Shadowing Practice: What Does A Design Manager Do In Construction? - Learn English Speaking with Video

What does the design manager do in construction?  Do you want to be a design manager? Or are you working with a design manager? What does this  position do? Why is it so crucial? And what should we know about it that will make us successful,  that's what we're going to cover in this video right now.

So I love this topic, a design manager  is so crucial, because it really paint a picture here in the book, how big things get done. And  in a number of other references. And according to the experience that I've had in pre construction,  we've got to have a method where we start from the right, we think from right to left, or we think,  Well, the way you're looking at me, we think from right to left. And that means we look at when  will the project be done? Right? What will it reasonably take to finish that project, which will  then identify our start date for for construction, right, and then what steps need to be managed,  get it design manager, right, what steps need to be managed before we start construction, so  that we have everything we need. And we need to work that back to where we are today or to when  the design team needs to start. So I've talked about in another video, which I hope you loved and  watched by the way, about what designers do. And I made the point, just really briefly, I won't  cover too much of it. But I made the point that designers take the thoughts and wants needs and  goals of the client, right. And they turn it into sketches according to an art form, right? They're  artists. And as they do that, they communicate and collaborate with a bunch of different people,  including end users and satisfy everybody's needs, all while hitting a schedule, meeting their design  schedule, all while keeping the project under budget, to a point where the builder can build  it on schedule with the right constructability.

And if that wasn't enough, they also keep it  compliant with any regulatory requirements, like life safety, or any city or county requirements  for how the buildings really need to function and be built per building code, right. And they need  to then communicate all of these onto 2d drawings.

So that we the builders have very few questions.  I mean, that's remarkable. So and the other video that we linked you to my point was like, Hey, we  should honor and revere designers, because they're doing an impossible job. Now take that right  there that if Yeah, seemingly impossible task, and now put it into a timeline fit it into a box,  knowing that unlike with us, right with builders, and I'm not saying our job is builders is easy,  but we take a sequence and we're like sequence one or not sequence but activity one activity 2345.  And we run out through zones, right? And there's variation. There's nuances, there's differences,  right? And it's not super easy, but we think in a linear fashion, do A, B, C, D, E, F, right?  A designer has to say, Oh, do a review with a client. And if it's not right, go back to well,  let's do that. Let me actually do it differently.

Let's say they're on step E, right? Like step E,  then review with a client, Oh, nope, change it.

Now that's got to go back to eat? No, it's got to  tie in with one. Now we have to check back with a now we're gonna go over here to see and like their  process is so iterative and chaotic, but not in a bad way. That's not an insult. My point is,  it's not a b, c plus d equals E, right? It's a, b, c plus d might equal going back to A, or B,  or starting all over, right? It's this iterative cycle, where there's quite a lot of variability  and changes. So a design manager, you're welcome.

If you either are a design manager, or you want  to be one gets to take that impossible task where you stay under budget, under on schedule, and you  meet all of the regulatory compliance, and you're creating an art form, and you're collaborating,  and you're trying to get the owners vision out on paper and put it on a timeline and meet design  milestones while doing your due diligence and creating an amazing design. So that's kind of the  high level of where you're at what we're expecting you to do. As a design manager, you get to take  this art form, and put it on a timeline and hit milestones manage everybody to their fullest  efficiency. So good luck. You're welcome. And let's keep going through this because this is a  huge task. So design manager plays a crucial role.

If you don't have a good one, your design will  be all over the place and you will not meet your deadlines. You might still get a great product but  you won't hit your deadlines right. If you have a good design manager, you'll not only have a good  design one that you can build under budget, right that the project team can build in that schedule.  But you'll also have the design the answers, and the quality when you need it. And so this is  amazing. So a design manager does a lot. And here are the specific things that they're responsible  for. Number one, project planning, I said before, and in this video, just as a small recap, again,  that designers have all of these different things, right? Mind reading, art form, interpretation,  detailing collaboration, regulatory compliance, right? All of these different things that they  have to pull together, it's the design manager's job to pull all stakeholders together. So that  means the owners, the designers, including the architects, the engineers, any other consultants,  vendors and users, the builder, the early design, trade partners for the project, and anyone  else that has a stake in the overall project together to make sure that that design is  coming together according to all of their needs, and sometimes wants on time. And so instead of  just doing the design, the design manager will create the plan for the next phase, at least the  schedule for the development of the design, the budget for that design phase, key collaborative  interfaces between stakeholders, and we'll make sure that all of it is aligning with project  objectives. Now typically, what you'll see from a design manager is organizing and just let  me give you the high level organizing the design team into their functional groups. If it's an  IPD job or design build, you will sometimes have what's called clusters that will focus on specific  disciplines of the design, okay, or Scrum teams.

