Cursed By Knowing The Numbers

At this point, your architect and you have developed a common language and she has  captured what you want to build into a set of design development drawings and outline specs.  You now need to convey this intent to your builder in a manner that gives you certainty on the cost--the Cost to Complete--and duration--the Time to Complete.  Architects tell me that designing an architecturally significant home to a budget is difficult in the best of times, and impossible without a reputable contractor on the team to provide good pricing feedback.

Understand that your builder, if they are like most reputable builders, is motivated by two things:

• first, getting new projects, and
• after getting the project, increasing their margin, and reducing their risk.

This is how good contractors operate.  To get your contractor to build what you want, you need to first understand what they want.

There are two issues in getting the contractor to build what the architect wants.  The first is recruiting a reputable contractor that will build in accord with the architect's documents.  The second issue is that the standard AIA cascade of documentation does not do much to defend price, reduce risk, and maintain equilibrium in pricing power on margins. 

Recruiting A Reputable Contractor:

• Contractor Bench Strength--have their subs done work of this level of quality before?  Look at their subcontractor bid manual.
• Estimating--are their quantity takeoffs accurate?   Are they broken down into units and quantities or are they just lump sums.  Are performance specs called out and met (waterproofing and flashing).
• Supervision--the singlemost important person on the job.  Make sure you get the right person for the job.  Honest, forthright, experienced.  How did they punchlist their last job?
• Schedules--what is the critical path?
• Risk--what do they foresee to be the risks of the job?  How are they dealing with them?  Have them walk you through their notes to the AIA general conditions for the construction contract.  Understand any risk shifting that is happening here.
• Margin--understand what this number really is.

Producing Enforceable Construction Documents:

• Accurate project information, such as surveys, soils reports, local rules and regulations,  existing conditions if a remodel.
• Accurate and comprehensible plans, with sections, details, elevations, and matchlines fully coordinated.  Comprehensible specifications.
• Complete finish and fixture schedules with version control.  Headend information on electronics.
• Performance spec information on acoustical, waterproofing, HVAC, line voltage electrical, plumbing, and horizontal and vertical control.  Trade contractors need strong design skills to be responsive in the design/build environment.
• Constructable detailing.  Details coordinated with plan and elevation.

The pricing and negotiation period is the time to surface these issues.  Pricing equilibrium is lost if these issues are discovered during construction.

The pace and intensity of a job tells you a lot about the team producing it

 It can tell you a lot about how good the schedule is, and whether people actually do what they say they will.

Jobs lose pace and intensity through cascading change orders, encountering unforeseen obstacles, or lack of buildable information.

Quickly clarifying design intent to maintain pace and intensity is a critical responsibility of the entire team.

This is how to get the information out to the team to build and maintain the pace and intensity on our projects

Acceptances are the way to build schedules.

 Track accomplishments, not start dates.

Maintain current project information—plans, specs, and schedules--in an accessible online website so everyone can get current copies whenever required. Have everything in .pdf format

Track issues via Hot Lists to track conflicts, omissions, or errors in articulating design intent. Make sure someone has both action and the tools necessary to find a solution.

Use RFI’s correctly. Requests for Information are not a substitute for reading and understanding the plans and specifications, nor for adding scope or initiating changes to the project.

 There should be enough information available so that the RFI process is confirming design intent, not developing it.

Make sure submittals are correct. Do they comply with the specifications?

Will it fit? Will it get here in time? What is missing?  Build it on paper first.

Generate options for errors and omissions discovered for the Owner to review and accept.

 Define what the error or omission is clearly, and list a range of solutions with money and time effects. Contingency accounts are useful here in that everyone becomes focused on the optimal solution is, rather than trying to duck blame.

Describe any  changes needed completely and build them on paper first. Is the cost, in both time and money, understood and agreed to by all parties? Avoid making changes on a time and materials basis unless you are exploring an unforeseen condition.

Wander around. Understand how the different crafts work with and around each other. Learn what they need to get their job done. Ensure the superintendent understands.  Appreciate what is happening.

