How to Empower Early Tech Adopters in Construction
In the fifth episode of Built Different season two, co-hosts Grant Hagen and Brian Vizarreta sit down with Evan Reilly, Senior Tech Strategist at Skanska, a multinational construction company based in Stockholm, Sweden since 1887.Evan gives a detailed look at the impact 360 walkthroughs have had on construction, and delivers tips on how to truly empower early adopters of new tech.
There's one field champion or someone that identifies a tool that has merit and
has value and then spreads to other projects and other regions and other
offices.
One thing we are laser focused on now is really making sure that we're starting
with the problem in mind and starting with the challenge before jumping to a
solution.
And the truth is, you know, we've done a good job of focusing on the problems
that needs to be solved and not getting distracted by the noise.
Welcome to Build Different, a podcast featuring teams, technology and trendset
ters who are changing the way that we build.
I'm Grant Hagen and I'm Brian Mizrada and we welcome you to join a community
obsessed with questioning the status quo, creating cultures of innovation and
equipping everyone with powerful tools to quite simply build different.
My team, welcome back to the Build Different podcast. I'm one of your hosts,
Grant Hagen, joining me here with Brian Mizrada. Thank you all so much again
for joining back in with us here for episode five.
We are really excited to share another great conversation with our friend Evan
Riley over at Skanska. It was a really great conversation.
We hope that you guys are going to be really encouraged by the time and talking
with him. He really just breaks down this idea of how to go from one project to
three projects to five projects and really growing some of these ideas with
technology implementation.
So Brian, what kind of stands out from this conversation that you remember?
I mean, over the years of seeing how Evan operates and seeing where he's been
able to come so far within a company that he's able to make such a large impact
at.
It's inspiring to kind of capture that story for other people who may be in a
position looking to the same.
Yeah, I think you guys will hear a lot of things that you can relate to. Evan
is just a really great friend and we're really excited to be able to showcase
and platform his story here with you guys.
And again, that's just really the reason why we're here is to really help
connect folks in a really disconnected industry.
And so we really appreciate you guys joining back in with us. We hope this is a
great episode for you all.
A lot of good takeaways for you guys and we will see you on the next one.
Thanks. Well, welcome back to the built different podcast brought to you by Jonah Poi
and "Struction Site."
We are joined with Evan today. Evan, great to meet you, man.
Great to meet you. Thanks for coming on the show. This is going to be really
fun.
Tell us a little bit about background. Tell us a little bit about Skanska, what
you do there.
And we'll get into some good stuff here as we kind of get going.
Yeah, so my name is Evan Riley. I'm with Skanska in our building group.
I have been with Skanska for the last five years in operations and pre-const
ruction.
In the last three years, I've been with our emerging tech group, which is
really focused on basically Skanska's internal innovation group that's focused
on researching and evaluating different tech products, fostering kind of a
spirit of innovation at Skanska.
And most importantly, connecting people. Nice.
And you were telling us you were in the rally area?
Yep, based in Raleigh Durham. I've been there since graduating from Duke six
years ago.
Oh, nice. Don't do dibbles. Come on. Are you a bigger basketball fan? Big
basketball fan or football fan?
I don't pay attention to Duke football, so 100% focused on basketball.
Yeah, I mean, that's pretty understandable too. I grew up in the Raleigh area,
went to Skanska after school. How did you kind of land on?
Well, actually, so I've actually only been in the Triangle in North Carolina
for the last 10 years.
Okay.
But from New York originally, grew up in London actually. I can't tell by my
posh British action. Unfortunately, most people don't believe me when I tell
them that I grew up in London, but it's one of the bigger regrets in my life.
It's not focusing on the accent, but maybe one day.
That's okay. You can always go back to get some good accent stuff.
So grew up there, came over to the States, tell us a little bit about that
transition and coming over. Was that early on? Like when you were younger?
Oh, no, I graduated from high school in London. Oh, no, I came back. Came back
for university.
Okay.
I studied civil engineering at Duke. I do. And then I've been in the area ever
since.
And what led you into civil engineering? What were some of the interests there
that you had to... I feel like that's a pretty specialized degree that folks
either had some family or knew about before, or how did you kind of get
interested in civil?
Yeah, no family influencer connections or anything like that. I applied for
civil engineering, so I knew that I wanted to go down the civil structural
track at Duke.
