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WWSHD: What Would Sherlock Holmes Do? (Advice for Consultants)

By on December 1, 2011 | Category: Article

Mark Haas has another great post up at the Institute for Management Consultant’s Daily Tips for Consultants blog. In it, he compares the work of consultants to that of detectives, prompting the invocation of the world’s most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. When asking What Would Sherlock Holmes Do? Haas came up with the following list of recommendations:

  1. Keep an open mind, not being swayed by the preponderance of opinions as to the “obvious” solution.
  2. Employ deductive reasoning, based facts you have confirmed.
  3. Investigate all possibilities thoroughly, especially ones that at first seem implausible.
  4. Look carefully at the details, again especially at those details that may seem irrelevant.
  5. Look for connections, relationships, consistencies and inconsistencies.
  6. Ask lots of questions, and don’t automatically accept the first answers you are given.
  7. Wear a disguise (OK-you might want to scratch that one!).
  8. Be relentless in pursuit of the solution.

I don’t know Mark, sometimes a disguise may be in order!

In my work as a consultant in the construction industry, especially in the field of forensics, these suggestions become the requirements for professional success. Although admittedly, there seems to be a lot of overlap from one project to the next, we still need to approach each situation with an open mind, exhausting all possibilities before reaching conclusions.

Link: IMC USA


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Some Thoughts on the Design Process

By on November 18, 2011 | Category: Article

In the last week or so, there has been a lot of talk in the tech industry about the upcoming theatrical release of a lost interview with Steve Jobs from 1996. The interview was part of a series by Robert X. Cringely, called “Triumph of the Nerds.” An excerpt of the interview has been circulating lately, including at Fortune. This particular excerpt includes some of Steve Jobs’ thoughts on the design process.

And the problem with that is that there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. And as you evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it. And you also find there are tremendous tradeoffs that you have to make. There are just certain things you can’t make electrons do. There are certain things you can’t make plastic do. Or glass do. Or factories do. Or robots do.

Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.

And it’s that process that is the magic.

Design is a challenging process for me. I don’t see myself as the world’s greatest designer. To me, good design is functional – in that the design of something is integral to the overall strategy of that thing. This to me, is a major factor in the design of a website, for example.

Well designed websites are highly functional. The design serves as a vehicle for delivering a message to the visitor/reader. The overall strategic goals for a website should thus inform the design – not the other way around.

Redesigning AECforensics.com

I have been publishing content to AECforensics.com for just about two years now. The site started as a reflection of my passion for pursuing quality in the built environment, following more than a decade of work as a construction consultant. I realized that there was a large void in our industry in terms of reliable news and content pertaining to the A/E/C (architecture, engineering and construction) forensics field.

From very early on, I had a vision of how the design of the site would play a part in the overall strategy. The problem is, I just haven’t been able to implement or execute that design intent. Until the other day…

The amazing designers at WooThemes recently released a new theme for WordPress that caught my eye. I could see the potential for how the building blocks of that design would serve to meet my goal. After a nearly sleepless night of modifying the code of the new theme (that’s where the “keeping five thousand things in your brain” comes in), I finally found what I had been looking for all along:

AECforensics.com Screen Shot

AECforensics.com Screen Shot

Above is a screenshot of the new design. One of the things I am most excited about is that this theme is based on the concept of responsive design. This is a fancy buzzword that folks are using these days to describe web design that dynamically adapts to whatever device the site is being displayed on. If you are using a computer screen to view the site, it looks similar to the screenshot. But if you adjust the size of your browser window to a narrow width, the layout of the site adapts to that smaller display size. The site also looks great on an iPad or other tablet device.

So there it is. I could have spent 100+ hours trying to develop a design from scratch. Instead, with the right starting point, I have been able to achieve the design intent that I have envisioned all along. Is it the world’s greatest website? No. But that isn’t what I’m going after. Is it the right design for communicating the information that I am trying to share with the A/E/C industry? Yes.

At least until I decide to shift strategies…


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Construction Consultant and Deck/Waterproofing Contractor Uses Technology To Achieve More From Less

By on July 8, 2011 | Category: Article

I just posted an interview with Bill Leys (@Deck_Expert) over at AECforensics.com. Leys is a deck and waterproofing contractor on the central coast of California (hence the name of his company, Central Coast Waterproofing) that also provides expert witness testimony in construction defect cases, and offers consulting services to owners regarding decks, deck coverings and waterproofing.

