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• Access the full video interview with Elana Steele of Steele Appliance here

What you will learn from this episode:

• Why project count is one of the least useful ways to measure your workload 
• The two variables that actually determine how a project feels to manage
• How to use this framework to price more accurately

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If you’ve ever told someone how many projects you’re running and watched their face do that specific thing, the pause, the slight tightening around the eyes, the “oh, that’s great” delivered in a tone that absolutely does not match the words, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

They think five projects sounds thin. They think ten sounds impressive. And neither one of those reactions means anything, because project count is one of the least useful ways to measure what’s actually on your plate.

This is one of the most under-discussed topics in this industry, and I want to get specific about it today. Not just conceptually, but with real examples from what I’m managing right now — because I think the detail is what makes this framework actually click.

The Project That Wrecked Me

Right now, I am finishing a mid-sized renovation that dropped out of the sky. A former client’s son. I knew walking in that renovation work always carries surprises. What I didn’t anticipate was how many surprises, or how significantly the scope would grow.

Every call comes to me. Every scheduling issue, every product delay, every structural discovery behind a wall — all of it lands on me, operationally and emotionally. I’m on site constantly, not on a schedule, but whenever something needs my eyes on it. One domino falls and five or six follow, sometimes the same day.

Here’s what I want to be clear about: the design work itself is not harder on a project like this than on a massive new build. I bring the exact same level of creativity, the same trades, the same ownership to a project this size as I would to something far larger.

What changes is everything happening simultaneously around the creative work. And that’s the thing that exhausts you.

This project is significantly smaller than the three I’m moving into this fall. But it has taken a far greater toll over the last couple of months than those three that will take over the next year and beyond. That’s not a contradiction. That’s exactly the point.

“I Only Do Site Visits on Wednesdays”

You’ve seen this on social media. A designer mentions, casually, that she only does site visits on Wednesdays. And I want to tell you what that actually means — not as a criticism, but as a useful read.

It means someone else is running the day-to-day operational machine on that project.

Because construction does not work in neat, scheduled patterns. If something goes wrong on a Friday and it needs a designer’s eyes or a decision, it is not waiting until Wednesday. So if a designer genuinely only shows up on Wednesdays, that structure is only possible because a superintendent or project manager is handling the day-to-day trade communication, the scheduling logistics, the agenda for weekly meetings, and the meeting minutes. The designer is fully engaged as a participant and decision-maker, but she’s not the one catching every fire as it starts.

That is a completely different load than what I just described on the renovation I’m finishing. Not lesser, just different. And it’s a useful signal when you’re trying to read what someone’s actual capacity looks like versus what their project count suggests.

The Two Variables That Actually Determine Your Workload

There are two things that determine how a project actually feels to manage, and neither of them is the size of the project.

The first is who is running the operational machine. 

On some projects, a builder’s superintendent is running the weekly meetings, sending the agenda, managing the trade communication, handling the day-to-day logistics. You are fully engaged, fully creative, bringing your own trades for your scope of work, but you are not the one catching every fire the moment it starts. On other projects, you are the operational layer and the creative layer simultaneously, every single day.

The second is how compressed the timeline is. 

A project running four or five months has no slack. Whatever needs to happen happens now, stacked on top of everything else happening now. A project running fourteen, sixteen, or eighteen months has room to breathe. Even your own decisions have space around them instead of colliding into each other.

The hardest combination is running the operational machine yourself on a compressed timeline. That’s the mid-sized renovation I’m finishing right now, and it’s exactly why it has wrecked me despite being the smallest project on my plate this year.

The lightest combination is someone else running the machine on an extended timeline. More room. Less of the minutiae landing on you in real time. And honestly, when you’re not buried in operational fires, you get to be used more strategically — you have bandwidth to zoom out and think two steps ahead in a way that’s genuinely hard to access when you’re catching dominoes all day.

What My Fall Projects Actually Look Like

Let me walk you through the three projects I’m moving into so this framework becomes concrete.

The first is a new build with a client I’ve worked with for years

Same team, same rhythm. The superintendent will be running the operational machine: weekly meetings, agendas, day-to-day trade logistics. I’m fully creative and fully engaged, but I am not the one absorbing every fire. The timeline is at least fourteen to sixteen months, possibly eighteen. Both variables are favorable, and I already know exactly what this will feel like because I’ve lived this rhythm with this team before.

