Buildertrend spotlight: Eric Fischer, Director of Product
On this episode of The Building Code, Paul and Tom discuss all things Buildertrend with our Director of Product, Eric Fischer. In previous department spotlight episodes, we’ve gotten to know a certain team within our company, but we’re doing things a little differently this time … this episode is dedicated to the software itself!
The Importance of Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is a necessity for the development and continuous improvement of Buildertrend. Seriously, though, we’re not sure how we’d move forward without it. Eric explained that the product team’s main focus is listening to clients and making sure the product is completely taking care of their needs. Since our employees work from Buildertrend HQ, (not out on a jobsite), the best way for us to continuously improve our software and make sure it fits the needs of our clients who work on a jobsite is to ask for feedback and listen to them!
There are a few ways we gather customer feedback. If you’re a client, you can participate in our forum where you can see ideas that others have submitted, as well as vote on your faves. You can also go straight to your Buildertrend Coach with any feedback you have. In addition, we’re always listening on social media!
Buildertrend Updates and New Features
Customer feedback helps lead to new features and updates within the software. An exciting new feature update on the horizon has to do with our QuickBooks integration. Essentially, clients will have the ability to push expenses from QuickBooks to Buildertrend, which will allow field managers and project managers to access their budget and estimates at all times. This feature update is coming in early September, so keep an eye out!
Of course, our hosts and guest had to throw out a few ideas of their own for new features, such as Augmented Reality (AR). Tom was recently inspired at Ikea. His AR idea? A builder could use the Buildertrend app to present countertop selections to the homeowner, then point their phone or tablet at the counter surface for the client to view the different options in 3-D. In Tom’s layman terms, “… it’s taking reality and augmenting it.”
Is this something Buildertrend will add to the software? Eric said, “Down the road, yes.” AR is not something we are currently working on, but it is something we would like to add.
Podcast Updates and New Features
Speaking of new features … we have a fun new feature being added to The Building Code! If you want to share a suggestion for a featured guest, ask a question about Buildertrend, or have a topic you want us to cover on the podcast, you can now call us directly and leave a message at (402) 596-6437. Please make sure to tell us your name, and you may even hear yourself mentioned on the podcast!
Links and more
Definition of Augmented Reality
QuickBooks
Kohler
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Tom Houghton:
Youโre listening to โThe Building Code.โ Iโm Tom Houghton.
Paul Wurth:
Iโm Paul Wurth.
Tom Houghton:
Joining us on this episode of โThe Building Code,โ we have our director of product, Eric Fischer, and weโre going to talk about all things Buildertrend product related in a Buildertrend Spotlight. Weโll dive into that in just a second, but first want to tell you about an exciting opportunity we have called Buildertrend University on the road. Weโre calling it BTU on the road for short. Thisโll be taking place in Dallas, Texas on October 3rd, 2019. Itโs a one day event for you and your team to learn more and how to optimize your usage of Buildertrend. So make sure you sign up for Buildertrend University if you want to continue to grow your business. Today, we have a Buildertrend Spotlight. We are joined by our very own director of product, Eric Fischer. Hey, Eric.
Eric Fischer:
Hey, Tom.
Tom Houghton:
Howโs it going?
Eric Fischer:
Itโs going great.
Paul Wurth:
What is the Buildertrend Spotlight?
Tom Houghton:
Buildertrend Spotlight is where we take an episode of our beloved podcast and dedicate it to diving deeper into the world behind the curtain of Buildertrend.
Paul Wurth:
I see. We did this with Scott Siegert recently.
Tom Houghton:
We did. Fantastic episode. If you havenโt checked it out, itโs episode 22. Itโs a great episode.
Paul Wurth:
It was a great one. Had fun. Happy to have Eric here representing our product and engineering division.
Eric Fischer:
Thank you.
Paul Wurth:
Buildertrendโs set up structurally behind the scenes in three major departments with a bunch of other supporting departments that are critical to operations. We would put Ericโs under engineering. So just for simplicity sake, they build our software that you guys use every day.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah, and the product teamโs really devoted to making Buildertrend better. Theyโre the core drivers of that, I would say.
