Estimating Principles
Y1W2 The dangerous estimator
An estimator is the most dangerous after a few years of work experience. At least I was. The attitude comes up like: I am getting the hang of this. I can do it. I will show them I am not stupid! And then (s)he proceeds energetically with typing away and making a beautiful estimate.
I have made some painful mistakes in this period. I remember that on a tender I thought installing a one point anchoring system on a rock loading barge should be the thing to do because it was like that on tenders before. Well, after we won the job it appeared that specific circumstances determined a 4 point anchoring system was required. That was a 500k Euro mistake. (Or as another much more senior estimator tried to cheer me up: this mistake might have won us the job!). The thing is, as an estimator you are a generalist, who knows some of most aspects of most types of jobs. However, you will never know as much as the individual specialists!
So you have to talk to the people who really know, even when things seem obvious for you. And for the ones who supervise a ‘potential dangerous estimator’, don’t just check the beautiful spreadsheet — check who they talked to and what they talked about.
This is applicable for all estimators though. Quality of the estimate improves by every person you talk to. Another post I will talk about contradicting information you are bound to get if you ask more specialists the same question…
Uncertainties
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How to get Information
Y1W3 Make people happy (to help you)
Sending someone an email or chat out of the blue rarely brings you very far. If the recipient has the time, you’ll probably receive a polite correct but not very inspired answer
Following up with real conversation, in person or by phone/Teams is already better. You will probably get what you want.
But what you want is that people are happy to help you. Then they will be happy to think along with you and the quality of their response inproves dramatically. The number one way to accomplish this is to tell them more than they strictly need to know.
Tell them about the tender. Show your enthusiasm! Explain where their contribution fits in and why it could make a real difference.
This can backfire though. I once phoned a supplier of SS bolts for a quote. For me a small cost element, for him a few months turnover. So my usual motivational spiel drove him to overdrive. He kept peppering me with options which were a few hundred Euro cheaper and happily explained the pros and cons in great detail. I didn’t really have the time, but didn’t have the heart to dampen his enthusiasm. The unexpected side effect was that became a bit of an expert in SS bolts as well 😊
This way to approach people helps getting high quality answers. But for me it is as important that in this way I can contribute in people feeling seen and appreciated. Satisfaction of one of the major needs of any human being.