Featured on this episode:

• Join The Designers Edge here
• Grab Your Free Script Guide here
• Access the full video interview with Elana Steele of Steele Appliance here

What you will learn from this episode:

• The 4 steps to follow when you don’t know the answer on a jobsite.
• How to know who to turn to for the right answer—and when the decision isn’t yours to make.
• The difference between a healthy professional stretch and truly being in over your head.

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There are two moments from a recent project that I want to tell you about because they perfectly illustrate something I wish I had understood much earlier in my career.

The first involved a geothermal system. It’s not a system I work with every day. I understand the concept, and frankly, I think it’s pretty cool, but when the GC asked me about the mechanicals and where they could live, I needed more information. What clearances did they require? Did they need active airflow? There were questions I simply didn’t have the answers to in that moment.

And what struck me was that the GC didn’t either.

So there we were, both standing on the jobsite with the same set of questions. Neither of us pretended to know something we didn’t. We talked about what we needed to find out, reached out to our respective resources, and came back together with the information.

Then, on another project, a client brought up wanting a cold plunge system. First one I’ve ever dealt with.

The client and contractor both turned to me: What are our options? What does this cost? What do we need to know before we specify it?

And once again, I didn’t know. Not yet.

Years ago, moments like these would have made me feel like I had failed at something. I thought being the professional in the room meant I was supposed to have the answer immediately. If I didn’t, maybe I wasn’t experienced enough or didn’t belong in that room.

Thirty-plus years into this career, I can tell you that is completely backwards.

Construction Confidence Is Not Knowing Everything

You are going to encounter things on construction projects that you have never seen before. I still do.

Experience has not given me a complete library of every possible answer. What it has given me is a much better understanding of what to do when I don’t have one. And that distinction matters.

When designers believe they are supposed to know everything, there is tremendous pressure to come up with an answer in the moment. When we don’t have one, we tend to freeze or try to talk our way through it.

Neither is a good option.

If a contractor realizes you are guessing your way through an answer, you haven’t protected your credibility by pretending to know. You’ve potentially damaged it. Your reputation on a jobsite is built over time, and people need to trust that when you give them an answer, there is something behind it.

Sometimes the most professional answer you can give is simply:

“I have to look into that.”

No apology. No long explanation. No pretending.

Then you get to work.

The Four Things I Do When I Don’t Know the Answer

Over the years, I’ve developed a very simple process for these situations. I use it every single time something comes up that I don’t know.

First, I say, “I’ll have to look into that.”

Then, before I leave that conversation, I ask one incredibly important question:

When does this need to be decided?

This is the step I see designers skip all the time.

Construction does not wait for us to research something at our own pace. There is a sequence to how a building goes together, and there are trades and schedules dependent on the decisions being made.

If the GC needs my answer by Thursday because a crew is scheduled for Friday, then Thursday is my deadline. If the framing crew is coming back Monday, I have the weekend.

“I’ll get back to you” without understanding when the answer is needed isn’t enough.

Once I know the deadline, I find the answer. And then, whenever humanly possible, I come back before that deadline.

That means my process is really four things:

1. Say you need to look into it.
2. Ask when the decision needs to be made.
3. Find the right answer from the right source.
4. Get the information back before it becomes a problem.

It sounds simple because it is. But when you’re caught off guard on a jobsite, having a process matters.

You Have More Resources Than You Think

The next question, of course, is: Where do you actually go to find the answer?

I think designers underestimate how many resources we have available to us.

Start with the people already on the project.

Your GC is an especially important relationship because the two of you are the constants throughout the construction process. Trades come in and out as their portion of the work is completed, but you and the GC are there from the beginning through the final punch list.

That creates a partnership that is different from almost every other relationship on the project.

When we had questions about the geothermal system, I didn’t disappear and try to figure everything out by myself. The GC reached out to his contacts. I reached out to mine. We brought the information back together, compared what we’d learned, and ultimately involved the HVAC installer as well.

That’s what a good GC relationship looks like.

You are not on an island.

The trades on your project are another tremendous resource. If something about an electrical system, plumbing installation or mechanical system doesn’t look familiar, ask the person who has spent years working specifically in that field.

But how you ask matters.

Go in with genuine curiosity, not alarm and definitely not accusation.

There’s a big difference between questioning someone’s work and saying, “Have you ever seen this done this way?”

In my experience, people are usually very willing to talk about the work they know best. When you approach them with curiosity, you’ll be amazed at what you can learn.

Your Resources Go Beyond the Jobsite

You aren’t limited to the people standing on that particular project either.

Maybe you have an electrician you’ve trusted for years who isn’t working on this job. Call him. Send a photo. Explain what you’re seeing and ask what he thinks.

You also have reps, suppliers, and manufacturers.

That’s exactly what I did with the cold plunge. I called my Ferguson rep and started asking questions. She pointed me toward a manufacturer; I continued the research from there, and I came back to the client with real information and real options.

And don’t overlook your professional network.

Other designers who manage construction are an incredible resource because chances are someone has already encountered whatever strange thing you’re staring at for the first time.

Your network shouldn’t be something you start building when you’re already in a crisis. Build those relationships now. Protect them. Be a resource for other people too.

You never know when one phone call will save you hours of research—or prevent a very expensive mistake.

Sometimes the Answer Is: This Isn’t My Question to Answer

There is another side to this that becomes increasingly important as you manage more construction.

Not every question someone directs toward you is actually yours to answer. Some questions belong with the GC. Others require an architect, structural engineer, manufacturer, installer or another specialist. Knowing the difference is part of competent construction management.