Get it done. Now. The more time and delay on making a decision, the more it will effect downstream work

Understand how you got here. Is this a chronic weakness or a one-time deal.  Repair appropriately.

A happy job is one that is clean, safe, and trucking along on schedule.

The critical path, or flow of a project’s momentum, is always changing.

Know what the team’s next three milestones are, who owns them, and how close you are to accomplishment and acceptance.

Stay off the critical path—have your deliverables provided on-time, and in a way that is easily acceptable by who is taking custody for this delivering this solution from you.

If your solution is not acceptable to the next one in your project foodchain, you own the problem of making it acceptable.

Nothing screws up a project faster than cascading changes forcing remodeling and redeployment of tradesmen.

Changes folded into the project late end up costing you two to four times what they would have cost if in the initial scope of work.  Reversing progress is demotivating.  Changes happen--all I ask is that everyone understands the true need, the best solution, and the true cost before you start demolishing what you have built.

I posted about where changes come from here.

Projects reach a tipping point where the motivation changes from "Perfect is good enough" to "Good enough is perfect". 

Understand where you are vis-a-vis this point in your project.

Here are five tips on how to avoid impending disaster by changing work mid stream:

• Freeze the Design.  Owner and architect agree to freeze the design at a point, and not backtrack.
• Appropriate finishes sometimes only become apparent in the "full scale model stage", that is, during construction.  This can trigger changes to the finish schedule.  Understand what elements in the finish schedule are placeholders and what lead times are to procure the options.
• Faster/Better/Smarter.  Substituting a better, faster, or smarter finish may help progress--look for hangups due to E&O (errors and omissions) where you can leverage a better solution to maintain pace and intensity.
• Keep off the critical path.  Know when information is needed by the building team and how the scope of work cascades through this area and this item of work.
• Live with it.  If it is a change to finishes, casework or cabinetry, hold off until after you have lived with it for a while.

Making changes late have costs beyond the direct labor and material involved in the direct scope of work.  Make sure you understand these costs when asking for this change.  There is a value to the new and improved solution, just know the numbers involved to get you there.

One of the most frustrating things to encounter on a jobsite is to find a crew working off an obsolete set of plans, installing assemblies that will have to be torn out.

Managing change is easier when the plan is current, distributed, and accepted by those who will be performing the work.  If you can shave a couple of months off a project through open-door collaboration tools, the savings are real when builder overhead is $30 to $50K per month.

Here is what I need from an online interface...

• Plans are available to all team members in .pdf format.  Architecturals, specs, SK's, OSK's, CSK's with acceptance chain.
• Current milestone schedule is posted, with time to complete tracking against last known, current and if on the critical path.
• Finish schedules.  Fixture Schedules.  Door and Window Schedules.  Hardware Schedules.
• View, markup, upload and download drawings and SK's.
• Time to Complete.
• Hot List, including RFI log.
• Change order tracking log.
• Current Cost to Complete.
• Photo journal/weblog tracking news, changes and touchpoints.

Am evaluating a couple of project collaboration tools right now

37 Signals Basecamp web-based software may be a good first step.  It runs from $50 to $150 per month.  Free one-month trial.

Anticipate Acrobat will be the primary markup tool.  Need database functionality for tracking milestones, RFI's and change log. 

Do you use a web based collaboration tool?  Any recommendations?

Built quality is the touchstone of a contractor's operation...at least as far as the Owner is concerned.  Quality is the only element of a project that survives until resale, long after the delays and the value engineering are forgotten.

I define quality in that you get what you inspect, not what you expect--insight provided to me by one of my chief petty officers when I was a wet-behind-the-ears ensign in the US Navy Seabees.

The best way to get a fix on quality is by seeing mockups and samples to provide a real example of what is buildable, and hence approvable. 

The second best way is to find where it was done elsewhere and find out who did it.  Look at what they did, and see how close it is to where you want to end up.  Architect's monographs can be a great source of solutions.  When I'm stuck, sometimes I wander over to Bill Stout's bookstore and look for solutions.

