01 introduction
How a predictive incentive tool turned spreadsheets and guesswork into clear, actionable savings, helping a climate tech startup close $50k+ in contracts before a single line of production code was written.
Category
Product Design
Client
Climate Tech Startup
Year
2023
Services
UX Research
Interface Design
Data Visualization
02 Problem Space
the incentive
The problem was threefold. Complex data management: rebate data varied by state, city, and utility provider with no consolidated view. Difficult onboarding: inputting building information and understanding potential savings was cumbersome and unintuitive. And a fundamental lack of clarity: users couldn't get a clear picture of which incentives they qualified for or how much they would save across different technology types.
The problem was threefold. Complex data management: rebate data varied by state, city, and utility provider with no consolidated view. Difficult onboarding: inputting building information and understanding potential savings was cumbersome and unintuitive. And a fundamental lack of clarity: users couldn't get a clear picture of which incentives they qualified for or how much they would save across different technology types.
Contractors and MEP engineers are leaving serious money on the table simply because they can't see what's available to them. The whole chain breaks at visibility.
02 the problem
Hundreds of incentives. No single place to find them.
The problem was threefold. Complex data management: rebate data varied by state, city, and utility provider with no consolidated view. Difficult onboarding: inputting building information and understanding potential savings was cumbersome and unintuitive. And a fundamental lack of clarity: users couldn't get a clear picture of which incentives they qualified for or how much they would save across different technology types.
The problem was threefold. Complex data management: rebate data varied by state, city, and utility provider with no consolidated view. Difficult onboarding: inputting building information and understanding potential savings was cumbersome and unintuitive. And a fundamental lack of clarity: users couldn't get a clear picture of which incentives they qualified for or how much they would save across different technology types.
Contractors and MEP engineers are leaving serious money on the table simply because they can't see what's available to them. The whole chain breaks at visibility.
Where things stood when I joined
The problem was threefold. Complex data management: rebate data varied by state, city, and utility provider with no consolidated view. Difficult onboarding: inputting building information and understanding potential savings was cumbersome and unintuitive. And a fundamental lack of clarity: users couldn't get a clear picture of which incentives they qualified for or how much they would save across different technology types.
The problem was threefold. Complex data management: rebate data varied by state, city, and utility provider with no consolidated view. Difficult onboarding: inputting building information and understanding potential savings was cumbersome and unintuitive. And a fundamental lack of clarity: users couldn't get a clear picture of which incentives they qualified for or how much they would save across different technology types.
03 understanding the landscape
The incentive landscape is deeply technical, and I needed to understand the data before I could design for it. I worked closely with the engineering head to map how incentives get shortlisted and how the calculation methodology works: user inputs (building area, address, utility provider, year built) feed into a filter that queries the DSIRE database by location and provider, estimates tax incentives and discounts using energy models, and aggregates results by federal, state, and utility categories and by technology type.
Federal rebates like IRA Section 179D, Investment Tax Credit, Production Tax Credit, and MACRS apply across the entire US. Some programs offer up to $658,000 in deductions for energy-efficient commercial buildings.
State rebates like property tax exclusions and sales tax exclusions on solar are state-specific. What's available in California doesn't apply in Texas.
Utility incentives come from individual providers like PG&E, SCE, and LADWP. These include deemed incentives (based on products purchased) and NMEC incentives (based on selected measures, typically higher but more time-consuming to obtain).