So the design manager will help organize the team  will help organize and identify the milestone, they're trying to hit their objective of  what they're attempting to accomplish, help them create schedules up to that milestone,  either with a poll plan, the last planner system, or a scrum system. And we're even using tact for  that now making sure that there's correct check ins throughout and alignment that we're having  the right meetings, and the right interface with the client and the end users. And that resources  are allocated properly, for that to happen and for the milestone to be hit. So it's not just  diving into, hey, let's go ahead and design it's organizing a team that by the nature of their work  is kind of an organized bubble, right. So that's one of the main things that a design manager  will do that if you ever need specifics. I want you to know that here in a couple of months.  And hopefully later in the description below, I'll just add you to the link. We have a book  called The first planner system, or elevating construction senior superintendents Book Two,  which talks about the first planner system and how to do this as a reference. If you ever need  help. We do that kind of planning and design team management early on in pre construction just give  us a call at Elevate and lien tact if you ever need help. And I'm going to link you to one book  which I really liked called integrating project delivery which will give you some more details  about this in the description below. Number two, the responsibility is team coordination. If there  are communication channels or information that needs to go from discipline to discipline, the  design manager will make sure that either emails or texts or open office spaces like big room  concepts are organized properly into clusters and Scrum teams so that people can communicate,  they'll make sure that the RFI process is working, critical decision logs are functioning and  that the overall communication of the team is high functioning so people get what they need when  they need it without being overburdened the design manager we'll look at design development. So when  details and plans and schemes and specifications, and overall concepts are developed, we'll make  sure that that's being reviewed to the budget and the schedule, right which is very difficult and  reviewed for regulatory compliance and reviewed to make sure that it is on track to meet the  end goal for the user and make sure that any feedback or corrections are getting to the design  team real time never for budget and cost control.

Not only will the design manager make sure that  the design is happening under the budget but also the design for the project budget itself is on  track. Number five a design manager is in charge of quality assurance, which means that anything  produced by the design team is double checked that the formatting is double checked that the details  double check that the constructability review is double check that any internal standards for the  design team that all of those checks are going in and that it is also perfectly in alignment with  regulatory compliance and the owners needs. Number six, the design manager will look for risks and  major problems, right? If there's an impasse from a budget standpoint or a schedule standpoint or  an interface standpoint, or something is just not working, and we can't come to a resolution,  the design manager will dig in and remove those roadblocks ahead of the team with the team or for  the team so that we can get the design flowing and hitting their milestones. And number seven,  a design manager will really own the client communication, right? In a scrum system, you have  the scrum master, but then the product owner, right, the product owner is always checking to  make sure that the needs of the end users or the customers are being met and verifying that  the design is developing appropriately. So it is the design manager's job to make sure that  this beautiful, artistic, useful building, which meets the building code and other regulations  as it should be built for this cost. And under this amount of time is actually coming together  according to the client's needs and wants. So the design manager will be very proficient at talking  to the client at willing the client reading the client's mind and always keeping him or her the  team up to date. And knowing where the design is progressing. These are the seven key things that  a design manager will do. And they're super hard.

And it takes a lot of skill. And it really, really  is kind of an impossible feat. But we see design managers all over the nation and throughout the  world doing it every day. And when we see them, we should see two things. Number one, make our  lives as builders so much easier and to a person that needs to be collaborated with and supported  in their role. Because it is a huge task to get this really creative and chaotic design, not  because of the people but because of the nature of it to fit on time and be completed in enough  time for the linear builders to go do their job.

So if you're curious about what a design manager  does, here you go. It's an amazing role. I hope anybody that has the chance to do it, please  do so along your builder path or if you're part of a design firm, it can be absolutely  amazing emerges a world of practical project management with the world of like creative,  artistic, like architecture, right and it's absolutely fantastic functional architecture in  the description below. it'll link you to a blog post which will outline these key steps in case  you ever want to reference it in the future. If you ever need help give us a call. We're experts  at managing this part of the construction project in pre construction. I hope to hear from you  and I hope you love this video. On we go.