Eric Fischer:
Definitely. Thatโs our main focus is listening to customers and making sure that the product that we put out in front of them is allowing them to number one, take care of all their needs on job sites, back office, but also, moving forward and kind of keeping sights on the industry and making sure that new tech and things of that form are also available for our customers as they become online and come available for them.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs awesome.
Paul Wurth:
We talk about this a lot. We donโt have people that are in construction day-to-day here at Buildertrend. So the only way we can improve our product is by listening to our clients.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Weโre introducing a new way to do that today, right?
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs correct.
Paul Wurth:
Is that right?
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Did I let that out of the bag too early?
Tom Houghton:
You did. We were going to tease it at the end like, โHey, stay tuned to the end,โ but why not just do it now?
Paul Wurth:
Youโre from Hollywood. Iโll take your advice.
Tom Houghton:
Okay. Thanks. Well, weโll tease it now that youโre going to have an opportunity to not only give feedback on the product, of course, weโre going to talk about that, but also on the podcast. Weโre going to tell you the details of a new way to contact us to share your feedback, and then also throw out questions to our guests. So stay tuned to the end of the podcast and weโll talk more about that. But first, letโs talk about customer feedback. Why is it so important to our team?
Eric Fischer:
Our customer feedback is the lifeline. Obviously, number one, itโs whoโs the end user of our software, but theyโre also the ones that have an idea of what needs to happen on their projects that we can facilitate more efficiently for them, what are the pain points or issues that they come up across time after time on job sites or in the office? Our job is to listen to those concerns and take them and find solutions that we can make an opportunity in Buildertrend to facilitate each of those options and really make it very intuitive for our users also.
Eric Fischer:
The end goal with Buildertrend is to provide a program that allows our businesses to number one, scale into it. So as they begin using it, they can pick out what they want to use within there, but also grow into the software and have it accommodate that growth while making it intuitive for everybody in their entire company to be able to use Buildertrend. Youโre not just the owner or the office administrators, but really the field guys to the supervisors, the project managers, even to the subcontractors and owners on job sites. So not only creating new functionality and kind of staying with the industry, but also making it easy and then at the end of the day, impactful as far as the insights that we can glean from that information that weโve got.
Tom Houghton:
Fantastic. One of those key pieces of the puzzle that you talked about was kind of the user experience. We actually have a team inside the product team itself thatโs dedicated to that. Could you share a little bit of the details of that?
Eric Fischer:
Yeah. So weโve got a team of six on our UX team here and really, their job is to vet ideas prior to us even building anything and sending it over to our developers. Theyโll put together prototypes or wire frames, as weโll call them, and theyโll put those in front of our customers or theyโll also put them in front of people who are not Buildertrend customers just to vet the intuitiveness of that feature, but also to make sure that the workflow and kind of the end result that weโre going for on each of these new features or enhancements are hitting the mark and really resonating with each of our users.
Tom Houghton:
Good stuff.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. I think people assume that the problems are obvious and theyโre really not in our industry because not only within construction do we serve four main segments being residential home building, remodeling, especially contracting, which is an array of businesses, and then commercial. Even within those segments, one userโs problem could be another userโs problem, but they could be completely different. What I mean by that is like, if I want to fix bids, how they would fix it for them could be completely different story for the guy next to him because they run their business differently. So itโs just a very complicated world where you want to make sure nothing gets lost in communication, translation from the problem to the solution weโre trying to provide. So we go out there and we research and make sure we completely understand what theyโre trying to accomplish and then deliver the right result. Is that fair?
Eric Fischer:
Yeah, itโs 100% percent. The thing with the construction industry, like you said, Paul, thereโs a million different ways to handle each function within the business. So you talked about bidding, but really estimating is one that weโre looking into right now and rewriting or making our estimating tool better. You go out and you talk to our customers and everybody does it different. Thereโs not one standard process for how to handle that. So really, itโs a very complex problem, but itโs also at the end of the day, understanding who we are in the market and what we want to facilitate for each of our users. So taking that into context and then also making sure that as we talk to these customers, whatโs kind of the foundation that all of them are bringing back as far as that feedback and making sure that we appease those needs rather than trying to go down every little road that we could.
