talk about their goals and ambitions, then help make an action plan to get there, providing guidance along the way. That could look like finding them courses and books or lining them up on the right projects to give them the chance to practice their skills. When it comes to coaching and feedback, I aim to give designers useful input as soon as possible so things are fresh and ensure the message is clear and supportive.
Q. Which of our four values do you identify with most in your work and why?
Marisa: In my work, I identify with “Consumers are our north star” the most—it’s the main reason I joined Realtor.com, after all, to help consumers feel more confident and supported as they buy, sell, rent, and own their homes. I’m always looking for ways to better understand our consumers: what they’re really looking for when they visit our site and what needs they have beyond the obvious. We’ve recently been partnering closely with our research team to better understand the emotional drivers behind why people browse our site, which has revealed some interesting new insights. I can’t wait to leverage that in our product work.
Q. In what ways do you feel Realtor.com fosters a diverse and inclusive culture?
Marisa: Realtor.com empowers me to be my authentic self at work by supporting and championing diversity and making people from diverse backgrounds feel welcome. It’s important to me that my team feels comfortable, accepted, and respected as well so they can bring their whole selves to work. My aim is always to ensure in our interactions that we create a supportive environment. I think when people aren’t worried about whether or not they are accepted, it frees us, making it easier to bring our A-game, build strong relationships with each other, and leverage our diversity to make better products. With the right mindset, it can also be fun, inspirational, and educational to learn about different perspectives.
Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are also a big help, demonstrating support from the company and creating a safe space for people to connect. I belong to our Formation, Inspiring Women, and Beyond Pride ERGs. Being part of these groups helps me feel like I belong here, and I’ve also learned a lot.
Q. What do you like best about working at Realtor.com?
Marisa: For me, the best part about working here is the people. We have a lot of smart and talented people who also know how to have fun. I enjoy being able to have deep discussions and debates and still feel confident in our working relationship and friendship afterward. I’ve learned a lot from these people, especially about other disciplines. From Data Science and Analytics: understanding the data and making sure our experiments are set up in a way that avoids ambiguous results. Working with Engineering: considerations for when and how to do technical changes along with design changes. From my Design peers: refining my knowledge on how to get the right amount of discovery work (not too much and not too little), I could go on. I’ve learned so much since I started working here.
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