This summer, Finn.no employed eight students as interns to work together and improve the way Finn users search for housing for sale. Here’s how the project unfolded.
When the eight students started their internship, they knew they would be working in a group, but they didn’t know what the project was or who their co-interns would be.
Kaisa Almquist, who studies industrial design at NTNU, got the position as one of two UX designers. She was excited to be part of a group for the summer: “It was one of the reasons I applied. When you’re in a group, you’re not thrown into a job where others have been working for a long time; instead, we got our own project to work on”, she says.
“You’re not so alone”, adds Karolina Gil, who is about to start her master’s in program development at UiB. Karolina joined the intern team as a developer. Together, working as six developers and two UX designers, they were given the task of improving the way users of Norway’s largest marketplace, Finn.no, search for apartments and houses for sale.
The project
Alexander Le, who studies Machine Learning at NTNU and Signe Mehlum, who studies informatics and programming architecture at UiO, also joined as developer interns. Both explain that they applied for the internship to gain relevant experience outside the theory taught at school.
“I wanted some real-world experience and prioritised that this summer; I wanted to learn what it feels like to work at a real company”, says Alexander. He explains that when they were given the assignment by their manager at Finn.no, the biggest challenge was figuring out the right direction for development.
Signe agrees: “The project stems from an identified user need to have an organised overview of all the apartments and houses for sale on Finn.no. Until now, users have been relying on search and notifications but still might have missed out on interesting opportunities”, she says.
Karolina further explains how the product they developed has taken shape: “We created a solution that allows users to compare different elements of housing ads. This way, users looking to buy can easily compare listings on Finn without needing to organise the information in Excel or something similar.” “It compares the data from each ad that might be relevant to a potential buyer, such as the number of bedrooms, square footage and total price”, says Alexander. “You can also sort ads by the dates realtors offer showings”, adds Signe.
This feature allows users to compare all housing listings based on what they find important, add notes and ratings and share their findings with others.
Working together
As a group of eight, the interns have truly tested their collaboration skills. When asked how the group work has been throughout the summer, the interns look at each other and chuckle. Signe answers on behalf of the group:
“It’s been intense at times, but I think it’s been really fun. We have a lot of generosity towards each other. We don’t tiptoe around issues, which is great when things get hectic.” Kaisa, who’s one of only two UX designers, praises the other interns for creating a shared sense of belonging in all aspects of the project: “It’s been a learning curve when it comes to communicating and solving problems as they arise”, she says.
The result? A group of interns with a shared sense of responsibility and ownership of the summer project. And their product? It’s already live on Finn.no, ready to help Norwegians find their new homes. Go check it out: www.finn.no/realestate