Eric Fischer:
Really, at the end of the day, maybe you donโt meet anybodyโs needs because you try to be so specific with the functionality that weโre trying to make sure that weโve got a lot of research feedback in there. Then we facilitate the areas that we excel at here and Buildertrend, which is communication; getting those bids out, getting selections made against the allowance and getting the formatted estimate or proposal out to those customers. So just another example of how something seems easy up front and as soon as you start digging into it, really gets complex and you start seeing all the different use cases for it.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. We canโt be everything to everybody.
Tom Houghton:
We try.
Paul Wurth:
We try. Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
Letโs move on to that. We talked a little bit about how all this comes together. So you guys have created this product life cycle. Is that what you call it?
Eric Fischer:
Yeah, our product life cycle.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Eric Fischer:
So everywhere from when weโre exploring it to when we start designing it in product to when itโs actually being built by our developers. So throughout that, really, it starts up front with all of our different feedback channels. So you guys mentioned our new feedback channel that weโve got right in program, user voice. Weโve also got our CSMs, or our customer success staff whoโs constantly talking to customers, passing ideas up that are being brought up on trainings or phone calls coming in. Then weโve also got our competitive analysts who are always looking at whatโs in the industry, what new tech is coming out, and making sure that weโre vetting those things. So that a large part of that goes into exploring. Like Paul said, when we were exploring, weโre making sure that we understand the true root of the problem, make sure we get the pain point that our users are going through.
Eric Fischer:
Then after that, weโll prioritize those against number one, what is business impact? So how important is that functionality to an end user company? Then how complex is it going to be for us to number one, break it down from a product point of view, but then also how complex is it going to be on the back end for our development team to build? So kind of all those characteristics are vetted upfront. Then after we vet those, we prioritize, push them through. When it starts being designed, thatโs when itโs passed to our product team. Our analysts actually start working on creating the documentation for, what permissions are going to need updated? Whatโs it going to look like in program? Itโs also where our UX team starts to come into play as far as making sure that the workflows are very efficient and meeting our end users.
Eric Fischer:
Then as we develop that, weโre working constantly with our development team of, what tech is available? Is there anything that weโre not aware of that maybe our developers who have their ear to the ground with that all the time can help us maybe make that easier for end users with some new tech, some different contexts in there? Then once itโs passed over to development, thatโs where our release coordinators come into play and we actually get it over to the engineers who start building it. Weโre constantly updating the platform every day, but youโll see those updates. Weโll kind of piece them out slowly and then weโll make the big splash once itโs all the way developed and weโll push it out to our end users. So weโve got a few exciting things that I think weโll talk about here at the end the podcast today coming down the pipelines that have all originated from our CS team and have worked their way all the way through that process to being developed here.
Tom Houghton:
I love new tech.
Paul Wurth:
Technology Tom.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs me.
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs why you work here.
Tom Houghton:
There you go.
Paul Wurth:
That long process, wow. It takes a lot.
Tom Houghton:
It does. Thereโs a lot of moving parts in there. I want to talk about the release cycle just because I think a lot of people donโt understand that weโre constantly updating the program. Every day, weโre updating the program. Itโs a very unique release cycle. Could you speak to the pressures of that? I would say would be one side of it, but then also how the actually benefits the customer.
Eric Fischer:
Yeah. So on the front end, itโs not always customer facing releases that youโre seeing going out every day. A lot of it may be health of the program, code health. It may be little updates as far as tool tips are updates to that form. So the everyday isnโt something thatโs always noticed. A lot of it is to make sure that the program is optimized for efficiency, as far as our users going in and interacting with it, but on the life cycle of those bigger releases, youโre not releasing and shipping the entire project at once. If we were to go down that road, youโre really at harm of a lot of bugs or a lot of issues showing up. So we kind of piece those projects out.
Eric Fischer:
As our development team is working through them, theyโre constantly publishing little pieces of it. So at the end, when we push out a cool QuickBooks Buildertrend integration piece, weโre not pushing all the code at once. A lot of the code has been established. Itโs been vetted by our QA team to make sure that thereโs not any bugs in it. So by the time that that final release is pushed out and the go live is there, itโs really been ironed out. So we have minimal impact for our end users as far as bugs, them showing up having any sort of workflow issues or things like that. Weโll work those out constantly throughout the development life cycle. On the pressure side of things, yeah. Itโs always a constant flow to make Buildertrend bigger and better, make sure that what weโve got in there is really optimized.
