Technology That Actually Moves the Needle — with David Haley, DPR Construction

Twenty years ago, a CD burner could triple your bid coverage. Today, there are hundreds of tools fighting for your pre-con team's attention — so how do you know which ones actually move the needle?

In this episode, Troy Simon and Trey Darnell sit down with David Haley, Preconstruction Manager at DPR Construction, who's spent 35 years in the industry — from counting light fixtures on paper drawings with his grandfather to leading pre-con on billion-dollar healthcare projects. David shares how one of the industry's most tech-forward GCs evaluates, tests, and rolls out new technology without burning trust with its teams.

In this episode:

• How David defines "moving the needle" — and why it's harder than ever with so many tools in the marketplace
• Why DPR still teaches interns takeoff the old-school way before handing them AI (hint: you can't mentor someone who can't show their work)
• The bid leveling gap: where AI compares words but misses what's missing
• Why the trade partner who's double everyone else's price might be the one you need to call first
• How live option engineering — accepting and rejecting alternates in the room — turned 75 scope options into a $10M contract increase built on trust, not cuts
• Predictability as the next frontier: turning mountains of historical cost data into numbers owners can bank on two years before market input exists
• How DPR rolled out Ediphi to 100+ pre-con professionals — and why letting people poke holes drove near-total adoption
• Prefabrication, unit costing, and getting granular earlier: what David hopes technology solves in the next five years

Plus, the Fast Five: the one part of pre-con David says should never be automated, and what pre-con teams must figure out to win the next five years.

The tool doesn't build trust — the person using it does. But the right tool gets you in the room faster.

The Proper Precon Podcast is powered by Ediphi. Learn more at ediphi.com.

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What separates software that digitizes old habits from software that actually moves preconstruction forward? Ediphi Director of Product Eric Walker joins Troy Simon and Trey Darnell to talk about the discipline of product — why good PMs dig beneath the feature request, how AI should support estimator judgment instead of replacing it, and why the companies that house the data will win the next era of construction tech.

Episode 9 defines what “great” looks like in Target Value Design (TVD) with Preston Hite (Hoar Construction). We break down the real (non-textbook) TVD workflow: starting with an owner’s target, building trust early, designing to cost, and using real-time estimating to guide decisions before drawings are complete. We cover owner + architect alignment, the precon team’s upstream role, historical cost data and scenario modeling, where TVD fails, and how technology enables faster, more credible cost feedback and shorter cycles to GMP.

Episode 8 goes upstream to construction education with UT lecturer Dan Sain. We unpack why the estimator shortage and “freecon” problems start in the talent pipeline, how students perceive estimating vs. the broader preconstruction umbrella, and what it takes to make precon a career people choose. Topics include curriculum vs. industry needs, ABC competition lessons, tech exposure in the classroom, and concrete ways GCs and partners can strengthen the bridge between academia and the field.

Episode 7 breaks down hard bid vs. negotiated work beyond the usual hot takes. With Ben (Fite Building), we define what “hard bid” and “negotiated” really look like in practice, where each model works, and the hidden assumptions that cause breakdowns (document quality, risk transfer, bid fatigue, owner sophistication). We discuss how incentives shape behavior, how trade partners experience each process, and why the real differentiator is a strong precon process + cost narrative that clarifies scope, assumptions, and deltas—regardless of procurement method.

Every budget, every early estimate, every "can you just take a quick look at this?" — it all costs someone something. But in most cases, that cost is invisible. Welcome to FreeCon.

In this episode, Troy and Trey sit down with Mike Navarro, CTO and Co-Founder of Ediphi, a 20-year construction veteran who went from lead estimator on complex high-rise projects to building the software he always wished he had. Together, they dig into one of the most quietly frustrating dynamics in the industry — pre-construction work that is deeply valuable, rarely compensated, and almost never talked about openly.

In this episode:

• What "FreeCon" actually is — and why it's not always a bad thing
• Why the pre-construction timeline stretches to 30 months when it shouldn't
• The PETA Factor: how endless pricing rounds inflate sub costs and erode trade partner relationships
• How scope clarity drives cost down — and scope mystery drives it up
• Why the estimator's voice needs to be in the room before the design is finished
• The shift from "flat line estimates" to true pricing models where everything is interdependent
• Strategic FreeCon vs. subsidizing an owner's decision-making — where's the line?
• Why Mike went from "pry Excel from my cold dead hands" to building cloud-first pre-con technology

Fast Five closes out the episode with rapid-fire takes on tools vs. behavior, owner mindset shifts, and finishing the sentence: "The estimate stops being just a number when..."

If you've ever priced the same project five times under a verbal commitment and a prayer — this one is for you.

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In this episode we recap the Super Bowl of events for preconstruction, Advancing Precon 2026.

What happens when the developer is also the GC? Mill Creek Residential's Director of Pre-Con, Justin Valentim joins Troy and Trey to break down what pre-con looks like when you own the estimate, the trade partner relationships, and the investor conversation — all at once. Episode 4 of Proper Precon.

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Every project has a number. Not every project has a story behind it. In Episode 3, Troy Simon and Trey Darnell dig into the cost narrative — what it actually is, why most GCs aren't delivering it, and what changes when you get it right.

They cover the three layers of a real cost narrative: the number, the context behind it, and the decision points that let an owner actually do something with it. Trey breaks down why owners always remember the first number you give them — and what happens when that number isn't backed by anything. Troy draws the parallel to technology sales: you're not presenting a conclusion, you're building a case. And if the owner can't walk out of the room and explain your number to someone else, you've already lost.

They also get into what it looks like in Ediphi — how tracking estimates across milestones, building cost per unit and cost per use group, and running variance reports between estimates gives pre-con teams the foundation to tell a cost story that holds up across the entire pre-con lifecycle.

If you've ever handed an owner a budget and watched them push back on a number you know is right — this one's for you.

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The construction industry has been talking about a labor shortage for 30 years, but the office side of the problem doesn't get nearly enough attention. In Episode 2 of Proper Precon, Troy Simon and Trey Darnell dig into the estimator shortage hitting pre-construction teams right now: why we're just trading talent instead of growing it, what happens when your senior estimators retire and take their knowledge with them, and what GCs can actually do about it.

They also break down the latest construction tech acquisitions (Nemechek/HCSS, Trimble/Document Crunch, Autodesk/Rumbix), what volatile material costs mean for pricing risk, and a deep dive into a major Cal Poly student housing project to show what a real pre-con team looks like at scale.

Plus: how construction management programs are falling short, what a better university curriculum could look like, and a live look inside Ediphi to show how the right tool can carry context — not just math — so knowledge doesn't walk out the door when your best estimator retires.

Proper Precon is powered by Ediphi — the only true cloud-native pre-construction platform built by estimators, for estimators. Learn more at ediphi.com.