Our First Pivot

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One of the most alluring aspects about the startup industry is that as a team you’re constantly venturing into the unknown. It forces you to learn and adapt to the changes around you. Fortunately, in today’s digital age, there’s no shortage of information available for aspiring first time entrepreneurs. A personal favourite of mine is David Feinleib’s Why Startups Fail and How Yours Can Succeed. It’s an incredibly practical tool for startup newcomers. There was however one chapter in Feinleib’s guide that had me utterly perplexed, that is until now.

In a series of paragraphs regarding startups pivoting their business model in search of product market fit, he writes that teams can pivot up to ten times prior to launch. It seemed bizarre to me that founders were changing key components of their product. Had they not defined their product well enough? Was their original idea flawed? Had they created a product for a problem that didn’t exist?

Since the conception of Glaass our vision hasn’t shifted. Reference standard construction management software coupled with supreme functionality and unparalleled simplicity. A piece of artwork that is constantly evolving. The idea to change this seemed unfathomable, that is until we realised we missed a critical feature.

A piece of artwork that is constantly evolving.

Although all construction projects share similar processes like document and drawing dissemination, changes and revisions, we realised we hadn’t fully considered the requirements of unique engineering projects. These projects require specialist tools, and although Glaass has been designed to work on a wide array of projects, it wasn’t flexible enough.

As a leader you’re responsible for every aspect of the project and team. What makes a successful leader isn’t an ability to continuously make correct decisions, but the capability to quickly identify problems and swiftly act upon them, that’s what exactly what we did. We recognised the need for deeper integrated customisation within Glaass. The omission of customisation within Glaass wasn’t a mistake or a forgotten feature, it was strategical decision from the outset, let me explain why.

What makes a successful leader isn’t an ability to continuously make correct decisions, but the capability to quickly identify problems and swiftly act upon them.

Customisable applications can be difficult to modify and change from a user experience point of view. Additionally, in the enterprise space with hundreds of users, it can be difficult to manage and record changes. Moreover, a lot of customisable applications aren’t plug-and-play, often requiring a setting up period before use, which is something we weren’t willing to conceive. It was essential in our eyes to overcome these obstacles to deliver a truly universal platform, and we’re proud to say we have.

We solved the problematic modification issue by simplifying the user interface component of the customisation panel. We’ve made it function the same way as sending any other case in Glaass. So you already know how to customise before you’ve started.

We control the number of users who can customise cases by only allowing Document Control users the permission. This gives projects complete control over who is able to modify cases in Glaass. We also built a historical timeline of the modifications, so it’s easy to track changes.

To make Glaass plug-and-play we used our construction expertise to create default case layouts that are applicable to a wide range of construction disciplines so teams can use Glaass immediately without obstruction or impediment.

It’s an extraordinarily powerful feature for teams. In a practical example, consider three vastly different engineering ventures; a heavy rail project, a suspension bridge and a hospital renovation. Each of these projects has different quality assurance records requirements. With Glaass, Document Controllers can customise the Quality Record case on all three projects, ensuring client standards are met in a transparent, accountable manner.

This is our final feature before launching and we think it’s going to empower teams and projects in an entirely new way. We’re on the final stretch before launching and we couldn’t be more excited. Stay tuned for an update on our free trial and how you can partake in the future of construction management.

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