Eric Fischer:
Thatโs been the focus here recently is weโve got a lot of features. Weโve got a lot of functionality and a lot of width in the program. We want to make sure that we optimize those workflows and really, for the end user, itโs meeting all their needs as far as what data they need to input, but itโs also intuitive like I said earlier, making sure that the end users can comprehend it, the order of the prioritization of the information theyโre viewing is where it should be. Then at the end of the day, it really leads us down a road to at some point, become a business intelligence tool also, really glean insights from all these data points that weโve got to surface issues for our customers before they become issues. So as we keep developing, thereโs a ton of stuff that we can do. Weโve got plenty of stuff to work on in the platform, but thereโs also a ton of new technology.
Eric Fischer:
That business intelligence piece really moves the needle for myself. I think for us internally here at BT is gleaning insights for our customers before they have issues on jobs, before they even notice them, using the data that weโve got inside of the platform to surface really cool visuals for them to interact, dive in and meeting the needs and understanding the roles within that company also, everywhere from whatโs the owner of the company going to need? Theyโre going to learn a little bit more high level information, be able to dig into that. Whereas the field personnel are going to want more access into job by job relations and kind of activities. So weโve got some really cool things we can do and yeah, thereโs always pressure. But the great thing about having a big program is thereโs a ton of stuff that you can make updates to and make better, and then thereโs also a lot of new functionality that weโd like to add here in the future, too.
Tom Houghton:
Speaking of cool things, when are we going to see AR built into the Buildertrend app? Augmented reality for those who are not up on the tech lingo.
Paul Wurth:
What is augmented reality?
Tom Houghton:
Augmented reality is this new technology. Speaking of how much I love technology, right?
Paul Wurth:
Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
That you can use your iPhone or Android. So for example, how we would implement this as weโd have selections and you could present those to your customer, to your client and say, โYou need to pick your granite.โ So then they use their iPhone in the Buildertrend app, and they point it to a surface and they can see the different granite colors in basically, in three dimensions looking at their phone and it overlays it on their current surface, whatever. So youโre standing in front of a table and then you can overlay this granite or quartz or whatever pattern over that using augmented reality. Itโs taking reality and augmenting it.
Paul Wurth:
Okay. Weโll get the definition of augment on the show notes.
Tom Houghton:
On the show notes.
Paul Wurth:
So if youโre remodeling your home-
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
โฆ you can see the finished product through your phone?
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Which Kohler faucet do you want?
Paul Wurth:
Right.
Tom Houghton:
Shout out to Kohler by the way.
Paul Wurth:
So you you can take a picture of a room and then place a dinosaur in there or something, right?
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. In fact, Ikea is one of the people that have this built into their app. You can, of courseโฆ
Paul Wurth:
You were at Ikea this weekend.
Tom Houghton:
I just so happened to be at Ikea this weekend. But if I wasnโt, I could open the app from my house and see if the couch that theyโre selling there fits in my space through my phone.
Paul Wurth:
Whatโs the name of the couch? They have great names.
Tom Houghton:
Farfignougan.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. You made that one up, but they have good ones.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
No, that makes sense. Eric, augmented reality. Sounds likeโฆ
Eric Fischer:
It sounds like Tomโs been talking to Justin Rediger here.
Tom Houghton:
Oh, yeah?
Eric Fischer:
Oh yeah.
Tom Houghton:
There you go.
Eric Fischer:
So we actually have a competitive analysis position whoโs been looking into augmented reality. Thereโs some cool stuff. I think it does apply a large part to the selection side of things. Down the road, yes. Itโs not something that weโre currently working on at this point, but definitely something that weโd like to work towards. I think itโd be great to be able to envision what is the room going to look like, maybe different sizes of windows, like you were talking appliances, sinks, things of that form, and actually be able to bring it to where that customer can understand it in their own home.