Honestly, I think the reason I was interested in... Maybe I credit to growing
up in big cities, New York, London, big diverse cities with architectural
landmarks and famous architecture on display everywhere.
I think that's what really inspired me to want to work in the construction
industry and play a role in buildings and construction.
Yeah, that's awesome. I can appreciate that too. Anytime you're in a big metro
plex and you see and you're inspired by all these buildings around, you're like,
"How do they do that? How do they make that happen?"
The other thing that kind of fascinates me about this industry, and I've only
been a part of it for the last 10 years, including school, is just there's so
much behind the scenes that the average person maybe doesn't know about.
In my short career so far, I've worked in telecom, I've worked on a major
subway project in London, that was my first summer internships.
These are just big infrastructure projects that go on behind the scenes that
people don't necessarily think about public transportation or they don't think
about the infrastructure that supports their Wi-Fi at home, working on a
telecom project.
So really, working in this industry has kind of changed the way I experience
faces.
Yeah, I heard a quote that's always stuck with me, actually a friend of mine
that's here told me that 1% dictates the other, the way that the other 9%
experienced it.
And I was like, "Man, that's just an inspiring quote of we get the opportunity
to influence and shape communities and cities and cultures and all the things
by the work that we do and tell like, have that appreciation of just how it
gets done and how it gets... I always thought that was an interesting way to
look at it.
Yeah, I mean, it's really compared to other industries. I think it's really
attractive because it is universal and there's a lot of pride you see with our
people, especially at Skanska, being able to drive around your neighborhood,
your city, point out buildings, projects that you've worked on.
Yeah, there's a really strong sense of pride to have built your community.
I'm sure we could spend an entire podcast episode on inspiring the next
generation to experience this industry.
It's funny that I feel like there's become a lot more podcasts out there just
to like help educate where and what the industry looks like.
I'm like, "Hey, you may have not known that this is what we do in the industry,
but here's what that looks like. Here's a way to experience it." So, really fun
Evan, I'm curious. So, take us okay. After Duke graduated, you're starting with
Skanska.
How did you, what did you do, kind of when you started, when you kind of got
out of school?
Yeah, I worked for another large EPC firm on a telecom project in the Triangle.
After that wrapped up, there was an opportunity to join Skanska in our pre-
construction group.
And after having been a part of a project that, let's say, didn't end so well,
I really wanted to see, you know, what could be done on the planning front to
set up a project for success.
So, I joined our project planning and estimating group in Durham, did that for
a year.
Then actually went out to the field to build one of our healthcare projects
that I had helped plan for a year and kind of naturally gravitated towards
being that point person on the project for technology.
So, flying the drone, laser scanning, you know, setting up our project with 360
photos and kind of taking on some VDC BIM responsibilities as well.
And after doing that for a year and kind of pushing the envelope on that one
project was tapped to join our national innovation group, which is now called
our emerging technology.
Okay, I want to pause there. There's some good nuggets in there. I'm curious,
Brian, to get your some of your thoughts in here too.
What was the initial interest into some of the technology that you were
starting to use?
Because I feel like I have a story on that.
I'm really curious to hear, was it more of like some efficiencies that you were
seeing with starting to try out like 360 cameras, drones, like reality?
Like, what was that kind of pivot moment that you were like, hey, I want to try
this or hey, like someone exposed you to it that you found interest in it.
Like, take me back to kind of that time that you started to see some of these
tools that you started to like get interested in.
Yeah, it's a good question.
I think being a new hire being someone new to the industry that was pretty
green.
I would say that there were a lot of moments, kind of epiphany moments where it
's like, you know, you're you're learning a company, you're learning a culture,
you're learning a workflow, but then there's moments where you're like, oh, why
are we doing it this way?
And maybe you started to question or start to investigate different solutions
that are out there.
I think I joined, first off, I think I joined the industry at like an
incredibly exciting time, you know, graduating in 2016, the last six years, I
think have been a really exciting time to join the industry in terms of
investment in terms of, you know, startup activity.
But I think in each of my roles so far at Skanska, there have been
opportunities to kind of leverage the latest and greatest tech in whatever
workflow I was doing.
So in precon, you know, I joined Skanska right at the time that we started
using, you know, model based takeoff workloads and that was an opportunity to
both hone, you know, kind of my skill set, but then also train others and kind
of be on the, on the forefront of that.