He is also a prolific blogger, is active on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For those of you that question the value of social media, check this out:

Search for “deck expert”

I interviewed Bill because I found out he was using Square to process credit card payments from clients on the spot.

I think Leys provided a lot of valuable information in the interview, so I encourage you to check it out, even if you aren’t interested in construction, waterproofing, or decks.


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In The News…

By on June 13, 2011 | Category: Article

I haven’t been posting here quite as frequently as I would like, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been lazy!

The Zweig Letter

A few weeks ago, I received a call from Julie Kyle, an editor with The Zweig Letter. For those of you not familiar with the publication or the organization behind it, ZweigWhite is perhaps the number one consulting resource for architecture, engineering and planning professionals. Their weekly newsletter is read by many top professionals in the design world, due to the incredible value that Mark Zweig and his team offer. The reason Ms. Kyle contacted me was to see if I could provide some insight into the role of forensics in green building. My colleagues, Bruce Bergman and Victor Dominelli collaborated with me on an article that Kyle wove together masterfully. The result is a series of articles about risk management for sustainable and high performance building design.

As a surprise, Ms. Kyle had also been in contact with Ed Martinet, of LiMa Solutions, Inc., whom I had also recently interviewed. Martinet illustrated how his firm’s Value-Engineered Alternative Dispute Resolution process might benefit disputes involving green building. Here is a quote from the article:

Hill says in order for higher performance design and construction to succeed in the marketplace, especially in light of current economic conditions, disputes must be handled in an expedient and cost-effective manner. If all parties “can accept the possibility of taking a value-engineered approach to dispute resolution of green building performance issues, perhaps we will be able to keep more projects out of the court room and continue to drive innovation.

You can purchase a copy of the entire issue or just that article, “Testing the limits of green construction,” at ZweigWhite’s website. I cannot recommend enough how valuable this publication is for professionals in architecture, engineering and planning.

Construction Marketing Ideas

One of my favorite construction marketing professionals, Mark Buckshon, is the president of the Construction News and Report Group of Companies. He also publishes an incredibly rich resource in the form of his blog, Construction Marketing Ideas, and a book by the same name.

In Mark’s latest post, More from less: Hourly or “value” pricing, he responds to some posts I’ve made recently. In summary, while he took exception to a comment I made about advertising (a core facet of his business), he demonstrates a real-world example of the advantage that value-based pricing has over charging fees based on units of time. He outsourced some of his work to a very competent independent contractor, freeing up time that he can now devote to steering his company to continued success. Everyone wins.

Other News

If all goes well, I may be taking on additional publishing responsibilities on behalf of a local nonprofit organization that I am now involved with. I’ll let you know once that becomes official…


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AEC Forensics Re-Launched!

By on April 4, 2011 | Category: Article

After several weeks of downtime, I’m proud to say that AEC Forensics is back up and running!

Featuring one of the outstanding Woo Themes, AEC Forensics is running a theme that is appropriately named, Mortar. In addition AEC Forensics is also on a grid server at
mediatemple.

Even more impressive is the fact that both AEC Forensics and this site (BLHill.net) are now configured to perform much more responsively than ever before. The way it works is very geeky and complicated, but in case your interested, I’m using the W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress, interfaced with Amazon’s content delivery network, CloudFront. Another cool feature in common with both sites is new compatibility with mobile devices such as cell phones, iPhones, iPads, etc. The server will automatically detect if you are using a mobile device and present a simplified and streamlined interface for browsing content.

About AEC Forensics

AEC Forensics: Construction Consulting, Construction Law, Building Science

AEC Forensics: Construction Consulting, Construction Law, Building Science

AEC Forensics is a blog that covers construction consulting, construction law and building science news and information. As a professional construction defect investigator, I am passionate about the latest developments in the world of architecture, engineering and construction forensics. If you want to keep up to date with the latest news in the world of construction defect litigation, green building and construction risk management, be sure to sign up for the free AEC Forensics newsletter.

If you are a professional in the construction consulting, construction law or building science industries, I encourage you to write for AEC Forensics. It is a chance to have your voice be heard, and to increase your visibility among your colleagues.

Thanks again. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns or issues. If anything looks out of place, let me know.

Enjoy!


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