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Pete Swanson (Digital Technology Lead at Mott MacDonald) lays out a simple truth most project teams learn too late: if you don’t talk to users early, you’ll pay for it later.
In this NexusCon 2025 presentation, he walks through how smart building projects drift off course when teams fixate on features and interfaces instead of the actual jobs people are trying to do. He also breaks down why “the user” is rarely one person—operations, facilities, IT, occupants, and visitors all show up with different expectations and tolerance for complexity.
Behind the paywall, you’ll get a practical, repeatable process for identifying user types (“the many who’s”), planning engagement without blowing up the program, and building feedback into the project at the right milestones. Pete also shares a sobering AV industry lesson: systems often get “programmed four times” because users only get invited in at handover—and then everyone scrambles through expensive rework.
If you’re designing BAS graphics, dashboards, chatbots, AV controls, or anything that people have to actually use, this presentation gives you a way to reduce late-stage surprises and make acceptance testing look like validation—not a first encounter.
Watch the full recording inside Nexus Pro →
Pete Swanson (Digital Technology Lead at Mott MacDonald) lays out a simple truth most project teams learn too late: if you don’t talk to users early, you’ll pay for it later.
In this NexusCon 2025 presentation, he walks through how smart building projects drift off course when teams fixate on features and interfaces instead of the actual jobs people are trying to do. He also breaks down why “the user” is rarely one person—operations, facilities, IT, occupants, and visitors all show up with different expectations and tolerance for complexity.
Behind the paywall, you’ll get a practical, repeatable process for identifying user types (“the many who’s”), planning engagement without blowing up the program, and building feedback into the project at the right milestones. Pete also shares a sobering AV industry lesson: systems often get “programmed four times” because users only get invited in at handover—and then everyone scrambles through expensive rework.
If you’re designing BAS graphics, dashboards, chatbots, AV controls, or anything that people have to actually use, this presentation gives you a way to reduce late-stage surprises and make acceptance testing look like validation—not a first encounter.
Watch the full recording inside Nexus Pro →
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This is a great piece!
I agree.