And, you know, moving on to a role as a project engineer, there was
opportunities for me to leverage the model and to leverage laser scans and
leverage 360 photos and meetings.
So I guess the main, the main point is that we have a, you know, an ever
expanding tool chest and, you know, there, there's just been so many
opportunities to champion those technologies on a project and have a real
impact.
So Evan, I want to ask you some over the years as you've been exploring these
new technologies, right?
You've been starting to see the actual company take a more serious shift into
investment system, right?
Started off as, you know, something we're doing a little bit and now is fully
scaled throughout the company.
You know, I'm sure there's different SOPs and things that are working behind
the scenes.
How have you experienced that first and on how that shift on, you know,
evaluating technology to going to a full scale has gone?
Yeah, I think a lot of times it kind of starts organically, right? There's,
there's one field champion or someone that's, you know, identifies a tool that
has merit and has value.
And then, you know, that spreads to other projects and other regions and other
offices.
And largely in the past, I think it has been kind of organic growth.
I think our group right now is really laser focused on like what that enable
ment process for technology should and could look like to make sure that we're,
you know, we're supporting those early adopters and accelerating those ideas,
making sure they have the right resources
and are following the, you know, the proper proper protocols. But I would say,
you know, one thing we are laser focused on now is really making sure that we
're starting with the problem in mind and starting with the challenge before
jumping to a solution.
I think right now, you know, like I said, there's a lot of startup activity and
there are a lot of vendors reaching out. And the truth is, you know, we've done
a good job of focusing on the problems that needs to be solved and not getting
distracted by the noise.
Absolutely. We just coined it software exhaustion, right? There's just so much
out there.
And I'm not exhausted by it, though. I think it's exciting. I mean, the fact
that we can benchmark multiple solutions that do slightly, you know, slightly
the same thing or slightly better.
I mean, I think it's really, it's exciting. That's what kind of gives energy to
my team and my role.
Yeah. And that's a good point too, because I think at the end of the day, not
competition, but just variety of different tools can be really helpful, right?
It's like, hey, one does this really well and it kind of exposes you to
something else.
I'm like, oh, I didn't think about that, or I didn't think how that could be
helpful. I think you said it well. It's like, hey, it starts at a field
champion and then it kind of grows.
Let's kind of talk about how that second step happens. So like, maybe a guy
like you or someone else on a project team, like, starts to see and embrace
that value.
How do you go from one to three or three to five? Like, because I think that's
where a lot of folks get caught up in.
How do I take this and expand it into more projects? Like, it was easy when it
's just my project team. I know their personalities. I know what they're excited
about.
But like, how do you start to take that from, hey, this was really well. This
went really well to, hey, now we want to kind of small scale this before we,
you know, take this out to the masses.
Right. How do you scale an idea? And to be perfectly honest with you guys, we
are still kind of formalizing what that, you know, what that workflow should
look like, informed by like real experiences from the past and how things have
organically grown.
To become enterprise solutions. I think one thing that we do a great job of now
is we, you know, over the last three, four years, we've really built a great
kind of informal network and a culture of sharing, really, you know, whether it
's using Microsoft Teams or monthly calls, you know, for, we have a, you know,
we have a network at Skanska of drone pilots.
We have networks for people that laser scan as well as, you know, people that
are using 360 cameras. So we have a great network of, of experts that, you know
, share tips and best practices as well as, you know, product feedback.
So we've built these really great formal networks of users and experts. And I
think that's really how ideas are spreading pretty rapidly now is through those
kind of informal networks.
Because at the end of the day, you know, people, people like talking to other
people that are, you know, facing similar, similar problems.
Yeah. Well said, do you, do you find that there's champions within those
networks too? Like, obviously, there's kind of consumers and producers, right?
There's the people that are really continuing to push the envelope forward.
And then maybe some that are just like, Hey, I want to be a part of this kind
of group or community, just to kind of learn. Do you think there's, do you
think there's value in having someone, like kind of champion those groups? Does
that make sense?
Yeah, I think, I think you definitely need to have champions to have an impact.
But I would say, you know, at Skanska, we really are a company of innovators.
Really, they're, you know, everyone kind of embraces that, that mindset. You
know, not everyone can, you know, be active in our, you know, teams channels or
, you know, join every monthly call.
