Plan Tab

The problem

Zillow built its app and site around home search. Once people found a home, the move continued in spreadsheets, email and calls with an agent and a lender. Buyers, sellers and renters had no single place on Zillow that told them where they were and what came next.

We replaced the home-loans tab with Plan Tab, a top-level tab in the app and site for planning a move. It starts by asking "Are you buying, selling, both, or just browsing?" and gives a tailored plan. It guides buyers through four milestones, setting a budget, finding a home, making an offer and closing, and keeps goals, finances, tasks, documents, and the agent and lender in one place.

What I owned

As a Senior Manager at Zillow, I led product management for Plan Tab and app navigation from planning through launch. I gave a product manager on my team day-to-day ownership of it, with a transition plan and explicit success criteria. I stayed accountable through launch. In August 2026, I moved into a Director role over Search. Plan Tab stayed with that product manager.

I argued early for an AI-guided plan instead of static pages. Design leadership advocated for it to senior product leadership. I tested an adaptive plan in a meal-planning app I built on my own time.

The decisions that mattered

Measure the funnel first

The debate was whether replacing the home-loans tab would cost mortgage leads. I measured the funnel myself: most entrants never got past the required goal-setting step, so almost nobody saw the mortgage entry points. I wrote a position paper and asked colleagues to challenge it.

We changed onboarding so people could reach the plan sooner. I reported that onboarding completion rose substantially and mortgage leads did not change significantly.

Require a mortgage guardrail

I agreed with the business on a mortgage guardrail before launch, making each rollout conditional on downstream mortgage submissions staying within the limit. We reached all iOS users at the end of May 2026, then Android in June and web in July. The guardrail held at every step.

What the first weeks showed

Early reads showed more people viewing their plan and creating goals than with the old navigation, while mortgage submissions stayed within the guardrail. Zillow announced Plan Tab on June 23, 2026, as part of its Summer Launch. We still don't know whether people keep returning through a move that takes months.

Public record

• Zillow launches a personalized hub that guides home buyers from first search to closing: Zillow press release, June 23, 2026. It calls Plan Tab a personalized hub.
• Zillow rolls out personalized homebuying hub: HousingWire, June 23, 2026, covering the launch.