About Design First Builders

Design First Builders (DFB) is a full-service residential design-build firm serving the Chicagoland area. They specialize in premium custom home building and renovations. With a growing client base and complex quoting needs, DFB required a reliable and scalable internal quoting platform to support their sales staff during consultations and streamline the entire project proposal process.

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The Challenge

Design First Builders team was using an outdated quote builder ("SpecBook") plagued by:

  • Severe performance issues that slowed down or even took down the platform during updates
  • A clunky review UI requiring excessive horizontal scrolling
  • Limited admin control, making it hard to update specifications, cost formulas, or templates efficiently
  • A non-intuitive quoting flow, frustrating the sales staff and leading to inconsistent client experiences

The lack of standardization and system trust forced staff into manual workarounds, directly impacting productivity and quote quality.

Our Strategy

Our team approached this project systematically, breaking it down into distinct phases:

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Phase 1

Discovery & Planning

  • Conducted stakeholder interviews with sales, admin, and operations teams
  • Audited the existing SpecBook platform
  • Identified major pain points: data redundancy, slow quoting, lack of reporting, confusing navigation
  • Defined success metrics: faster quoting, increased system adoption, improved standardization
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Phase 2

Design

  • Designed an admin-friendly interface to manage project templates, trades, costs, and questions
  • Refined the quote review UI to eliminate horizontal scroll and improve navigation
  • Implemented a guided, modular UI for project creation and quoting
  • Used Figma prototypes to conduct user walkthroughs and iterate quickly
  • Integrated feedback loops from DFB users during the prototyping phase
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Phase 3

Development

  • Developed new quote builder modules using Laravel Blade for templating and MySQL for data management and integrity.

  • Designed a robust admin dashboard to manage:

    • Costs, cost codes, and modifiers
    • Project templates and trade categories
    • Custom questions and logic-based pricing (e.g., #xcost)

  • Improved system performance by creating optimized database queries and leveraging Laravel’s caching mechanisms to reduce load times and improve response speed

  • Created a well-designed, dynamic spec book to accompany quotations.

  • Enabled CSV export functionality for generating detailed reports.

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Phase 4

Testing and Security

  • Performed unit testing across key features using Laravel's testing suite
  • Integrated Sentry for real-time error tracking and alerting
  • The client team played a critical role in testing complex quoting logic and identifying edge cases
  • Collaboratively resolved logic bugs and UI concerns based on joint testing sessions and live feedback
  • Ensured stability of quote generation, cost modifiers, and scope/question logic through iterative testing and validation
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Phase 5

Launch & Maintenance

  • Successfully released the MVP with all mission-critical quoting functionality
  • Established a feedback loop with the sales team to continuously gather input from real-world usage
  • Quickly resolved issues and edge cases reported post-launch by the sales team
  • Identified and documented future enhancements, adding Version 2 items to the product backlog for upcoming releases
check-mark
Phase 1

Discovery & Planning

  • Conducted stakeholder interviews with sales, admin, and operations teams
  • Audited the existing SpecBook platform
  • Identified major pain points: data redundancy, slow quoting, lack of reporting, confusing navigation
  • Defined success metrics: faster quoting, increased system adoption, improved standardization

The Solution

The rebuilt SpecBook Quote Builder is now a robust, admin-configurable platform that empowers DFB’s sales team to:

  • Generate precise, itemized quotes quickly
  • Dynamically manage pricing rules, scopes, and cost breakdowns
  • Export reports in CSV and PDF formats
  • View specifications clearly without UI clutter
  • Trust that backend updates won’t crash the platform mid-quote
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    The Results

    The new SpecBook Quote Builder transformed DFB’s sales operations by significantly accelerating the quoting process and removing the frustration of downtime and inconsistent workflows. With a streamlined, intuitive interface, the sales team can now generate precise, itemized quotes in a fraction of the time, leading to higher staff satisfaction and improved client experiences.

    Standardized processes and dynamic pricing controls have not only reduced costly errors but also positioned the platform for future commercial expansion and white-labeling opportunities.

    40%
    Faster quote generation
    0%
    Downtime during updates post-launch