Yeah. But there is a lot of interest from, you know, various departments,
various roles, various groups in kind of staying up to date on the latest tech
trends. And a lot of people are interested in, you know, kind of pushing the
envelope on their particular projects and borrowing ideas and success stories
from other projects.
I think people are really focused on, yeah, applying lessons learned and tools
from one project to the next.
You made a comment earlier that, hey, let's make sure that we have a problem
that we're trying to solve. If you could kind of group two or three problems
that you guys are seeing right now, that you're either trying to solve or
attempting to kind of approach it with different processes like what are kind
of two or three of those buckets of problems that you think are just some of
the most prevalent right now.
Yeah, I think one that we are really focused on is progress tracking. How can
we be transparent about our schedule and the rate of installation of our
subcontractors? And, you know, we're looking at various tools to do that.
Another one would be quality control.
So, you know, that's where structure inside and laser scanning and other
reality capture tools come into play.
You know, how can we make sure that we're installing things not at, not just at
a appropriate rate, but also, you know, maintaining quality along the way.
I think those are two of the biggest things that Brian and I here just across
industry is like, hey, we want to track our progress.
Like, and for us to know how this is going to get built and making sure that it
's on time is really key. And then, like, hey, you don't want to just build
something like it needs to look and be as intended with the quality that is
expected.
Yeah, and I think you have anything to add there, Brian.
Yeah, I mean, just like an underlying message about both of those is just
communication, right? Like being able to remotely communicate that job site to
anybody in terms of the way that you're doing.
You can't overstate that enough in specific destruction site, you know, having
the use structure and site and other 360 platforms over the last of, you know,
four years.
I mean, the biggest impact I have really seen is, you know, referencing 360
photos in meetings and weekly daily, you know,
weekly OSU meetings, weekly project team meetings, making sure everyone's on
the same page. You know, I think a lot of times we maybe think we're on the
same page or we're talking about an issue and people aren't really visualizing
it.
You know, on the same wavelength, and I think there's nothing better than
having, you know, the latest and greatest drone photo or a 360 photo above
ceiling of a specific coordination issue and just making sure people are really
on the same page in aligns because a lot of times maybe they might not be.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
You know, it's funny.
The simplicity of just a 360 image. I mean, we can't overstate just innovation
is awesome. The laser scanning is awesome. There's so many things that are out
there that you can tell are very much in the future.
And I've kind of yet to wonder, like, are we still kind of in the past with 360
images?
Like, it's such a simple and easy platform, but yet it's so effective.
And I think that's what's taking a lot of our team and customers and owners and
like anyone that's a stakeholder in the industry is like, wait, it's really
just that simple.
It's really just a 360 image on a foreplay.
So I think it's simple. And that's one of the things, you know, I think I like
about structure inside is it's, you know, beautifully simple in terms of its
design and features.
But the one thing that really excites me, and I'm sure you noticed I jumped up
a little bit when you were talking about that, but it's the creativity, I think
And the innovative uses we see every day of people using the same tools, the
same hardware, and coming up with like innovative uses for 360 cameras.
You know, we've seen teams use them for, you know, above sealing investigation,
maybe like in an existing hospital corridor, like keep that space open instead
of having to close it to do the pre-destruction investigation.
We've seen people get very creative with a 4.0 360 camera down a manhole, right
? And there's a huge safety implication there too, because if you need to verify
if, you know, a sanitary line is active, you don't have to send someone down
there.
And so I think, you know, the technology is going to continue to evolve, but I
think we're just going to continue to see really creative, innovative uses of
the tools based on like the current, you know, kind of capability.
People are going to continue to push the envelope, and that's what really exc
ites me is like, how can we maximize the use of the tools we're already using
and uncovering new use cases?
Well said, Brian and I kind of talked about this. Those are like the different
moments, right? Like this tool was built for this, but opening that up to a
broader really audience and people who are using these tools, like that's what
we're talking about this podcast, the name and where it comes from.
Like, that's what's really cool about it is you guys and the teams that you're
interacting with are like building things different.
And that's what we really are like wanting to highlight and focus is like, yeah
, these are great tools. Drones weren't necessarily made for construction.
360 cameras probably weren't made for construction, but we're taking these
tools out of these different industries and choosing to build different to make
things better, make things safer, make things more efficient.
And so that's just a cool kind of play on the name of like, hey, why, why did
we choose this name? What does it kind of mean? What does it stand for?
