This episode reveals the costly communication breakdowns during LandPricer AI development where managing two separate teams (Philippine-based script engineers and Pakistani-based front/back-end developers through a German project manager) resulted in thousands of dollars wasted and months of delays. The core issue emerged from lengthy Loom videos containing scattered instructions, mid-recording pivots, and assumptions about understanding that caused tasks to get lost, incorrectly implemented, or never started despite initial assignments.
Key Takeaways:
- Long Loom Videos Create Translation Gaps Recording 20 to 25 minute instruction videos with mid-stream changes and backtracking makes it easy for remote teams to miss critical details, find assignments weeks later, or implement incorrect interpretations that require expensive rebuilds.
- Visionary Roles Require Extra Communication Structure When you excel at identifying the what and why but need implementers for the how, your scattered brainstorming style must be translated into clear, sequential instructions or teams will struggle to execute your vision correctly.
- Adapt Communication Formats to Team Workflows If employees consistently don’t follow your requested update format despite reminders, have the humility to redesign the process rather than forcing compliance, sometimes the issue is your system not their discipline.
Listen to the full episode for insights on managing complex software builds without technical expertise, structuring remote team communication for clarity, and learning expensive lessons about project management through real-world mistakes.
(Podcast transcript below)
Hi, this is Chris Duff here, again, managing partner over at Serius Land Capital, ready for our next podcast. In the circuit, this is number two here, already figuring out the various AI editing tools and how to post and so forth. So all this will become.
smoother over time, but yeah, I’ve been finding a little bit more pep in the step and kind of excited thinking about, right, if this is truly an indefinite journey to produce daily content, it just has the wheels turning in my head a little bit more on, okay, what value add can I really?
bring today. it brings this extra level of focus. Because even though this is going to be a volume play here, still bringing high quality value add content is going to be a necessity for any chance of success here. And this all goes back to the structure piece that I mentioned in the first episode of trying to box myself in.
a bit more to reliably take myself and our business to the next level and also be able to bring out as much contribution potential as I have internally to be able to give to you as the audience here. So the topic I was thinking a lot more about today and
has caused a lot of issues over the past few months and probably cost me a lot of money. not probably, I know it’s cost me a lot of money and time by not managing it as well as I could have is just engaging in proper project management. And this applies regardless of…
you know, what type of business you’re building. know a lot of you are kind of running a standard land flipping business with, know, an acquisition, Dispo side as is well documented. We’re, you know, rapidly building out and attempting to release this new land price or AI software. So I’ve been having to project manage.
two different teams working on it. One, a script engineering team, primarily comprised of Philippine VAs, though it’s through an agency based here in the US, and then a front-end, back-end engineering team that has a US-based German project manager managing a Pakistani
agency of coders and then it’s me serving as the in-between for these teams with a little bit of middle management thrown in. So I had never been in a position like that with such a larger influx of individuals to
directly manage and outside of something that I have more day-to-day expertise in. Yes, I consider myself a, you know, expert when it comes to the operational aspect of pricing land, but building that into an actual software, you know, requires skill sets that are far outside my typical purview here.
So throughout this process, there were a lot of hiccups and ultimately what it came down to is that I could have communicated much better or had additional formats of requests within the back and forth communication that I needed from the team. I think all of us utilize some type of
Um, screen recording software, know, loom being the primary, uh, software that most folks are using, you know, whether to, um, you know, document their own processes, train up new hires or, you know, internal, uh, in, in, internal employees with new processes anyway. Um, so I’m, I’m just constantly using loom, right? You even just for, you know, two minutes here and there, boom, make a task out of it. It’s just so simple.
But when I was using this for the software project management, know, some of this could just get very complex quickly when you have hundreds of rows, even into the thousands of rows of various logic flow script elements within an Excel sheet. And sometimes having to backtrack.
on comments that I had already made. I think that’s probably pretty typical for people when, okay, you might be running through a task and like, wait, hold on. I just answered that question myself or, you know, when I’m actually trying to explain this, it doesn’t make as much sense or I just had a new idea that’s going to work even better. So, okay, just forget the last five minutes that I just mentioned and do it this way instead. So, you know, quickly that can become pretty confusing for
somebody who might not have as much the day to day expertise and what you’re trying to convey, particularly. I think that’s most relevant for those of us who fulfill more, visionary type roles within our business. You know, I’m an okay implementer, but, definitely more visionary and being able to figure out, okay, what’s the,
the, what and the why, to find the who’s and then, you know, being able to implement that with the right type of talent. mean, that’s the only way to scale or get a lot more done. Right. So, yeah, I can kind of spout off a whole bunch, but I might not fully grasp the level of detail and, reiteration needed to, convey over.