Eric Fischer:
So thereโs a lot of stuff we can do there. I think another thing that comes down, not necessarily on the augmented reality side, but is taking pictures and measuring things, being able to bring back quick wins that all of our contractors going through on a daily basis and being able to facilitate things like that easier also. So some cool tech things that we can definitely do with the app for our field use, and then also some cool reporting things back here for the full site version of it also.
Tom Houghton:
Nice.
Paul Wurth:
You had mentioned something about data, Eric, just there.
Eric Fischer:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
I think thatโs a theme within our business and I think in a lot of small businesses is taking the information that you get while doing your job every day and using that, surfacing that to make better data-driven decisions for your business, right? Whatโs really interestingโฆ People donโt know this. Tom, maybe you donโt know this. This is for your information.
Tom Houghton:
Fun fact.
Paul Wurth:
Fun fact about Buildertrend; To date, we probably represent 20% of all construction in the United States. 20% is done under our platform, 800,000 users, $30 billion worth of projects have gone through our systems. So my point being is that we have a lot of data about our clients, about the industry and weโre using that to better serve our clients, but we can take that to our clients as well, their world. If they do 100 products in Buildertrend, thereโs some really key things that you can surface at the end of the year or quarter when youโre looking at your projects.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs good.
Paul Wurth:
Reporting tab just came out for that one.
Tom Houghton:
Shout out to the reporting tab.
Eric Fischer:
Reporting tab is super cool, but to Paulโs point right there, kind of what weโve got going on here internally with our data science team is machine learning algorithms and taking an idea or an ideal path towards developing a project, letโs say, and theyโll be able to show us and kind of, what does that ideal path look like? Well, same thing with our customers on their job sites. After they run these projects through and we have the data points, what does that great schedule look like for a project that we can display? What do potential issues look like as far as them not having certain things assigned or having improper connections with their predecessors in the Gantt chart?
Eric Fischer:
Things of that form that weโll be able to provide insights to, and again, show issues before they become issues for those contractors. So I think thereโs a lot of stuff to do down there, but reporting is fantastic. Itโs kind of phase one that weโve got out right now. Weโre really looking to get into some work in progress reports, cashflow, forecasting reports, things of that that really help you assess the health of your business and understand where you stand at all points in time.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs awesome. Weโve gone from AR to AI, and the machines are taking over everything now, apparently.
Paul Wurth:
Does that scare you?
Tom Houghton:
Maybe. Depends on whoโs coding them, which weโve got a pretty talented engineering department.
Paul Wurth:
Theyโre great. How many people are in the engineering department?
Eric Fischer:
Weโve got about 120 in engineering between development, product, UX team and the quality analysts also. So about 120, I believe.
Tom Houghton:
And mobile? Donโt they fall under?
Eric Fischer:
Yeah, some mobile. Some mobile will have product analysts, developers.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Got a big team.
Eric Fischer:
Big team.
Paul Wurth:
Takes a big team.
Tom Houghton:
Letโs talk about stuff thatโs coming sooner than all this AI and AR stuff. Letโs talk about one update thatโs coming out that youโre just really excited about.
Paul Wurth:
This is our sneak peek.
Tom Houghton:
Sneak peak.
Paul Wurth:
This is it.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Itโs happening.
Eric Fischer:
Yeah. I think one of the exciting ones that weโve got coming out, itโs kind of two pieces here, but is to our QuickBooks integration. So one piece of feedback weโve been hearing for a long time is the ability to pull expenses back that are just input into QuickBooks and pull them into Buildertrend. So that is one that weโve got coming out here towards sometimes start a September. So weโll have that coming out for our customers where instead of having to initiate cost inside of Buildertrend, weโll actually be able to pull it right from your QuickBooks into Buildertrend. Thatโs a great thing for new customers that maybe arenโt ready to take the leap right into bills or purchase orders inside of Buildertrend yet to really ease that onboarding where youโll have access to all of your financials right away, and thereโs no barrier of entry on that.