And that was going to be one of our questions is like these moments that you've
kind of recognized, hey, people are choosing to build different. Are there any
other ones that like kind of come? I mean, I think you just listed this out
super well.
Like, yeah, I guess we're going to ask you right here.
Well, one other thing I wanted to add about, you know, one of their nuance, I
guess, is those ideas are not coming from me or a, you know, a central
innovation group.
Those creative uses for the technology are coming from our people in operation
superintendents who are looking for, you know, like the, you know, the example
of investigating a manhole.
Those ideas are people on our projects know what the technology that we have in
our suite is and they're looking for creative uses. They know that we have the
tools and the resources and the expertise and they're looking, you know, they
're thinking when they face a challenge, how can they creatively use the tools
that we already use.
Yeah, well said, it, that's just the stuff that like continues to inspire me
because it's like you see how people, like you give them a tool and you're like
, hey, here's what I think it could be helpful for.
But hey, you're going to be the one that's really going to take this leverage
it. Go and use it for the things that you're trying to fix, the things that you
're trying to, you know, get passing.
So yeah, well said, that's it. Anything you add to that, Brian? Yeah, that's
all great stuff. And it always is always a pleasure to talk with you and kind
of like deep, kind of deeper dive into kind of like what's going on.
And every single time I talk to you, there's just another progression, like
another step of kind of how you're thinking about things differently.
And I, you know, I look forward to kind of seeing the future of what you got
going on. Absolutely. I think you guys are doing also a great, great job of
documenting like other use cases from other companies.
I know you guys put out that playbook recently and honestly flipping through
that was really helpful to see all these other use cases that I had never even
thought about from different, you know, different phases of the project life
cycle.
So I really, you guys are doing a great job with, you know, knowledge sharing
between companies as well. It's all it is. That's all right. Let's, let's see
if Brian around a boss with that.
That's good. I like that. I got but not asked me to. That was a shame. That was
really good.
It's like a team. There's a lot of people behind that. But honestly, majority
of those stories in that playbook are just from field teams and conversations
that we had.
And I'm like, you know, how do we share that? You know, how do we just get that
exposed to somebody who it's really tough for people who are just starting a
technology program right now because they don't have, you know, a super large
budget where they can just blow money and just throw a lot of R&D.
So they want to be super calculated and they want to at least have a good
enough understanding that this has been used by people in the field and it's
being receptive. You know, that's pretty much the whole sort of it.
Yeah, I'm curious to, I got one more question for you Evan. Yeah. And then we
'll let you go. What is something that we could be doing differently? Like when
you think, I mean, you mentioned, hey, providing resources, giving stuff for us
to kind of help share with project teams.
Are there things that we as a, on the tech side of the industry can be doing to
really help just add fuel to your guys's fire to the enablement side of it to
getting more people kind of bought in on this idea of how this is helpful?
Anything can come to mind that you can think of.
Structural insights specifically or just technology? Yeah, I mean, I think
construction technology. Construction technology in general, maybe to this
specific end of what we're trying to do.
Maybe it's like, hey, providing more resources, doing things like this to help
share with project teams to kind of listen in here. And we, we too want to
build different. We don't want to just be another software stack that
construction companies use.
And hence why we want to provide, you know, resources like this and audio and
video and examples like that. But what haven't we thought of yet? Like, what
are the things that you guys could encourage us with to try to take on?
Yeah, most most importantly, I think get out to the job site. Yeah, you know,
talk to real users. That's how you get their honest feedback. I think that's
how you can have, you know, that's how someone in my role can have the biggest
impact.
And that's how I think you guys on the technology side can have the biggest
impact as well as collecting feedback directly from the users, not filtered
through, you know, a third party or someone else directly directly from the
people in the field.
Well said, Brian and I miss the opportunities that we could have just walked
out of our office into a job site. But it is really fun. I mean, give me the
chat with you and getting to collaborate with other projects that we are still
connected with is really fun. But yeah, well said.
Absolutely. Cool. Well, we will wrap things up here. Evan, super fun. Man, this
is just really exciting. Appreciate the time that you spend on here. Brian, any
closing thoughts you have?
Everything's going on. Evan, super fun, man. Appreciate the time. Yeah, this is
great. And we will catch you guys on the next episode. We'll talk soon. Make sure to subscribe to build different on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and
anywhere you listen to podcasts. Let's build this community together.
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