Denys Tytskyi — Product Designer

Overview

Pepperkey is a broker-to-broker networking app for UK estate agents, covering listings, requirements, social posts, and in-app messaging. The hardest constraint wasn't a portal feature. It was WhatsApp. UK agents already move off-market deals inside group chats: pocket listings, quick price drops, "got a buyer for SW7, anyone?" — fast, informal, no record. The product had to match that speed while letting the agent decide who sees what

My scope ran from product architecture through to a shippable design system. Formal user research wasn't part of the engagement, so decisions came from how brokers actually behave in WhatsApp deal groups, competitor flows on Bayut and Property Finder, and continuous review with the founding team and the partners they were showing the design to

The Visibility Decision

Five visibility tiers govern who sees what: Public, Off-Market, Pepperkey, My Connections, Trusted Lists. Tiers themselves aren't novel. What mattered was placing the choice inside the Create flow with content-aware defaults — Wanted posts default to network-scoped, Quick Listings to Off-Market, standard listings to Public. The decision happens when the agent is already thinking about exposure

Built for How Agents Actually Work

The Quick Listing flow is four fields plus a visibility tier. Photos optional, because pocket listings move on WhatsApp with no photos at all ("4-bed, Notting Hill, £6.5m, off-market, ping me"), and forcing one here would mean agents skipping the flow

Next to it sits PDF-to-Listing. Agents already export property PDFs for portals and brochures; the cheapest route in was to swallow what they already produce. Upload, parse, edit, publish. Don't redesign how agents create content — design around it

Contact is multi-channel by design: Message, Call, WhatsApp. That's how UK deals close

The Page Where Decisions Happen

The densest page in the product. Gallery, full description, amenities collapsed under a single button, location with broker-relevant tags, market trends for comparable properties, agent and agency representatives, recommended listings. Contact stays sticky through the entire scroll. The page reads as a working tool, not a marketing page: data as evidence for a transaction decision, not atmosphere

Activity Lives on the Listing

Activity logs sit per listing, not in a generic inbox. Each entry (message, call, missed call) carries a timestamp and the same Message/Call/WhatsApp buttons attached, so the agent reacts inside the thread. Two views: a chat-like timeline per listing for full activity history, and a listing-grouped overview for triaging across multiple properties

Social Without the Engagement Trap

Posts, listings, and Wanted requests share one card model. Likes and comments exist, but no follower counts, no view counts, no algorithmic ranking. The Home feed is curated by subscriptions, not generated. The feed is a tool, not a stream

One System Across Both Sides

Each agent gets a customisable profile: theme colour, banner, short URL, and a separate Public View for client-facing sharing. The chosen colour follows the agent across the product, appearing on their profile, verification mark, and short URL wherever they show up

The agency-side desktop tools (User Management, Listings Management) run on the same component system. Mobile to desktop changes scope, not product

“When Denys joined, we had a rough prototype and a brief that kept shifting under us. He didn't wait for us to figure it out — he asked the right questions, came back with proposals, and told us straight when an idea would hurt the product. A few months later I had something I felt good walking investors through.”

John Middleton, Founder

Overview

Pepperkey is a broker-to-broker networking app for UK estate agents, covering listings, requirements, social posts, and in-app messaging. The hardest constraint wasn't a portal feature. It was WhatsApp. UK agents already move off-market deals inside group chats: pocket listings, quick price drops, "got a buyer for SW7, anyone?" — fast, informal, no record. The product had to match that speed while letting the agent decide who sees what

My scope ran from product architecture through to a shippable design system. Formal user research wasn't part of the engagement, so decisions came from how brokers actually behave in WhatsApp deal groups, competitor flows on Bayut and Property Finder, and continuous review with the founding team and the partners they were showing the design to

Read All

“When Denys joined, we had a rough prototype and a brief that kept shifting under us. He didn't wait for us to figure it out — he asked the right questions, came back with proposals, and told us straight when an idea would hurt the product. A few months later I had something I felt good walking investors through.”