The second is a large renovation of a 1920s home, currently out to bid to three contractors

Two of whom I’ve never worked with. Variable one looks similar to the new build in terms of structure, but there’s a real wrinkle: with an unfamiliar contractor, there’s always a getting-to-know-you period. Learning their communication style, figuring out what they need from me and when. That unfamiliarity adds its own load even when someone else is technically running the machine. The timeline should be extended — twelve to fourteen months — but renovations always carry structural surprises that can compress things unexpectedly. So this one is mostly favorable on both variables, with genuine uncertainty layered on top depending on the bid outcome and what we find in the walls.

The third has been underway for a couple of months, and the roles have honestly been a little loose for my liking.

I’ve been asking for more definition as we’ve gone along, and that’s starting to take shape. One interesting development: the architect asked to keep all drawings in-house, which means my drafting load dropped significantly. I’m doing the sketches with dimensions and notes, then handing them off instead of managing my own drafting team through the project. But on the broader operational side, this contractor is a little loose about weekly meetings and meeting minutes, so I’ve found myself stepping in to establish structure and routines more than I expected. The timeline is extended though, at least another twelve months, which gives that operational load room to breathe instead of compressing on top of everything else. It nets out to something sustainable, even with the trade-off.

None of that, not a single piece of it, is visible if all you know is that I’m running three projects this fall.

What This Means for Your Fees

This is where the framework stops being interesting and starts being useful.

On the mid-sized renovation I’m finishing, my dollar per square foot is higher than it would be on the same square footage within a new build. It has to be. I’m charging for running the operational machine myself, for absorbing every domino on a timeline with no slack in it. But on a new build of that same square footage, the total fee would be significantly higher — not because my role is harder, but because the project runs over a much longer timeline with months of full creative engagement, more rooms, more selections, more of everything.

This is exactly why I don’t use a square footage formula, and why I tell designers at every opportunity to stop using them. A flat per-square-foot number cannot distinguish between who’s running the operational machine and who isn’t. It cannot account for a four-month compressed timeline versus a sixteen-month extended one. It cannot account for drafting hours absorbed by the architect instead of your team, or the additional load of working with a contractor you’ve never worked with before.

A formula gives you a number. It doesn’t tell you what that number actually needs to cover. The only way to know is to ask the two questions this episode keeps circling back to.

Stop Judging Capacity by Project Count

When someone tells you they’re running three projects, and you think that sounds thin, you have no idea whether they’re running the operational machine themselves on a compressed timeline for all three. That workload could be genuinely massive. And when someone tells you they’re running ten, and you feel impressed or maybe a little intimidated, those ten could all have someone else running the machine on extended timelines with tight processes underneath. Sometimes that’s more doable than three projects where you’re running everything on a short clock.

The goal here isn’t to find a new formula or a cleaner system. It’s to get better at reading the board. Because this work, design with construction management woven through it, is three-dimensional chess. Project size, who’s running the machine, the timeline, the team, the fee, the complexity of the build, the complexity of the design, and your own bandwidth. All of those pieces are moving independently, all the time. There is no straight line. Stop looking for one. It will only frustrate you.

The next time a prospective client reaches out, don’t just evaluate the scope and the budget.

Ask who will be running the operational machine. Ask how compressed the timeline is. Those two answers will tell you far more about whether you can take this project on than square footage ever will. And once you have both of those answers, you can price the actual load — not just the size of the space.

I knew this renovation I am working on right now would take a toll. I went in with eyes open. I just didn’t know it would take quite this much of one. And that is the blessing and the curse of construction work. But I’ll be honest — I’m genuinely looking forward to what’s coming this fall. On paper, it looks like more. In reality, the variables are shifting in my favor. And that changes everything.

That’s the kind of clarity I want for you.

Like this Episode?

Be sure to check out Episode #266: The 5 Construction Conversations That Prevent Chaos on Projects

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Be sure to check out Episode #214: LuAnn Nigara on Leadership, Profitability, and Owning Your Role