Eric Fischer:
Itโs going to allow your field managers, your project managers to have access to their budget against their estimate at all times, versus having to have access into your accounting system, which a lot of business owners, from talking to them, donโt want that a lot of their employees having access to that sensitive information. So thatโs a big one for us. The other one is kind of a best practice that weโre updating here. So previously, to get information sent to QuickBooks, you had to market as paid in Buildertrend and kick it across over to QuickBooks and thatโs when it would show up. Weโre actually updating that to where youโll be able to bill it from Buildertrend to QuickBooks and when that payment or that check is actually made in QuickBooks, itโll feed back and update Buildertrend. So now, your status is when items are paid, are going to be totally in sync. Reportingโs more up to date. So just setting best practices. So those two updates to the QuickBooks integration going to be fantastic and really, in my mind, take us to the next level of what weโve done on the financial side of things.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. Iโve actually had the privilege of seeing this prototype QuickBooks sync in action, and it is amazing. The team has done amazing work, how seamless this was working, even in its prototype stage.
Eric Fischer:
Itโs awesome. You run into so many instances where information is just not going to originate in Buildertrend. QuickBooks has the ability to link credit cards to their invoices area or their payments area. So information like that where itโs double entry to get back in Buildertrend, thatโs not a worry anymore. Same thing if youโre working with a big box office store, they may automatically add that information to your QuickBooks for you. Now, that information could come back and be viewed in Buildertrend without having to do the kind of the double entry by the accounting team.
Tom Houghton:
Incredible stuff. Letโs talk about how people can be a part of this process more because again, we value everyoneโs feedback. How would somebody, if they have a idea or suggestion, how do they get that to the product team?
Eric Fischer:
Yeah. So one way that weโd really like every user to take advantage of is available within the question mark up in the top right hand corner Buildertrend. Underneath that, there is a give feedback loop. Once you do that, it takes you to our user voice channel. Inside of that user voice channel, weโve got any submission that customers have made. Youโll be able to review any of that information, filter it down. Youโll also be able to comment if you want to provide extra context on any of the submissions that are there. You can also submit new submissions if youโre not seeing idea already posted by another user. Or you can go through an up-vote things, which really give us the ability to number one, update those customers as that feature, that new project is moving forward and itโs got updates to it. Weโll go ahead and youโll actually be linked to receive email updates as that project is progressing through.
Eric Fischer:
Then another cool thing that comes out of that is weโll also use those feedback groups, those groups that are kind of giving feedback on certain projects to vet solutions before we even develop them. So thatโs where our UX team comes into play. Weโll get prototypes, wire frames out to those users that have uploaded them, let them take a peek first, see if itโs meeting the needs of the problem of the issue that theyโre providing a submission for. So user voice is fantastic. The other option always is through our CS team, our customer success team. So as youโre going through trainings or calling in, feel free to share that feedback. They do a great job of working with our technical services team and making sure that feedback gets looped up to product. Then itโs vetted against all the other feedback pieces that weโve got coming into the funnel also.
Tom Houghton:
Awesome. If people want to find out more about the updates that are happening, they can check outโฆ
Eric Fischer:
Yeah. User voice is actually great for that too. So if you go into user voice, you can actually filter by status as you can see what weโre looking into as far as what weโre exploring, what weโre designing as far as the product teamโs starting to look into and break down, and then you also can see whatโs being built by our development team. So itโs kind of the roadmap of Buildertrend that can be seen there. There is some fluidity to it, but as far as whatโs being built, itโs a great idea of what youโre going to see coming out in the works. Youโll also see another option within that question mark where you can go to recent updates and within that, youโll actually see them segmented out.
Eric Fischer:
So both of them are accomplishing the same thing. The nice thing about user voice if you were to go to that path is youโll actually be able to see the other customers how popular it is and provide some context to the feedback that goes along as far as how important it is to your business and maybe your idea of how it would work for your business and how youโre seeing it implemented in Buildertrend. So two different access points to go ahead and see that information at any point.
Paul Wurth:
Whatโs nice about the recent updates-
Tom Houghton:
Whatโs that?
Paul Wurth:
โฆ is the guy who stars in the videos.
Tom Houghton:
Oh, really?
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. He does a good job.
Tom Houghton:
Youโre a big fan?
Paul Wurth:
Big fan.
