Project Overview

Kai

Kai

Creating the AI-powered platform that streamlines how real estate professionals evaluate, source, and renovate properties.

Kai is on a mission to streamline renovation projects with AI-powered planning, scoping and purchasing by building a platform that supports complex renovations from the initial assessment to the final walk through. Partnering with The Home Depot, their service provides direct integration with Home Depot's complete product catalog providing real-time pricing, store-level inventory, and one-click procurement.

Role

Product Design, Prototyping, Iconography, Design System, Website Support, Social Media, Print Collateral

Product Design, Prototyping, Iconography, Design System, Website Support, Social Media, Print Collateral

Industry

Real Estate, E-Commerce

Years

2025 - Present

Team

Tov Arneson, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer

+ Many folks on the Engineering Team 🙏

Kai is on a mission to streamline renovation projects with AI-powered planning, scoping and purchasing by building a platform that supports complex renovations from the initial assessment to the final walk through. Partnering with The Home Depot, their service provides direct integration with Home Depot's complete product catalog providing real-time pricing, store-level inventory, and one-click procurement.

Role

Product Design, Prototyping, Iconography, Design System, Website Support, Social Media, Print Collateral

Industry

Real Estate, E-Commerce

Years

2025 - Present

Team

Tov Arneson, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer

+ Many folks on the Engineering Team 🙏

What I Did

I teamed up with the CPO and AI savvy technical team to lead design efforts on this new product initiative to meet a 90-day launch window for a key partner evaluation. As the solo design resource, I was responsible for establishing a scalable design foundation, crafting the product’s core visual identity, and helping to define the 0 - 1 strategy.

Results

We leaned hard into a progress over perfection mindset and hit our launch deadline, allowing us to get the product into users' hands and immediately begin validating the experience through user testing. Initial feedback has been incredibly positive, and we’ve used those insights to improve the experience to better align with their unique business needs. We’ve built a solid foundation and are officially moving into the polish and vet phase as we scale up and introduce new features.

The intro dashboard gives contractors a high-level view of their assigned projects by market, complete with real-time status updates and essential project details.

Field users can snap photos of issues and instantly link them to tasks so contractors know exactly what to fix. This feature is the heart of the app, so we made it as intuitive and as flexible as possible to handle whatever comes up on-site —from documenting full kitchen renovations to identifying minor paint touch-ups or HVAC repairs.

We noticed field users struggling in tight spots—like crawl spaces or under sinks—trying to juggle an iPad in one hand and a tool in the other. To make it easier, we built a custom dual-camera UI (patent pending) that allows for more flexible one-handed documentation.

Users can easily find photos by filtering for specific locations on the property or by the contractor type that is assigned to the task. It keeps everything organized and easy to track.

Large images make it easy to spot every detail.

Field users can select products for a task from a pre-approved catalog managed by their admin.

Each task includes a notes section for seamless communication between admins, general contractors, and contractors, alongside automated system updates to keep everyone synced on progress.

We replaced static, printed Scopes of Work with a dynamic digital preview. Through our Scope Editor tool, contractors can now access real-time assignments, product specs, and project notes in one centralized, editable place. QR codes for each contractor are placed at each location giving contractors instant access to the most up-to-date project info.

Social Media Campaigns

"Jay's impact was immediate and substantial. He seamlessly integrated with our product and engineering teams…"

My Takeaway

Starting in a new space is always a bit of a chaotic, messy scramble, but embracing that uncertainty is how you actually learn and evolve. We moved fast to hit our goals, but we kept the feedback loops tight—iterating and adjusting as we went.

Starting in a new space is always a bit of a chaotic, messy scramble, but embracing that uncertainty is how you actually learn and evolve. We moved fast to hit our goals, but we kept the feedback loops tight—iterating and adjusting as we went.

On the AI side

Our development workflow centered heavily on AI, which got us moving fast but left some considerable design debt to clean up in the next phase. It was wild seeing how fast things became functional overnight. It’s a massive time-saver for prototyping, though it still needs a human touch for the actual flow, design consistency, and nuance—especially for a product this complex.

Our development workflow centered heavily on AI, which got us moving fast but left some considerable design debt to clean up in the next phase. It was wild seeing how fast things became functional overnight. It’s a massive time-saver for prototyping, though it still needs a human touch for the actual flow, design consistency, and nuance—especially for a product this complex.

Currently

We’ve built a solid foundation and are officially moving into the "polish and vet" phase. I absolutely love working with smart people who are passionate about what they are doing, their enthusiasm for the problem they are facing is a great motivator for me.

Great people, a unique product, and a fun opportunity to push AI to its limits - this was def a good one 🙏.

We’ve built a solid foundation and are officially moving into the "polish and vet" phase. I absolutely love working with smart people who are passionate about what they are doing, their enthusiasm for the problem they are facing is a great motivator for me.

Great people, a unique product, and a fun opportunity to push AI to its limits - this was def a good one 🙏.

We’ve built a solid foundation and are officially moving into the "polish and vet" phase. I absolutely love working with smart people who are passionate about what they are doing, their enthusiasm for the problem they are facing is a great motivator for me.

Great people, a unique product, and a fun opportunity to push AI to its limits - this was def a good one 🙏.

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