Specs help get you in the general ballpark, but seeing is believing. 

In our world of design once, build once, operate once, I use mockups and samples extensively to get agreement on what it is that we want--how materials meet, finish conditions, trim options.  I usually have a mockups budget to help get us iterating through the finish options to get us where the building needs to be.

Change orders present an opportunity to increase profit margins on a job for a contractor.  They provide an Owner a handy tool to accomplish deviations from the originally intended work based on better information, superior materials, or simply understanding the work from a "full scale model" approach.

Equitable adjustment of the construction contract can provide a fair and balanced approach to the need to increase the scope of work without unduly enriching the contractor.  I covered the sources of changes here.

RFI's, or Contractor Requests for Information, are the lead document in identifying issues that are not clearly understandable from the working drawings and specs.  Projects get in trouble when there is a cascade of minor undocumented changes, contractors respond to them and, at some point, start to realize they are over budget.  RFI's are a way of documenting minor changes and understanding the cost, if any, of implementing a requested change.

Changes happen.  Contractors don't get to say "I don't wanna" and Owners have to negotiate for an equitable adjustment to the contract.  Changes can be ordered, and there is no way to compel pricing.

This is what I do to help the team equitably adjust our contracts for changes:

• Original contract shows quantities and unit prices for typical assemblies.  For example, retaining walls are so many $/SF, or $/CY of concrete.  Flat work is one price, structural slabs are another.  Electrical is priced at so many $/fixture.  Adjustments up or down are done from these unit prices.
• Mockups and color samples are called out in the submittals and are used to establish acceptance criteria.
• Shop drawings are contract documents and supercede dimensions on drawings.  Contractor responsible for tying back all these dimensions.
• RFI's are incomplete without the Contractor's recommendation of an on-time, on-budget resolution.
• Owner/Architect needs to understand when complete information is needed to maintain intensity and pace of the work.
• A contingency account is set up to provide for resolution of minor design errors and omissions, unforeseen conditions, and code compliance issues.  The balance in the account at the end of the job is split between the Contractor and Owner, providing a bottom line incentive to the Contractor to achieve faster/better/smarter resolution of these issues.

The single most difficult challenge in producing the architecturally significant home is the ongoing check of budget versus scope of work.  Quality construction is best attained by a team that knows what is expected, when it is needed, and that all team members are focused on resolving issues before momentum and equilibrium are affected.

An on-time, on-budget development project flows--it has a tangible equilibrium and momentum to the work.  I maintain this momentum by:

• Establishing real budgets based on historical costs upfront, before commencing design and development work.
• Designing to a budget.
• Recruiting reputable contractors.
• Contracting to a budget.  Contracting with enforceable construction documents adequate to defend the price.
• Resolving any scope changes or unforeseen items against the budget before folding them into the scope of work.
• Reconciling current scope to current budget once per month--Our Cost to Complete.
• Reconciling current work in place momentum against current scope once per month--Our Time to Complete.
• Quick resolution of open issues requiring clarifications or resolution--the HotList.
• Ongoing dialog with planning and building officials.
• Current project information maintained and distributed.

If you must build, there are a lot of us who understand.  The challenges facing you are not really unique, and have been surmounted before.

Keep your eye on the prize, and get started.   Drop me a line if you need a hand, or a positive word.

Stairs and their handrails, can be the ultimate test of your architect's abilities.   I can't tell you the amount of time I have spent on projects hashing out the details of a handrail.   You have architectural sensibilities careening into building codes, wrapped in the enigma that stairs (and their handrails) are used differently by different people. And then to get it all to work within the budget...

Here is a site in Slate, by Witold Rybczynski, providing some great prototypical solutions.  BTW, if you haven't read his book  The Most Beautiful House in the World, I highly recommend it, particularly to understand the digressions, detours, and distractions in designing and building a home of one's own.

"Green design's quirky, lesser-known cousin"

was the topic of this New York Times article.

Natural elements can reduce stress, morning sunshine can reduce hospital patient's need for pain medication.

