Spotting the Gap: How Personal Frustrations Led to Ebrik’s Creation
Ebrik’s journey started with a personal challenge rather than a business idea. While waiting months for her off-plan flat to be completed, Ana had little access to updates and couldn’t visit the property due to safety regulations. Communication was sparse, and she often had to chase builders for basic information, while balancing a hectic London lifestyle.
The experience left her with a key question: Could the way developers communicate with residents be improved?
Ana wanted to know if her experience was unique or if her neighbours were facing similar challenges. To find out, she printed postcards and dropped them in their mailboxes, asking for feedback on their own buying experiences. To her surprise, 58 handwritten responses came back, many sharing the same frustrations.
“It was certainly an anxious time! A lot of worry over size, delays to building progress. I would obsess over pictures. I visited the outside many times but only once inside.”
Encouraged by the responses, Ana launched a digital survey to explore the issue further. She asked residents and home buyers about their experiences during the construction process and waiting period, specifically how often they were able to visit the property, and whether regular updates would have helped reduce their stress. The results confirmed her suspicions: many buyers felt anxious, disconnected, and poorly informed. A significant 96% expressed the desire for more visibility and regular updates during construction.
A key lesson in developing Ebrik was recognising that problem-solving is an ongoing process. Initially designed to address Ana's own frustrations with off-plan homebuying, it quickly became clear that these challenges were magnified in the context of regeneration projects. In these larger developments, residents faced even greater uncertainty, with delays, disruptions, and poor communication compounding the stress.
This insight led to pivot Ebrik’s focus. Instead of just improving communication for individual homebuyers, we saw an opportunity to support housing associations managing complex regeneration projects, where effective communication was critical.
Ebrik evolved from providing simple property updates to fostering ongoing, community-driven engagement. The platform became a tool for building trust, providing transparency, and ensuring that residents were informed and involved throughout every stage of the process. Features like polls, interactive forms, and real-time feedback enabled continuous dialogue between residents and housing associations.
In its first year, Ebrik’s MVP was tested in a regeneration project, where feedback from residents over 12 months helped refine the platform to better address the unique challenges of these larger developments and align the needs of residents with the goals of housing association teams.
Since then, Ebrik has undergone significant evolution, expanding its focus far beyond the build process of regeneration projects. At the core of this transformation is a deeper commitment to driving locally relevant social value. By integrating a Theory of Change framework, Ebrik has shifted from being just a tool for construction updates to a strategic platform that measures and delivers tangible social outcomes.
In addition to its impact during construction and later stages, Ebrik now serves as a strategic tool for early-stage resident engagement. By connecting with residents long before planning begins, it helps housing associations build trust, gather feedback, and align projects with community needs from the outset.
What began as a response to a personal frustration with the home-buying process has grown into a platform that’s reshaping how housing developers and associations engage with residents. Through continuous feedback and adaptation, Ebrik has evolved beyond just improving communication during construction. It now plays a crucial role in building lasting relationships, fostering trust, and creating stronger, more connected communities. Ebrik’s evolution highlights the value of staying responsive to resident needs and continuously refining solutions for better long-term outcomes.
.jpeg)
