March 5, 2024

5 lessons from 10 years of coaching AEC teams

The shortlist is out, and your team is in. Maybe you were expecting it, or maybe it's a pleasant surprise. Either way, the clock is ticking. Most of your team members are on jobsites at current projects. Some have worked together before, while others have not. Hopefully, one or two are familiar faces to the client. Now it's time to rally the troops.

As an interview coach, I see the good, the bad, and the painful. And while interviews have changed, they aren't going away anytime soon. Here are five lessons I've learned over 10 years of coaching teams.

1. Interviews come in all shapes and sizes. Many interviews for public agencies are still formal, in-person, stick to the agenda, points-based affairs. Private owners have more flexibility — they might not even call it an interview, just “getting together to talk about the project.” But make no mistake — it's an interview.

Virtual interviews add another layer of complexity, but they do have advantages. One team knew it was getting questions 45 minutes before a virtual interview began. It organized a group of subject matter experts from across the company in a separate breakout room to analyze the topics and advise the team members as soon as the questions came in.

Your team's prep should reflect the interview size, format, and style. A virtual interview means virtual practice sessions and including the IT team to avoid technical difficulties. A small group conversational interview means prep should focus on managing interaction, asking smart questions, and reflecting responses.

2. Start with the client. Teams often begin the interview prep process by focusing on their strengths. Instead, start by identifying and agreeing on the client's concerns about the project. Yes, clients always care about the budget and schedule, but go deeper. Was a past project over budget and why? What are the consequences if the school can't open on time? Ideally this should be done before the proposal is written and then revised based on the interview guidelines.

Once you have the concerns prioritized, connect your team's strengths to how it addresses the challenges. When coaching, I put the concerns front and center in every session — they are the “North Star.” Every bit of content we develop must address a concern or it doesn't make the cut. Our goal is that the panel spends the interview hearing not about the team, but about how the team can help the panel solve the challenges its cares about most.

3. Interviews are about people and processes. The people on your team are competing against the professionals in the same role on other teams. You're all qualified, so what will you bring to the table that is unique? Can your project manager share a powerful story about communicating with the neighbors around a project? Which superintendent does the school principal trust to keep her students safe? The panel is choosing whom it wants to work with. It's not on the scoresheet, but panels must be able to connect with key team members.

When teams all do the same thing, it's how you do it that matters. What process will your team use to manage the budget? What is your plan to fulfill WMBE requirements? For design-build projects, what key processes will the architect and contractor execute together? When you clearly explain your processes, the panel will understand how you think and make decisions — and it will want to work with you.

4. Content versus delivery. Content is what you say. Delivery is how you say it. The latter is as important as the former. And what do teams preparing for interviews spend most of their time on? Content. But no matter how good that content is, if the information is delivered in a scripted style by someone who speaks quietly, doesn't make eye connection, is fidgeting nervously, or has a host of other delivery skills challenges, it will not resonate.

As the 1,000-plus AEC professionals whom we have subjected to video recording, playback, and feedback can attest, delivery skills can be improved quickly. You don't need to (nor should you) be a professional presenter, but you do need to be “seemingly spontaneous” and the most powerful version of your authentic self. Delivery skills enable you to convey your confidence, expertise, and enthusiasm to work together.

5. The Q&A is still what matters most — and what teams prepare for the least. Teams often run out of time and don't prep for the question-and-answer portion of the interview — the most important part.

The goal should not be to guess what questions the panel will ask and memorize canned answers for them. The goal should be to be fully prepared on the key topics and how to connect them to the panel's concerns. Choose a “fielder” (usually the PM), and remember the rule of “tell them how” still applies. If every team answers with “yes, we can” (and most do), the team that tells them how will “win” the question.

Your team can do everything right and still lose. But a loss is only truly a loss if you don't learn from it. Interview coaching is not just about one pursuit. It's about improving the process AEC teams use to get ready for interviews so they can do it efficiently and make the most of the time they have. Every time your team interviews, it should raise the bar, win or lose. Apply the lessons learned to the prep process so the next pursuit builds on the last one and your team gets better and better.

You can't win them all, but with a strategic approach to the preparation process, your troops will march from the shortlist to the winner's circle more often.

Scott Johnston leads the Johnston Framework programs that enable technical and marketing professionals to present powerfully, communicate effectively, and interview successfully. As president of Johnston Framework, he has helped AEC firms at every stage of the project pursuit process win work — from early proposal creation to the final project interview.