An environmental psychologist said:

"Correctly framing views and integrating the designs of landscape and houses are key biophilic principles but 'are not well understood' by many builders".

is how John King describes San Francisco in his SF Chronicle Place column.

too true.

This image brought to mind Joshua Prince- Ramus' talk at TED about how the conceptual design process for this project developed.  I can only imagine the fun of trying to convince a banker to give me a hefty enough construction loan to successfully capitalize this deal. 

The structural steel premium alone has to be $100PSF. Staging? elevators?  At least the land residual cost would be cheap...I like the visual of jacking the museum pod into place, very cool.  Would love to develop one of his designs, my problem would be populating the capstack. 

I am all for architectural over-commitment, but remained cursed by knowing the numbers...

CEDIA is the premier residential low voltage conference in the country.

Home theaters, distributed audio systems, lighting control, shade control, system integration, and security were all well represented.

The low voltage systems for almost all of the insanely great houses I have produced have been designed and installed by Engineered Environments, a great group of professionals providing an integrated solution to phone, security, audio, video, and lighting control.  I love these guys...

 
I had a chance to walk the exhibitor’s floor with Engineered Environments’ Tim Johnson, who designed the low voltage system for a recent project I produced in Palo Alto.

They are up for two Electronic Lifestyles Awards for this job, one for Best Overall Integrated Home, and one for Best Dressed System.

I have a deep appreciation of both Tim’s experience and his passion in coming up with systems that are designed well, and installed well.[Ed. Note--Engineeered Environments won three CEDIA Gold awards for our project.--Way to go!]

There was a lot of cool stuff at CEDIA this year—from

• the new 1080p video displays, to
• the shoot-out between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high def DVD players, to
• integration layers, to hardware, to new speakers, to
• three chip DLP projectors.

 I was amazed at the amount of 1080p projectors and displays—when there is no native 1080p content available!  The pace of this industry moves very fast, and the benefits can be oversold.

[Ed. note--Tim advises me there are a few 1080p native format discs and players available.]

My objective was to see where the value lies today, and how costs are trending.  Low voltage systems have a cost/performance curve that is asymptotic--a few percentage points more in performance can cost a great deal more. 

As usual, there were a number of technologies in search of a problem—I guess you see that in any field that is technologically juiced.

The problem I typically need to solve is to have lighting, hvac control, audio/video and security systems that are

• Reliable
• Have an understood migration path, and
• Intuitive.

These systems constitute 12 to 15% of hard cost, and the technology moves fast.

Here’s what methinks merits a further look:

Windows MCE2005 is turning out to be a reliable and relatively intuitive platform for integration, and I saw a couple of solutions that provide functionality without having to be completely programmed (there were 430 hours in the system I mentioned above).

A lower cost alternative to the integration layer I have deployed previously is being offered by Lifeware, based on the MCE 2005 operating system.

It has that annoying blue MCE screen background, but at $2PSF of gross buildable, is worth looking into.  Did I mention that they are bankrolled by Microsoft, Intel and HP?

Look for some great integration applications to come out of this platform, and to be a lower cost solution to integration if you don’t need the programming power of AMX. Looks like programming is done off the .NET platform.

Niveus Media Center is a media storage server and media control center that is built off the MCE 2005 platform that had some great looking hardware—they have these massive heat sinks on the sides of their servers (eliminates the fan noise).

Integration is a big deal in the homes I produce, so I spent some time at Crestron, AMX, and Vantage integration layer vendors—I don’t see a great deal differentiating the three, other than AMX works better with Lutron Homeworks, which is my preferred lighting control system.

  AMX did have a new remote product, that uses the Zigbee technology to tie into the integration layer.

Sonance has several in-wall speaker options, with minimal grilles and is carrying the old mud –in Sound Advance line—they bought them a while ago.

Artison has a new inwall subwoofer product that has the functional equivalence of a 15” sub, but with an opposing driver design, fits into a standard stud bay and very limited vibration (the opposing drivers cancel each other out—eliminating inwall vibration.  They also have a solution that provides center channel audio without a separate center channel speaker box.

