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Software development, project management
Richard is the “hidden” mentor but deserves a huge amount of credit too. His feedback is incredibly detailed. Where does he find the time? Please, Richard, share your secret!
I keep saying it, but I really wouldn't be taking this exam right now if it weren't for Richard. And I'm honestly kind of emotional about it. :) Richard did absolutely everything exceptionally -- asked how I was doing, cheered me on with every single micro-step, fostered a beautiful community in the Forum, made himself available for whatever question or help I needed, went above and beyond in making sure I knew he was there for me (including when I broke my Notion board at midnight), gave me insightful and quick feedback, encouraged me when I really needed it, corrected where I wasn't understanding. If I've learned anything at the educational research center where I've worked for over a decade, it's that these kinds of intentional, responsive, meaningful interactions are the building blocks for relationships -- and relationships are absolutely essential for learning. I'm so, so grateful for Richard and his mentoring.
Richard was incredible. Not only did he go above and beyond in providing detailed feedback to all my assignments. He also made sure to connect on a personal level, support me through the – sometimes rocky – Masterclass journey, and be my best cheerleader. Can't thank him enough!
Richard was a fantastic mentor! Being able to discuss things with another developer was amazing. He was always very responsive and extremely thorough; I was able to make course corrections without extensive back and forth. Richard's mentoring style is a perfect blend of encouragement, challenge, and unwavering support. He has an exceptional ability to distill complex concepts into digestible insights, making the learning process not only educational but also enjoyable.
Richard is maybe one of the smartest and also kindest people I've ever met. He graduated from my Object-Oriented UX Certification Program — as a developer who wanted to understand and gain skills in UX. He absolutely rocked the program and taught me quite a bit while he was still a student! I immediately recruited him as a mentor for the next round of the program. As a mentor, Richard excelled at coaching his mentees through the toughest concepts...In many ways, he's helping evolve and refine OOUX and our curriculum! More than once, I've thought, "Oh wow, that's a much better way of explaining that! I am stealing that from Richard!" And I have. Thank you, Richard, for teaching me so much and bringing all your experience and wits to our community!!
I specialize in planning and analysis, software development and implementation, and product management. I am currently focused on bringing AI into our applications as a helpful assistant. I enjoy doing OOUX workshops, training, mentoring, and using the ORCA process to analyze and design applications.
The OOUX Advanced Certification gave me a wonderful opportunity to explore the inner workings of the ORCA process and provided me with the tools to improve how I use OOUX with my customers projects, how I mentor and coach OOUX strategists, and how I run ORCA sprints and workshops. Working as a mentor for the OUX Strategist program provided me an opportunity to experience different viewpoints of the strengths of the ORCA process and allowed me to grow my understanding of the process and its deliverables. Each week the group of advanced OOUX strategists examined in detail a couple of the ORCA steps, dissecting the process, as well as having group discussions that allowed us all to share how we have customized the process and deliverables for different projects. This was invaluable - I have added the experiences from 6 amazing and accomplished Strategists to support my body of work and improve my own OOUX capabilities.
My mind was opened up to a number of possibilities with OOUX and ORCA that I had not imagined prior to this course - new processes, new deliverables, new way of thinking. The ORCA process can be seen as a toolbox of steps to be tweaked, reordered, and added to in order to better understand the problem domain and deliver applications that better meet the user needs, are more maintainable, and are a lot more fun to develop.
This course is aimed at OOUX strategists who are comfortable with the ORCA process as taught through the certification course, but want to expand its capabilities and tweak and modify the process to better fit their way of working and the needs of each unique project. Knowing when to bend and break the rules makes you such a powerful and valuable employee or consultant.Also most valuable were the friendships developed with the fellow attendees. Having a group of high powered strategists, with years of experience, and who are willing to share their knowledge and experiences and step in and answer any of your questions made this a fun, exciting, and most delightful experience.
The ORCA process provides a structured approach to analyzing and identifying the objects, their attributes and relationships and their Call-to-Actions essential to solving a business problem. I have used object oriented practices for analyzing, defining and developing applications since the '90s but have never had such a detailed methodology to document and communicate findings and to easily prioritize a release strategy. The certification course is run and supported by people with such passion for the process that it is easy to have fun even though it is a challenging pace. Sophia's passion and energy is amazing and the mentors all have their own unique and extensive experiences. The course takes you all the way from analyzing requirements and user documents through documenting the key components and attributes, to developing a feature roadmap, and finally to developing prototypes for validating your findings and testing the assumptions. I had a blast on the course and made a number of long-term friendships that I hope will result in successful collaborations. I am glad I chose to take the time to participate in this course.
In this episode of the podcast, Sophia & Richard discuss what it was like when object-oriented programming was invented, why "legacy" has one meaning in life & another in software, & why we've kind of been using the word "inheritance" wrong this whole time.
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
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Work through the OOUX Masterclass with a cohort of other professionals. 1-on-1 coaching, personalized assignment reviews, office hours, and small-group study sessions. Finish with a valuable professional certification.
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