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Providing flexible solutions to renovation.

Project

Workforce management &
Non-desk job communication app

Role

Lead Designer
/Individual Contributor

Timeline

4 months

What is Wreno?

Wreno is a young startup that offers an end-to-end home evaluation and renovation platform for real estate companies in the US by mobilizing local trade businesses and gig workers.

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Problem

US Real Estate companies buy properties for profit, but renovation restrictions slow down the preparation process and increase costs.

Opportunity

Provide digital management solutions that fast-track scheduling and follow-up with diverse labour pools
in renovation.

“How do we provide flexible solutions to get the renovation done faster for companies?

My Position

As the first full-time designer for 6-month-old Wreno, I worked closely with two founders, two operation coordinators, and a team of seven engineers to create and launch a suite of MVPs within four months. The suite includes:

A desktop management app to manage and schedule work requests, communicate with the field workforce, and generate reports for corporate customers.

A Mobile App for the field workforce to claim jobs in their regions that match their skills, review job information, and deliver updates efficiently.

An online sign-up process allows Wreno Recruiters to quickly collect and screen worker candidates, as well as passively recruit new workers.

In addition, we conducted research and completed the early-stage exploration of the user journey flow to establish a framework for building an ML-Powered Information Collection Product for home evaluation services.

Business Goal

In early 2022, Wreno was expanding rapidly into 13 cities in the US. The company wanted its own worker management solution that allow them to customize workflows and features for vertically-integrated home renovation businesses.

The business goal of Wreno in creating MVPs is to build core functionalities centred on the Wreno workflow, replace the currently used third-party management app by the end of 2022 Q4, and establish a starting point for future product development.

Initial Research and Ideation

Conduct Interviews with Stakeholders

Despite not having a background in Real Estate Management, I attempted to collect as much information as possible by speaking with our in-field operation coordinators and our founders. This helped me to better understand users' behaviours and day-to-day reality. I conducted interviews with stakeholders and learned about the working processes of trade workers, corporate clients, and Wreno operation coordinators. I also familiarized myself with the tools and technologies that they are currently using.

In general, most people I interviewed have worked in the industry long enough to develop their own ways of working. However, here are several things that the Wreno app can help rectify:

Problem 1

Many people complain about the inefficiency of communicating through different channels (i.e. email, phone calls, and text messages.) However, the use of workflow management platforms is not commonly implemented, especially when the project involves external parties.

Problem 2

When it comes to home renovation and construction, platforms like Asana and Connecteam offer generalized features that leave too many loose ends in completing the renovation journey.

Problem 3

Industry leaders, such as HomeDepot, offer B2B software that focuses on construction and renovation. However, the software often fails to provide a good user experience, creating pain points and leading companies to adjust their work processes to fit software constraints.

Auditing Current Experience

Before we started creating the Wreno product suite, our business relied on several third-party apps, including Connecteamfor non-desk employee management, Salesforce for billing, and calling & texting as primary communication methods. To better understand how Wreno platforms should fit into the renovation workflow, we spent time collaborating with our founders and operation coordinators to gain insights into the business. This included:

Created a “current state journey” map to identify pain points and brainstorm opportunities for streamlining workflows. Based on the discoveries, we created an ideal user journey flow for the near future MVP and identified opportunities for Wreno MVPs.

Used a “stakeholder onion chart” to understand the power dynamics between different types of users and how people's decisions impact the completion of jobs. This helps us prioritize different user goals to maximize Wreno’s revenue outcome.

Our MVP users

Wreno Coordinators
Manage and communicate with workers and clients from the desktop.

Local Trade Workers
Use Wreno to connect with more work orders in the field and update progress once they are done, all on their mobile devices.

Constraints

Narrowing down to the main features

During the four months of design and development, I worked closely with our Director of Engineering to prioritize the launch of key features for MVP.

We mapped out the ideal functionalities for Wreno apps and then highlighted the features that our engineering team could deliver within the given timeframe. Here are the key features that we aim to deliver, and we were stretching ourselves further wherever possible to make the tool more comprehensive.

^{Management-end}

Create, and manage job posts.
Review and follow up with job progression in real-time. Export images from workers’ deliverables as proof of completion.
Work-order-based communication with workers during any point of the job journey.
Add, delete and manage different types of users.