Fujitsu plasma monitors are the best plasma product around—Tim explained to me that Fujitsu gets first dibs on the plasma screens they manufacture, selling the lesser grade products off to their competitors.

Sony LCD flat panel displays are the best LCD screen on the market.

Stewart Filmscreens' Cinecurve product is the hottest screen product.  Using an anamorphic lens and masking system, this product gets creates the correct screen area for viewing media with different native aspects--it gets rid of the black bars. Microperforations (allow you to hide speakers behind the screen), and the curved projection screen combine to make this a great part of your next home theatre.

Kaleidescape media servers had a real crowd around them. Nice product, great user interface, and extremely intuitive.

Chief in-wall screen arm plasma display mounts disappear into the wall, but are massive enough to support a 65” screen.

Tim raves about California Audio Technology’s custom speakers—they have gone into two of my jobs. They provide a custom product tuned for a specific environment.

Tim really liked the AudioPatch Precis LT, an 8X8 (1RU) or 18x18(2RU) digital signal processor to customize each room of a distributed audio system.

My takeaway is that the integration layer is getting more robust, as they like to say in the tech business, and that there is a dearth of media high def enough to make the numbers work on the beautiful monitors I saw today. Up-converting is left to the eyes of the beholder--Faroudja was showing off several solutions to take video to a 1080p format from a DVD source (480i).

The Economist judged there was close to $25,000 in electronics in the new 7 series BMW (~25% of the total cost)—I don’t think we will approach that percentage in these insanely great homes.

I can easily see 10% without a lot of video distribution and touchscreens, and once you cross this line, 15% +/- 3% is probably a more realistic number.

...as determined by the editors of Fine Homebuilding. 

A Schindler, a Maybeck, Greene & Greene, Jefferson, Samuel Mockbee,  Joe Esherick, and a James Cutler grace the pages of this review.  Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is declared the most famous house in America, natch.

Issue is available for $8.99 by clicking here.

I am asked occasionally by people looking to enter the industry for advice on how to do it.  And the fall is a great time to start looking and planning.

The rock stars of most real estate development companies are their project managers.  Most are well educated generalists--who have mastered the key skill of learning, observing, organizing, and delegating. 

Project managers are T shaped people--broadly empathic and with a deep understanding of a craft.  A craft could be that of an engineer or architect, it could be in the trades--carpenter, cabinetmaker, or an electrician--or it could be having the knack of performing an artful way of putting together deals, knowledge of how a building goes together, knowing the numbers, or structuring the cap stack.

Most development companies look for their project managers to have a graduate degree in architecture, real estate, an MBA, or a law degree.  I like the real estate development degree because it typically:

• has a mid-career student profile, designed so you can learn a lot from your fellow students,
• consists of small classes, and is only
• twelve months in duration, so you don't have to spend a lot of time offline reprogramming yourself.

Unless you are independently wealthy, or come from a prominent real estate family, the  first direction I would point you in is to find a grad program that is a fit for you.

The one I went to was started by Hank Spaulding and Larry Bacow at MIT's Center for Real Estate.

Michael Buckley, whom I learned under and worked for, heads up the real estate program at Columbia--and there may be no better location in the US to learn the art of real estate development than in New York City.

Stan Ross, the eminence grise of real estate accountants and dealmakers, is the chairman of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC.  And the winters in Southern California are a lot better than those in Boston...

Tony Ciochetti, the director of the MITCRE program, is in SF on 13NOV recruiting for the Class of '08.  I recommend this program very highly.  If you are interested, it is worth your time to come listen to the pitch.  I will be there and look forward to meeting you if you go.

The other group you want to get involved in is the Urban Land Institute.  They have a San Francisco Young Leaders Group that is a good platform.  They have a Learn from the Best program on 28SEP. 

I know, I know...grad school won't teach you everything...there are several essential skills you  need that you pick up best in el camino de la vida (loca)...  These include the ability to not be bullshitted by brokers, contractors, consultants, architects, et al and to survive the tedium of the public approvals process. 

