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Getting started with getting #PoweredByORCA

I’m about halfway through my re-certification process as an OOUX strategist and just like the first time I went through this training, it is very worth the money. As part of this course, we do all of the 16 steps of the ORCA process to become part of a solid case study. So far, we’ve been going through the first part of the ORCA process, the O part, as in identifying the nouns.

For my case study, I chose to create a potential new product. The working title right now is RemoteReno. My vision is to have RemoteReno be a place where people can track home renovations online, specifically focusing on people who are renovating houses remotely. If you have read previous editions of my newsletter, this has been on my mind for a while.

I am now renovating a second house remotely, from 500 miles away. Being that far away from the property adds multiple levels of complexity. For example, the security of the house, which is unoccupied, is a big issue. Another big pain point is sourcing and managing contractors. I need to make sure that multiple contractors aren’t working on the property at the same time, and that jobs that are dependent on each other are being done in the correct order.

Moreover, I have piles of paint, flooring, and counter samples at my house, and I’ve been using photographs to make sure the materials I’ve sourced don’t clash. Yes, it’s a lot.

I was able to do my noun foraging exercises from my own renovation experience as well as other people’s remote renovation experiences thanks to YouTube and Instagram reel transcripts. My noun foraging so far has resulted in these objects:

• USER - users can be property owners, contractors, potentially both (!), or owner proxies such as a property manager or realtor
• PROPERTY - users can have more than one property. This is where things like photos, videos, measurements, budgets, and security would live
• JOB - a property can have many jobs attached to it. Some of those jobs are dependent on other jobs being completed before they can start
• ESTIMATE - jobs can have multiple estimates and a side-by-side comparison of estimates would be helpful
• PRODUCT - many jobs are associated with products, such as installing flooring, windows, appliances, etc. Photos, pricing, and side-by-side views would be helpful here too

I made a video going through my process here if you want to get into the details of what a noun foraging exercise could look like. If you want to find out more, ask me.