§ 01The Situation
Q4 2021. Zillow Offers was imploding: $500M+ in losses, the entire iBuyer division being wound down, thousands of employees facing layoffs in real time. The managers who stayed needed to keep their teams producing through uncertainty that compounded weekly.
§ 02The Bet
During a crisis, the managers who stay aligned and producing are the ones who get kept. Panic spreads through teams, kills output, and makes the layoff list longer. The bet was that steady operation through chaos would be its own argument for retention.
§ 03The Work
The job during the wind-down wasn't different from the job before it. That was the point:
- Led a 6-person team through $40M+ in transaction volume.Enterprise account management at scale, during a quarter where the company was publicly falling apart.
- Accenture Root certified facilitator.Ran weekly alignment sessions that kept the team focused on execution, not speculation. Structure was the antidote to panic.
- Maintained close rates +18% above team average.Production didn't drop during the wind-down. The numbers were the argument for staying.
- Retained and transferred to Zillow Rentals Enterprise.When the division shut down, I was one of the managers kept. Moved to the enterprise rentals portfolio.
§ 04The Outcome
The team stayed aligned through the shutdown. Close rates held at
+18% above average. I was one of the managers retained and transferred to Zillow Rentals Enterprise, managing a $10M+ portfolio.
Transaction volume
$0M+
Enterprise portfolio managed through the iBuyer wind-down.
Close rate vs. avg
+0%
Maintained above-average production during a company crisis.
Portfolio retained
$0M+
Transferred to Zillow Rentals Enterprise after the shutdown.