Tom Houghton:
Oh, thanks.
Paul Wurth:
If any listeners want to see Hollywood Tom Houghton in action, this is your best spot. Go to your Buildertrend account, go to recent updates and click on the first video. Youโre going to see our star, our star shining bright.
Eric Fischer:
Did you really just call somebody else a star?
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs right.
Eric Fischer:
Iโm amazed.
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs right.
Tom Houghton:
It happened here first.
Paul Wurth:
A first on the podcast.
Eric Fischer:
Amazing.
Tom Houghton:
There you go. Awesome. Okay. Well, this has been a great chat. We want to wrap this up with the same way we wrap up every internal discussion is we want to get to know you a little bit. So weโve got some fun fact questions to ask-
Eric Fischer:
Oh.
Tom Houghton:
โฆ if you are prepared.
Eric Fischer:
Weโll see.
Tom Houghton:
Maybe.
Eric Fischer:
Weโll see.
Tom Houghton:
First question, you have a favorite sport that stands out amongst all other sports, correct?
Eric Fischer:
Oh, yeah.
Tom Houghton:
And that sport is?
Eric Fischer:
Iโm a baseball guy.
Tom Houghton:
Youโre a big baseball guy.
Eric Fischer:
Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
Not just a small fan, big fan.
Eric Fischer:
Big fan.
Paul Wurth:
Previous to Buildertrend, you were a coach, right?
Eric Fischer:
Yeah. So prior to starting at Buildertrend, I was a high baseball teacher and coach, also played baseball in college and still with the College World Series being based out of here in Omaha, itโs kind of one of the things I grew up on as a kid is making my trips down in June to every CWS with parents, friends, things of that form, which kind of got me started on it. Yeah. Still follow it very heavily today. A big time Cubs fan. Then also it kind of takes a back seat here comes September though once Husker football season starts. Baseball season from about April until September, and then Husker football kicks up and thatโs kind of where focus starts going here.
Paul Wurth:
You should do an episode for the kickoff season. People know that we love Husker football because- [inaudible 00:24:24]
Tom Houghton:
Itโs true. Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Comes up every time you say Nebraska. Somebody says Husker.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Letโs just stay on brand. Letโs do a whole Husker-themed show.
Tom Houghton:
Weโll do it with the Tunnel Walk and everything.
Paul Wurth:
Producer Brookeโs given us the dirty eyes.
Tom Houghton:
Sheโs shooting us down as we speak.
Paul Wurth:
Or override that one.
Tom Houghton:
Yikes.
Paul Wurth:
All right.
Tom Houghton:
Okay. Maybe weโll go rogue. All right. Second question, if you could eat one food for the rest of your life, it might be your favorite food, might be the last bit that you want to eat, what would it be?
Eric Fischer:
I think I got to go with lasagna, probably.
Tom Houghton:
Really?
Paul Wurth:
Wow.
Eric Fischer:
Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
Lasagna.
Paul Wurth:
Curve ball.
Tom Houghton:
I didnโt see that coming.
Paul Wurth:
No, me either.
Eric Fischer:
What other answers have we gotten?
Paul Wurth:
Probablyโฆ
Tom Houghton:
We never asked that question.
Paul Wurth:
And I didnโt know that question was coming.
Tom Houghton:
Actually, Scott.
Paul Wurth:
Oh, he said cheeseburgers. Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
Cheeseburgers.
Eric Fischer:
Cheeseburgers.
Paul Wurth:
Whereโd he get it from? He says heโd cook his own.
Tom Houghton:
Thatโs right. Spoiler alert. I guess now you donโt have to go listen to that other episode.
Paul Wurth:
You can still listen to the episode.
Tom Houghton:
Itโs still a good episode.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Lasagna.
Tom Houghton:
Lasagna though. Whereโs that coming from?
Eric Fischer:
I just love lasagna. I donโt know. Hey, man. Italian food, it sounds like something that wonโt get too old.
Paul Wurth:
Period. Put a period on it. I love lasagna, bro.
Eric Fischer:
There you go.
Paul Wurth:
What about you, Tom? Fish and chips.
Tom Houghton:
That is the fastest way to get a segment cut from the podcast is that accent.