A keen understanding of value, where the pain points are, and where you need to build momentum in the development food chain is what I  constantly strive for.  Keeping your eye on the prize.   These skills you pick up as best you can, either on your own projects, or working with a developer.

...is what I am constantly telling myself makes the real difference.

This came up again over lunch with Lewis Butler, noted local architect, when we were discussing project delivery systems and what was important.

Quality is the one quality that is non-negotiable.  The job can cost a little more, it can take a little longer, but quality is the touchstone of any job.

How do you achieve quality on a repeated basis?

1. Build the project on paper first.  Good plans, good schedules.
2. Do Mockups. A lot of mockups.  Use these approved samples against the final finish.
3. Hire reputable trade contractors.  Getting a B minus sub to do A work is excruciatingly difficult, and impossible on a schedule.
4. Horizontal and Vertical control.  Maintaining control to within an eighth allows finishes to meet, windows and doors to operate properly, and keeps spaces visually quiet.
5. Details.  How and where materials meet.  Communicate these in construction documents or shop drawings.  Veneer matches.  Alignments. Carcass construction.
6. Hardware. Hardware is the jewelry of a job.  Custom hardware, contextually installed, sends a message.
7. Doors and Windows.  The sound of a door shutting can tell a lot about the quality of construction.  The thickness of the door can help define the quality levels...7/4, 9/4, 12/4.
8. Scale.  I gained a real appreciation for overscaled trim when producing a home designed by Grant Marani of Robert A.M. Stern's office.
9. Context--keep finishes consistent.  A poor sheetrock job illuminated by a $2000 sconce is a bad idea.
10. Keep the jobsite clean.  It sends a message to all who pass through the gate.
11. Protect all installed finishes.
12. Exacting supervision.  Fake it 'til you make it doesn't cut it.

Ten years after you finish the job, it won't matter that it took a little longer, or that it cost a little more.  What will live on is the quality of the construction and design.

It is this essence--of quality--that separates residential properties of architectural significance from every other type of real estate.  It is the home that defines how we live, and says who we are.

Lewis adds:

A couple of thoughts.  It's the relationship of quality to budget and schedule that gets interesting.  How one pegs those things to one another is the trick, expectations have to be set as usual.  The high end bay area market only rewards quality on resale, not budget and schedule.

You can't get a B sub to do A work, that's why they are a B sub.  But A subs do great B work for less money that sometimes really ends up being A.

Hardware is important, it's one of the few traditionally mechanical things that the owner operates in the house.

And of course if it's a bad piece of property, or bad design, construction quality, budget and schedule don't really matter...  so bring the architect or CM in early!  I do a lot of house shopping for people and it guarantees the best results.

That's all for now, interesting discussion.

Lewis

This article in the Economist's Technology Quarterly  made me remember back about the path we took in understanding where LED lighting is now and how we could use it to meet our needs.

We found it was a good solution for both meeting Title 24 lighting requirements and cove lighting requirements on a recent project.  2005 Title 24 changed how we look at illuminating the homes we produce.

Look for LED's to start to encroach on the lighting turf in homes currently mandated to be compact fluorescent.  They range from 40 to 100 lumens/watt in the color spectrum most widely desired with a 50,000 hour projected life (25x longer than incandescent).

LED's are a fast moving technology, and as the technology moves down the price curve, I look to use this technology in more of my projects.  I don't know a single designer who is enthralled by the current code required lighting options (basically compact fluorescent (CFLs)).  LED's may be a welcome alternative, and they will change how fixtures look--can't wait to see how these are adapted.

California's Title 24 energy code basically mandates that 75% of the light fixtures in a kitchen be high efficacy, and the balance of lighting in the home either be high efficacy (above the solid line in the chart above) or controlled by an occupant sensor or dimmer switch. 

The big change I notice are occupant sensors in bathrooms, a higher number of compact fluorescent fixtures in kitchens and all lighting circuits with dimmer switches.