Um, the right steps the first time for a team that’s been hired to implement. so, you know, sometimes I might send over, you know, 20, 25 minute loom video. Okay. Follow this. And I might provide a short summary within an email Slack, whatever, uh, even if it’s within, you know, in Asana or other project management tool and, you know, just expect people to kind of figure it out.
And then, you know, I’m just distracted with other tasks and assuming a lot of what I requested was done. And then two weeks later, I’m checking in and, uh, you know, following up on some of these items and it’s like, Oh, hold on. Um, I don’t recall you asking for this and I’m speaking from the perspective of somebody I’m managing. And then, you know, I have to go back and say, Oh, well, you know, I.
had detailed this two weeks ago in a separate loom video and I have to go find it again. So it’s very easy for this to become kind of a mishmash of…
elements that are lost in translation when, you know, trying to actively manage a company or project manage something more specific within a company itself. And so that is an issue writ large that I’m continuing to get a bit better at. It’s definitely not my strong suit.
you know, managing this amount of people at any given time, especially I’ve never engaged in a deeper software level build out like this, where I was the kind of primary vision behind the product, especially something that, you know, doesn’t exist or there’s nothing that there’s a real template to build off within the industry just yet. So a lot of it just has to be done.
without any kind of formal guidelines there. So that has cost a lot of time, probably thousands of dollars that.
you know, went towards less imperative properties for this particular software, the land price or that we’re trying to build out. and you know, why I had the expectation, Hey, we’re going to be able to release by end of last year. Obviously it’s already January and, not set to release yet. You know, we probably have another week and a half to get the MVP set and then some initial beta testers into it.
We’re still gunning for that, but I am certainly kicking myself for both not being fast enough on my end with figuring out, how can I speed along the core features to get these implemented by the engineering team and get it tested ASAP? And also just getting elements lost in translation where now we’re having to backtrack and rebuild out functions that I thought.
were already assigned to the right people. So TBD on further insights there. This is a continued area that I’m trying to get better at. I’m sure many of you have similar stories or going through something yourself. One other quick hit as we wrap this episode up is that communication is so critical day to day here.
and, setting up these, you know, proper processes. but if you’re finding that your employees or your assistants are kind of pushing back, or you have to remind them daily or even more than daily to follow, then maybe re-examine, if there’s a different, manner in getting the same info conveyed over to you.
Or that might just be a little bit easier for your employees to follow. So and that can kind of create some negative sentiment even when you’re trying to avoid micromanaging, but if you’re trying to like kind of force feed a A certain request for how information is conveyed
Um, to you for various updates and it’s just not being followed. Then, you know, you have to have the humility to go back and say, okay, this can this be done in a different way? That’s not going to be getting as much pushback, not necessarily deliberately, but you know, pushback just in that it’s not fitting into the workflow that you’ve already built up within your company.
Of course if it’s imperative, okay, just figure out a way to make it work. Otherwise, you know, try to think of it a little bit differently and You know be able to smooth out some processes and probably keep everybody a little bit more content in the day-to-day hectic work environment So that’s just another quick hit there looking forward to The next episode. Hope you all enjoyed this one
you know, subscribe. We’re brand new here. you know, subscription sharing with anybody who you think might get some benefit, leaving us a quick five star review if you think we deserve it. It’s only going to help us grow. Of course, if you’re looking for any land funding, check out serious land capital. If you want to sign up for our release for the land pricer software, land pricer dot AI. If you’re looking for
Zero cost diligence on Thursdays. I host the land daily diligence Session on Facebook or if you’re looking for any other type of land funders check out landfunding.partners Hope you all enjoy this looking forward to the next one. Take care