If we’re talking about structural integrity—a beam, a wall, a load-bearing element—that isn’t my call. I am not an architect or an engineer, and I’m never going to pretend otherwise.

If it’s a code question that could affect a permit or inspection, we’re going through the appropriate channels rather than relying on someone’s best guess.

And if two trades are giving me conflicting technical answers about their own work, I’m not going to stand between them and decide which one sounds better. I’m going to bring the right people together or involve someone with the authority and expertise to make that decision.

Saying, “That’s a question for the engineer, and I’ll get them involved,” doesn’t make you look less capable.

It demonstrates professional judgment.

New Doesn’t Automatically Mean You’re in Over Your Head

I think this is where we need to make an important distinction.

There is a difference between encountering something you’ve never dealt with before and genuinely being in over your head.

If seeing something new automatically meant you weren’t qualified to manage a construction project, none of us would ever become experienced. Every experienced designer, contractor, architect and trade professional has had a first.

I’ve had firsts this year. The cold plunge was a first for me. It was unfamiliar, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t navigate. I had enough foundation to understand the questions I needed to ask and enough relationships to know where to find the information.

Being truly in over your head looks different.

It’s when you consistently don’t have enough of a foundation to know what questions to ask. You don’t yet have the relationships or resources to find the answers, or you’re making decisions involving structural, financial or legal risk without the experience or support to make them responsibly.

A healthy stretch is uncomfortable but navigable.

You’re in unfamiliar territory, but you can find your footing. You know how to slow things down, involve the right people and ask good questions even when you don’t have the answer yet.

Being in over your head is when that foundation isn’t there.

And if that’s where you are, getting support isn’t failure. It may mean bringing in another designer with more construction experience, being honest about where you are in your learning curve or waiting before you take on another project of that complexity.

The goal is always to protect the client and protect the project.

What Happens When Everyone Gives You a Different Answer?

This is another situation that will absolutely happen.

The contractor says one thing. A trade says another. Or two trades completely disagree, and suddenly everyone is looking at you.

Do not let the pressure of that moment force you into making a decision just so the project can keep moving.

A bad decision made quickly is worse than a good decision made after you’ve done your homework.

This is when you say, “I want to make sure we get this right. Give me until Monday and I’ll have an answer.”

Then figure out where the technical authority actually sits.

Sometimes there is a building code that answers the question. Sometimes the manufacturer’s specifications settle it. Sometimes it requires the professional judgment of an architect or engineer.

Find the right source.

Then, when you come back to the team, don’t just tell them what you’ve decided. Explain where the answer came from and why you’re moving forward that way.

That builds credibility.

Experience Gives You Pattern Recognition, Not All the Answers

I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about experience.

Experience doesn’t eventually get you to a place where you know everything.

What it gives you is pattern recognition.

You walk onto a jobsite and something catches your attention. You may not even be able to articulate immediately why it feels off, but you’ve seen enough projects that something registers.

It might be nothing.

It might be what I call a pink flag.

But you stop. You ask a question. You take a closer look.

Earlier in my career, I would have walked right past certain things, not because I was careless but because I didn’t have the reference points yet to recognize that they mattered.

Some of that can only come from experience. You have to do the work, spend time on jobsites and pay attention.

But you don’t have to personally make every mistake or encounter every possible construction situation to learn from it.

So much of what I know came from other people.

Contractors showed me things. Trades taught me how their work actually gets done and, more importantly, how their work connects to mine. Architects taught me enough about structural issues to recognize when something needs their attention, even though resolving those issues isn’t my job.

The people around you can help you recognize things sooner, ask better questions and avoid mistakes you haven’t personally made yet.

Your Process for Uncertainty Matters as Much as Your Construction Knowledge

Think about the last time something happened on a construction project and you genuinely didn’t know what to do.

What happened next?

Did you guess? Did you get quiet? Did you call someone? Did you avoid calling because you were worried about what asking might make you look like? Did you slow the project down long enough to get the right answer, or did you let things continue and hope it worked itself out?

Your answer tells you something useful.

Maybe the gap isn’t actually in your construction knowledge.

Maybe the gap is in your process for handling uncertainty.

Because something will eventually happen on a project that you haven’t encountered before. No course, checklist or amount of preparation can anticipate every variable in construction.

The question is whether you have a foundation and a network around you that allows you to handle it professionally when it happens.

That’s one of the reasons I created the Studio portion of The Designer’s Edge. The program gives designers the foundation—the process, pricing, marketing and structure behind construction management. The Studio provides the ongoing support for the situations that can’t possibly be predicted in advance: a room full of designers actively doing this work who can help one another think through what happens on real projects.

Because there will always be something new.

The Bottom Line

The next time you’re standing on a jobsite and someone asks you a question you don’t know how to answer, notice that urge to answer immediately.

Then let it go.

Say, “I have to look into that.”

Ask when the decision needs to be made. Use the GC, trades, reps, manufacturers, architects, engineers, and designers in your network to find the right answer. Know when the question isn’t yours to answer at all. And then get the information back before the project needs it.

You do not need to know everything to confidently manage construction.

You need to know what to do when you don’t know.

That is a completely learnable skill, and it gets stronger every time you use it.

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Like this Episode?

Be sure to check out Episode #262: The Confidence Myth Holding Interior Designers Back

Be sure to check out Episode #211: Spot the Pink Flags Before They Turn Red: Planning Your 2025 Projects

Be sure to check out Episode #161: A GC’s Perspective on the Power of Collaboration Between Builders and Designers with Sean Canada