The trick I found about LED's is to get the light warm enough.  So you need the fixtures to produce greater than 60 lumens/watt in a 3000K color range (warm white) and a CRI (color rendering index) of >90.  Same goes for CFL's if you are evaluating those.

If you want to geek out on this, the relative cost can be explained by downloading and playing with this spreadsheet (hat tip to ProductDose.com) that compares incandescent, CFL's, and LEDs.

If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.

--Mario Andretti

This blog started on  20JUN06.  This post shares what 100 days of living in this new subculture has felt like.

My goals were:

• become a better professional by using this weblog to gain insight into the trends, pressures and vacuums in the residential development space. Ask the right questions, induce change, and understand the underserved spaces in producing distinctive residential properties;
• develop a more disciplined approach to investing and building by noting issues in this weblog;
• become a better storyteller about producing insanely great places for people to live;
• better understand the roles in the real estate development food chain and utilize network effects to understand where focus is needed;
• develop conversations with architects, investors, land owners, builders and consultants about how we add utility and value to real estate through quality, design and execution--ie become the English Cut for those people wanting an architecturally significant home in Northern California or Hawaii;
• provide a series of essays on getting the development numbers to work instead of just bitching about them;
• find current problems in the real estate production food chain and figure out a faster/better/smarter fix;
• post in one area subjects to be referred back to--ie, not answer the same question twice;
• become a better investor in the the value add process, and
• quantify this amorphous marketing process.

The hardest part was the lack of direct feedback.  The metrics of this subculture are of roughly 100 people--1 of them will blog, 11 will comment, and 89 will view with no feedback.  A very different way of communicating for me.  But yet you have to keep talking, or you risk your blog looking stale and tired.  Now I know what those people on NPR fundraisers must feel like...Feeding the content beast with no well defined feedback is like sailing in the middle of the night with cloudy skies...

Second hardest thing was sitting down and posting 1x day.  I only mustered 71 posts in 100 days.

The easiest thing was the actual posting.  I blog on Moveable Type software.  Not intuitively obvious to set up, but once I was set up, I use Windows Live Writer to compose my posts with, making it one-click easy.   Now I understand why there are 55 million of these weblogs out there--35 million of them in China.

How did the first hundred days go?

• Initial Technorati Rank: 1,387,589 of 42.1 million blogs.
• Final Technorati Rank:  1,699,000 of 55.2 million blogs.

Humbling numbers, indeed.  Insane that you can even track to this amount of detail.

I accomplished:

• putting together a library of technical notes on the issues I repeatedly ran across over the last 15 years of my career.  When I run into them again, I start the discussion by sending the note to who I need to cover the topic with.
• understanding the blog tool. It is a relatively unstructured way to maintain market and project information for future reference, and the ability to frictionlessly share it.
• producing an alternative market development tool to cold calling property sellers and brokers.
• identified competitive open space and new markets for products and spin-off companies.
• a tool for riffing from conversations I have with architects, owners, and contractors.

I did not accomplish:

• building huge traffic to this site. 
• driving visible change to issues that mean alot to me, ie. what is happening out at San Quentin,
• starting up a large number of meaningful conversations.
• finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The biggest positive surprise?  The comments I received back on posts were great feedback--they helped me reframe issues that challenge me.

Thinking about putting a blog together?  Here is Guy Kawasaki's take on his first hundred days.  Here is Matrix' take on why the NYT real estate blog failed.  In short, you need to provide:

1. Consistency: post every day if possible
2. Voice: the language and tone need to be familiar to the reader
3. Passionate: express your views, not what you think the reader wants to hear.
4. Content:  Don’t use it as a vehicle to link to all your feature stories. It ok to do sometimes.
5. Original thoughts:  Don’t glom off of other blogs.
6. Better graphics:  Leverage the photo archives and use charts and graphs.
7. Champion the blog:  Have a representative, the person most identified with the blog.
8. Sense of community: Think about how much you want to orient the content to reader feedback.

Thanks for reading.