Paul Wurth:
Tom grew up in England for all those who didnโt know. There you go. What is it?
Tom Houghton:
I donโt want to steal from his. This is his podcast.
Paul Wurth:
Okay. Sure.
Tom Houghton:
Not my podcast.
Paul Wurth:
Weโll teaseโฆ Tomโs going to give an answer one of these episodes.
Tom Houghton:
Exactly. Not this one though. What has been the most surprising thing or experience that has happened to you this last year?
Paul Wurth:
Hard hitting questions here from Tom.
Tom Houghton:
Hard-hitting journalism.
Eric Fischer:
Honestly, Iโd probably say taking over in managing Pro Services. When that came up, it was kind of out of the blue. We were changing as a company at that point where we were deciding to really kind of elevate what weโre doing with Pro Services and get somebody to oversee more of the day-to-day with that. So caught me off guard when that opportunity came up, but it was definitely something that was fun. With that, I got to go out and do a lot of our onsite consulting, go and visit about 15 of our customers, fly around the country with another one of our onsite reps, Daniel Martinez, and I had a great time doing that.
Eric Fischer:
I loved getting some face time with our customers, and honestly, it set me up at a great path for moving up into the director of product role, getting to go on those visits, really understand the pain points that go into just trying to facilitate and get a system for your business and kind of take what youโve been doing and change it and put it into a software at this point. So that was a heck of a lot of fun. I enjoyed it and it really, again, set me up for what Iโm doing now within our product team.
Tom Houghton:
Awesome. Great responses. Knocked it out of the park.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Baseball color.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Just in case your wife listens to this, I probably would have said something with the family though. You know what I mean? Cover your bases there.
Tom Houghton:
Well, now itโsโฆ Cover your bases.
Paul Wurth:
Letโs go.
Tom Houghton:
Yes. All right. Well, weโre out of time. Itโs the ninth inning, bottom of the night.
Paul Wurth:
One too far.
Tom Houghton:
I tried.
Paul Wurth:
Should have just ended it.
Tom Houghton:
I tried. Anyway. Thanks, Eric, for joining us on the podcast today.
Eric Fischer:
Appreciate it.
Tom Houghton:
We really enjoyed getting to know you a little bit, hearing more about our product, our awesome product.
Paul Wurth:
Yeah.
Tom Houghton:
And thank you.
Paul Wurth:
So if youโre listening, check out recent updates. Check out user voice. You want feedback, right?
Eric Fischer:
We want all the feedback that we can get.
Paul Wurth:
Some people think that we donโt. We do.
Eric Fischer:
Feedbackโs what made Buildertrend what it is right now. Thatโs how itโs gotten to this point. So thatโs going to be our lifeline moving forward and weโll appreciate any and all.
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Check out the user voice, and then also weโll plug our podcast, Feedback Line, starting up here shortly.
Paul Wurth:
Oh, weโre taking voicemails or something, huh?
Tom Houghton:
Yeah.
Paul Wurth:
Thatโs going to be fun.
Tom Houghton:
So that way, people can-
Paul Wurth:
I love it.
Tom Houghton:
โฆ ask more questions about Buildertrend, about one of our guests.
Paul Wurth:
What do you want to hear from the podcast?
Tom Houghton:
Yeah. Who do you want us to bring on next?
Eric Fischer:
Whereโd you find this Paul Wurth guy?
Paul Wurth:
Yeah. What qualifies me to be on here whatsoever? Thatโs probably going to be the first week. Iโm fine with it.
Tom Houghton:
All right. Stay tuned for that. Want to share a suggestion for a future guest, have a question about Buildertrend that youโd like us to discuss, or a topic that youโd want us to cover on the podcast? Let us know by calling and leaving us a message at (402) 596-6437. Thatโs (402) 596-6437. And who knows? Youโll maybe hear yourself on the podcast. Love what you heard? Donโt forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast, so you can hear from more guests that will benefit your business. Also, please check out our show notes page for more information on what we discussed on this episode. You can find it at buildertrend.com/podcast. Thanks for listening, and weโll see you next time on โThe Building Code.โ
Eric Fischer | Buildertrend
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