Startup growth
Fieldlens
Scaling Construction Site Management
Client
Fieldlens
Role
Design Team Lead
Collaborators
Brian Rosenberg (Product), Bryan Migliorisi (Eng)
Problem
Construction superintendents faced a daily dilemma that was eating away at their effectiveness. After spending their days managing complex construction projects, they'd retreat to their trailers to spend hours compiling daily reports – a tedious process of gathering scattered photos, notes, and observations from throughout the day. This manual compilation wasn't just inefficient; it was actively preventing them from doing their real job: keeping construction projects on track. Some supers had started cobbling together their own solutions using phones and various apps, but these makeshift systems often created more problems than they solved.
Approach
We began by embedding ourselves in the construction world, spending time on active sites to understand how superintendents actually worked. What emerged was a clear picture: these professionals needed to capture information quickly, often in challenging conditions (try using a touchscreen with work gloves on), and that information needed to naturally organize itself into something meaningful. Rather than forcing them to adapt to our system, we needed to build something that worked the way they did.
Most importantly, we observed that the best solution would be one that provided immediate value to individual users while creating structured data that would prove valuable to their employers. This insight shaped our entire product strategy.
Solution
We built a platform that transformed the way construction sites capture and communicate information. The core was a mobile app that let supers quickly record "Observations" – these could be as simple as a photo and a note, or as detailed as a fully structured task with precise location tags, blueprint annotations, and rich media including 360° photos and infrared imaging. Behind the scenes, these observations were automatically categorized and compiled into the daily reports that used to consume their evenings.
The system was designed to grow with usage. Individual observations could evolve into assigned tasks, and the structured data created through daily use became a comprehensive record of project progress. This natural evolution supported our growth strategy: start with individual users who loved the product for making their lives easier, then expand to enterprise contracts as companies realized the value of having this comprehensive site data.
Impact
$1M+
in annual recurring revenue
The results exceeded our expectations. In three years, we grew from 300 beta users to over 100,000 active users and built a business generating more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue. The product became so successful that when one of our largest clients, WeWork, saw how we were transforming their construction management process, they acquired the company. What began as a tool to help construction superintendents reclaim their evenings had evolved into a platform that was revolutionizing how construction projects were managed and documented.
