Deliberate Words
by Conspectus, Inc. - decision managers, word masters, aggregators. There is tremendous power in a word that is perfectly placed at the best location, at the best time, during the design and construction process of a project. Deliberate words can manage success, build trust, and provide transparency that every member of the project team craves. As decision managers of the team, Conspectus explores the notion of how transparency transforms three main components of every project: behavior, content, and outcomes, through the appropriate usage of words. Behavior of every participant, is the foundation communication and collaboration, through deliberate words. It will transform the team, and build strong relationships. Content, the documentation built on these relationships, containing deliberate words, is then transformed. The outcome is a successful project, with a legacy of ultimate collaboration. Join us as we chat with members of the architectural, engineering, construction, and owner communities to learn how deliberate word shape their contributions, their projects, and their world! Through these conversations, words aggregate decisions, and transforms perspectives on transparency in the decision-making process.
Episodes
92 episodes
Built to Endure: The Value of Masonry, featuring Adam Hutchinson, Northwest Masonry Institute
What if one of the construction industry's oldest building materials is also one of its most forward-looking?In this episode, Dave Stutzman and Steve Gantner sit down with Adam Hutchinson, Executive Director of the Northwest Masonry Inst...
What A Week! Behind Every Door: Complexity of Hardware
Specifying door hardware is far more complex than selecting hinges and locks. In this episode, Dave Stutzman, Steve Gantner, and Elias Saltz unpack the coordination, technical decisions, and collaboration required to design building openings th...
What A Week! Delegated Design, Who's Responsible?
Elias Saltz, Steve Gantner, & David Stutzman discuss the technical and contractual realities of delegated design. Using examples such as curtain walls, stairs, railings, and fire protection systems, the discussion explores how design respon...
What A Week! Report from AIA26 in San Diego
This week on What a Week, Dave Stutzman reports live from the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2026 exhibit floor in San Diego, where Conspectus is showcasing its services, software, and the ever-popular I ❤️ Specs / I 🤮 ...
What A Week! The Hallucinated RFI - AI in Design & Construction
This week on What a Week, Dave Stutzman and Steve Gantner explore the growing role of AI in design and construction workflows and the unexpected challenges that come with it. Sparked by real-world examples from both the industry and Co...
What A Week! The Next Chapter of 4specs.com
Where 4specs.com is headed.....In this episode, Dave Stutzman, Steve Gantner, and Elias Saltz provide a behind-the-scenes look at what's happening with 4specs following its acquisition by Conspectus....
Redefining the Emerging Specifier, featuring Sophie Dalton and Obed Eriza
What if the industry’s definition of an “emerging professional” is already outdated?In this episode of Deliberate Words, Dave Stutzman sits down with Sophie Dalton and Obed Eriza to explore what growth, expertise, and career dev...
What A Week! SCIP Conference, Inside the World of Specifiers
This episode gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most influential technical communities in the specification profession. It explores why organizations like Specifications Consultants in Independent Practice matter, how specif...
What a Week! Emerging Specifiers in an Evolving Industry, with Obed Eriza and Sophie Dalton
This week on What a Week, Dave Stutzman sits down with two of Conspectus’s emerging professionals, Obed Eriza and S...
What A Week! Field Experience Sharpens Specifications, with Jay Bethel
This week, we welcome a special guest from the Conspectus team - senior specifier Jay Bethel. We chat about his unusual path into specifications. Jay moved from hands-on construction ...
Collaborator Extraordinaire at SOM, Featuring Rowan Georges
Rowan Georges joins us as a collaborator extraordinaire at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), where he helps engag...
.png)
What A Week! The Hidden ROI of Product Shows
Spring doesn’t just bring thunderstorms, it signals the start of product show season across the industry. This week, the team compares experiences from traditional trade show floors to structured “speed dating” events like CSI Chicago’s CSI2eye...
What A Week! Supply Chain as a Design Input
This episode reframes supply chain not as a downstream construction issue, but as a design constraint that must be addressed early. Late-stage decisions on equipment and systems often collide with real-world lead times, forcing redesign, substi...
What A Week! The Art of Squirreling
This episode dives into the familiar specifier experience of going down the research rabbit hole, or as the team calls it, “squirreling.” What starts as a simple product lookup can quickly turn into chasing ASTM references, code citations, perf...
What A Week! Do We Really Need Submittal Reports?
This episode explores a recurring request from design teams: generating submittal, QA, and other specification-based reports. The discussion questions the actual purpose of these reports and whether they provide meaningful value. While potentia...
Design Intent, with a Cherry on Top - featuring Ben Caldwell, the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
Design intent is the governing framework of a project, yet it is often compromised as it moves from concept through construction.In this episode of Deliberate Words, Ben Caldwell, Director of Specifications at the Bjarke Ingels ...
What A Week! Peek Behind the Curtain of Conspectus Cloud
This episode offers a rare peek behind the curtain at how a specification platform is developed by the very practitioners who use it every day, experienced specifiers who write construction documents and coordinate design intent on active proje...
What A Week! If It's Not Documented, It's Not Designed: The Design Intent Gap.
This episode explores the idea behind the Design Intent Gap and why ambiguity in construction documentation continues to create confusion across the industry. The conversation centers on the premise that design intent should be treated a...
.png)
What A Week! Insurance Requirements: The Hidden Design Driver
This episode explores a frequently overlooked factor in building design: the influence of property insurance requirements on construction documents and specifications. The conversation was sparked by a real project situation where FM Global ent...
Clarity Before Construction: Documenting Design Intent with SPDs
This episode centers on renewed interest in System and Performance Descriptions (SPDs) as a structured way to document design intent earlier in the project lifecycle. Dave shares how initial skepticism often turns into clarity once teams see ho...
What A Week! To Copy or Not To Copy Spec Sections
This episode was sparked by a familiar and uncomfortable question: should you copy a specification section from a prior project, or start from scratch? Steve Gantner, Elias Saltz, Dave Stutzman explored why “copy-paste” has become such a common...
.png)
Passing the Torch, 4specs Acquisition Announcement with Colin Gilboy
Colin Gilboy, founder of 4specs.com, sat down with Conspectus executives David Stutzman, Steve Gantner, and Elias Saltz in Orlando, FL to button up the final details of its acquisition and share something b...
.png)
Trebuchets, Tenacity, & Technical Curiosity featuring Tucker Beech Drexel U Architecture Student
This Deliberate Words episode captures a lively conversation between Dave Stutzman and Steve Gantner of Conspectus and their guest, Tucker Beech, a third-year (of six) Drexel architecture student who first connected with Dave after he ...
What A Week! CURT National Conference Recap: AI, Energy, & Productivity
Steve Gantner, Elias Saltz, and Tina Montone attended the CURT National Conference in Orlando, Florida in early February 2026 and returned with a clear throughline from the conversations taking place across the conference. In this discussion wi...
.png)
What A Week! Reference Standards: Say It Once. Say It In The Right Place.
In this episode, Dave Stutzman, Steve Gantner, and Elias Saltz tackle a deceptively simple question that carries real contractual risk: Where should reference standards live in the specifications, and should they be dated? Refere...
.png)