Who Comes First?
Recent conversations in the industry all circle the same question:
Who should a customer engage first when starting a construction project?
The answers, however, couldn’t be more different. I’ve received more than a dozen different answers. These are the four most common;
Builder
Architect | Design
Owner’s Rep
Or… Me, The Customer
Everyone has a different opinion on where to start.
There was a consistent point of agreement;
You have to create a good TEAM
But when you respond to “Who comes first?” what you really seeks is this:
Who is in charge?
Who is guiding the process?
Who is responsible for leading the owner through decisions they don’t yet understand?
Because whoever comes first often gains:
Control of the narrative
Influence over decisions
And, yes, more opportunity for profit tied to outcomes
That’s where the problem starts.
The bias problem
The challenge with starting with these options is that each brings a legitimate but biased perspective.
Builders see the path forward in sequence, effort, and momentum
Architects see it in form, intention, and how spaces are lived in
Customers see the project first as a hope — a goal, a future they’re trying to make real
None of these are wrong.
The owner’s rep challenge
On paper, the owner’s rep or client-side construction manager is unbiased, which makes them the logical choice.
In practice, this role may also hold the greatest potential to reshape how the industry works.
A good owner’s rep needs:
Real construction experience
Understanding of design + engineering + permitting.
Ability to read plans
Judgment that comes from having lived through projects
That’s a rare skill set.
Currently the construction industry can’t easily afford to pull those people out of building, designing, and managing work to scale the owner’s-rep role the way it’s often imagined.
Also, for some customers hiring an owner’s rep adds cost, and many believe they can “hustle it out” themselves to save money. Alternatively hire a high-end, full-service outfit , but a luxury not everyone can afford.
Where This Leaves Customers
Many customers will only build once or twice in their lifetime. For those who choose to take it on themselves — to hustle, to assemble a team, to understand and get involved in the process — that effort deserves real respect.
But when the industry itself can’t agree on what guidance to give you, it puts you in an impossible position. You’re left wondering where to start, who should lead, and how to assemble the right team in the first place.
That uncertainty is the real problem. And it’s exactly why this debate keeps resurfacing.
So where do we actually start?
The answer isn’t who goes first. It’s recognizing that the way we work today is the problem.
We’ve layered role on top of role, responsibility on top of responsibility, until no one fully owns the process — and everyone is reacting instead of leading. That’s how an industry becomes less efficient than it was a hundred years ago, despite better tools, better materials, and more knowledge than ever before.
This isn’t a software problem alone.
And it’s not a people problem either.
It’s a systems problem.
A different way forward
What’s needed is a restructuring of how work is defined, sequenced, and supported.
This restructuring begins with the owner — making the process legible to someone who has never built before, and giving them confidence and control along the way. That requires education paired with a shared, standardized workflow that can align a team before it even formed so that,
Builders are free to focus on the joy of building.
Designers are energized by the spark of new ideas.
Customers carry confidence and hope from start to finish.
Reps create the space where collaboration can happen— alignment + forward motion.
We also have to be honest about where we’re falling short.
Experience is leaving the industry faster than it can be replaced — skilled hands and hard-earned judgment walking out the door with little structure in place to capture what they know.
At the same time, the understanding of how buildings actually come together remains uneven, scattered across roles and learned only through repetition and failure.
Too often, our most capable people are consumed by maintaining broken workflows, repeating work that should already be resolved, instead of passing knowledge forward and strengthening the system itself.
This is where alignment around process — and the thoughtful use of new tools, including AI — can begin to change the equation. Not by replacing people, but by supporting them: reducing repetitive coordination, translating information clearly across teams, and reinforcing documentation, sequencing, and communication. When the noise is lowered, professionals are freed to focus on what truly matters — judgment, craft, collaboration, and the shared responsibility of building well.
But tools only work if the process makes sense first.
The real shift
The real shift is cultural.
It starts with admitting:
We are the system — and we are the problem.
Not builders alone.
Not architects alone.
Not owners alone.
All of us.
Once we accept that, the debate about who goes first fades away. What replaces it is a better question:
How do we create a process where everyone can do their best work — together?
That’s what we are exploring and our testing out on real life projects today.
We don’t claim to have all the answers. But I’m convinced the answer isn’t more arguing about roles — it’s rethinking how the work actually flows.
If you have ideas, experiences, or perspectives to share, We wpi;d genuinely love to hear them.
Those are the ideas we are exploring at visual.
Let’s explore it together.
Carl