John Middleton, Founder

Overview

Pepperkey is a broker-to-broker networking app for UK estate agents, covering listings, requirements, social posts, and in-app messaging. The hardest constraint wasn't a portal feature. It was WhatsApp. UK agents already move off-market deals inside group chats: pocket listings, quick price drops, "got a buyer for SW7, anyone?" — fast, informal, no record. The product had to match that speed while letting the agent decide who sees what

My scope ran from product architecture through to a shippable design system. Formal user research wasn't part of the engagement, so decisions came from how brokers actually behave in WhatsApp deal groups, competitor flows on Bayut and Property Finder, and continuous review with the founding team and the partners they were showing the design to

The Visibility Decision

Five visibility tiers govern who sees what: Public, Off-Market, Pepperkey, My Connections, Trusted Lists. Tiers themselves aren't novel. What mattered was placing the choice inside the Create flow with content-aware defaults — Wanted posts default to network-scoped, Quick Listings to Off-Market, standard listings to Public. The decision happens when the agent is already thinking about exposure

Built for How Agents Actually Work

The Quick Listing flow is four fields plus a visibility tier. Photos optional, because pocket listings move on WhatsApp with no photos at all ("4-bed, Notting Hill, £6.5m, off-market, ping me"), and forcing one here would mean agents skipping the flow

Next to it sits PDF-to-Listing. Agents already export property PDFs for portals and brochures; the cheapest route in was to swallow what they already produce. Upload, parse, edit, publish. Don't redesign how agents create content — design around it

Contact is multi-channel by design: Message, Call, WhatsApp. That's how UK deals close

The Page Where Decisions Happen

The densest page in the product. Gallery, full description, amenities collapsed under a single button, location with broker-relevant tags, market trends for comparable properties, agent and agency representatives, recommended listings. Contact stays sticky through the entire scroll. The page reads as a working tool, not a marketing page: data as evidence for a transaction decision, not atmosphere

Activity Lives on the Listing

Activity logs sit per listing, not in a generic inbox. Each entry (message, call, missed call) carries a timestamp and the same Message/Call/WhatsApp buttons attached, so the agent reacts inside the thread. Two views: a chat-like timeline per listing for full activity history, and a listing-grouped overview for triaging across multiple properties

Social Without the Engagement Trap

Posts, listings, and Wanted requests share one card model. Likes and comments exist, but no follower counts, no view counts, no algorithmic ranking. The Home feed is curated by subscriptions, not generated. The feed is a tool, not a stream

One System Across Both Sides

Each agent gets a customisable profile: theme colour, banner, short URL, and a separate Public View for client-facing sharing. The chosen colour follows the agent across the product, appearing on their profile, verification mark, and short URL wherever they show up

The agency-side desktop tools (User Management, Listings Management) run on the same component system. Mobile to desktop changes scope, not product

“When Denys joined, we had a rough prototype and a brief that kept shifting under us. He didn't wait for us to figure it out — he asked the right questions, came back with proposals, and told us straight when an idea would hurt the product. A few months later I had something I felt good walking investors through.”

John Middleton, Founder

Overview

Pepperkey is a broker-to-broker networking app for UK estate agents, covering listings, requirements, social posts, and in-app messaging. The hardest constraint wasn't a portal feature. It was WhatsApp. UK agents already move off-market deals inside group chats: pocket listings, quick price drops, "got a buyer for SW7, anyone?" — fast, informal, no record. The product had to match that speed while letting the agent decide who sees what

My scope ran from product architecture through to a shippable design system. Formal user research wasn't part of the engagement, so decisions came from how brokers actually behave in WhatsApp deal groups, competitor flows on Bayut and Property Finder, and continuous review with the founding team and the partners they were showing the design to

Read All

“When Denys joined, we had a rough prototype and a brief that kept shifting under us. He didn't wait for us to figure it out — he asked the right questions, came back with proposals, and told us straight when an idea would hurt the product. A few months later I had something I felt good walking investors through.”

John Middleton, Founder