Your Best People Can't Scale. Their Knowledge Can.

What if the biggest threat to your firm isn't falling behind on technology, but being too busy to notice it's happening?

Summary

In my conversation with Joachim Viktil (TRXL 221), we dug into something that's been bothering me for a while: the trap that so many architecture and engineering firms fall into where being busy gets confused with being productive. Joachim runs Reope, a small team of "architects who code" based in Oslo, Norway, and his perspective on leadership, sustainable growth, and the real role of AI in our industry was refreshingly grounded.

What started as a conversation about software development for AEC firms quickly evolved into something much broader. It's a candid look at why firms burn out their best people, why hiring data scientists from banking doesn't solve your technology problems, and why the most valuable thing you can do right now might be to slow down and ask better questions before chasing the next shiny AI tool. Joachim's journey from structural engineering at Ramboll to running a small, values-driven software company gave him a vantage point that most AEC leaders don't have: he's lived on both sides of the expertise-scaling problem.

We also explored an idea that I think deserves a lot more attention: the generation-to-precision gap. AI can generate volumes of output quickly, but the real work in our industry is in the precision phase. I'm talking about the coordination, the detailing, and the making-it-buildable part that no prompt can shortcut.

What’s Inside

• Codify Before You Lose It. Why the expertise walking out the door when your best people leave may be more valuable than the work they were doing, and what it actually takes to preserve it.
• Hire Domain, Teach Code. Why Joachim's approach to building Reope's team runs counter to how most AEC firms recruit for technology roles, and why the results speak for themselves.
• The Generation-to-Precision Gap. Why the most honest answer to "is AI making us more efficient?" may not be what you want to hear, and where that leaves the real work.
• Question the "Do AI" Mandate. Why the right response when your firm says "we need to do something in AI" probably isn't what most leaders think it is.
• Growth Means Impact, Not Headcount. Why Joachim's model for scaling a software team challenges one of AEC's most deeply held assumptions about how growth is supposed to work.
• Slow Down to Speed Up. Why the urgency driving most AEC technology decisions may be manufactured, and what Joachim's Scandinavian lens reveals about how we've been measuring productivity wrong.