When Jon Powell launched JD Powell Construction, it wasn’t because he had a five-year business plan. It was because he had clients waiting and no time to waste.
What started as a summer side hustle while teaching construction at a community college has since grown into a $7 million-a-year design-build firm in Wisconsin. Today, Jon leads a 22-person team with a fully in-house approach: they pour their own foundations, frame their own walls, install their own trim, and design everything from the floor plan to the cabinet layout.
They check all the boxes: Efficient. High touch. Incredibly busy. But when it came to job site communication, they were stuck in the same disjointed systems most builders use, and didn’t realize how much better it could be.
“It used to be, ‘Where’s the fireplace spec?’ or ‘What vanity did we order again?’” Jon says. “I’d get calls all day from guys in the field asking for stuff they either forgot or never had in the first place.”
At some point, he realized the real challenge wasn’t labor or materials - it was keeping everyone aligned.
The Old Way: Paper Packets and Missed Details
Before Digs, every project started with a binder: physical specs, subcontractor lists, printed cabinet drawings. Job site teams would grab their packets from the office on Mondays—assuming they remembered.
“I can’t count how many times we lost time because someone didn’t pick up the print set,” Jon says. “Or they were looking at the wrong cabinet drawing, and now we’ve got to reframe something.”
And with ultra-custom builds like a $390,000 deck overlooking the Mississippi River or a kitchen with a triple sliding glass pocket door, there was no room for vague instructions or missing specs.
The Turning Point: One Platform, Real-Time Visibility
Jon discovered Digs while listening to The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe. He wasn’t actively looking for software, but the concept hit home immediately:
“I wanted a single place where I could put everything, from shower head locations to appliance specs, and just have it accessible to everyone, all the time.”
Today, every job at JD Powell lives on Digs.
- Bathroom remodel? ✅
- Parade home with 8-foot glass doors? ✅
- Full custom build? ✅
From estimating and design to final walkthrough, Digs acts as a living project hub where Jon, his team, his subcontractors, and his clients all stay on the same page.
From Meetings to Momentum
One of Jon’s favorite use cases? Real-time documentation during pre-construction meetings.
“While I’m sitting with the homeowners and subs, my estimator is putting the hose bib location, the shower valve, even the grout color into Digs as we talk,” he says. “No more rewriting notes later. It’s already there and everyone can see it.”
The result? Projects run faster. Mistakes get caught before they cost money. And accountability goes up across the board.
“We had a homeowner say, ‘That’s not the tile I picked.’ But it was. I pulled it up in Digs, showed the meeting notes, and it was all documented. That could’ve been a big mess, but we were covered.”
Jon runs a vertically integrated company. Design, concrete, framing, trim, and more are all handled in-house. Digs supports this model by creating visibility and efficiency across teams and trades, no matter the complexity.
“Most of our projects are ultra-custom. We like weird stuff,” Jon says with a grin. “That means more details, more collaboration, and more chances to miss something unless you have a tool like Digs.”
Fewer Mistakes. Fewer Calls. Faster Schedules.
Since rolling out Digs, JD Powell Construction has:
- Fewer Disruptions: “We’re saving at least 20 calls a week, each one a 5-10 minute distraction we no longer have.”
- Minimized Rework: “We haven’t had a major rework issue since using Digs,” Jon says. “Before, there was always at least one $1,000 mistake per job. Now? That just doesn’t happen anymore. I honestly can’t remember the last time we sawed something out due to a missed detail.”
- Faster Schedules: “Our electrician roughed in a full $800K house in 3 days because every light, fan, and rare lighting fixture was spec’d and accessible ahead of time.”
- More Efficient Collaboration: “Digs makes us feel like one team. Everyone sees what I see; from the plumber to the cabinet maker to the homeowner.”
Transparency as a Sales Tool
Jon doesn’t just use Digs to run his jobs. He uses it to win them.
“We bring it into every sales meeting,” he says. “It’s one of the things that makes us different. We tell the client: everything will be here. Specs, changes, drawings, communication. This isn’t a stack of papers. It’s your home.”
For most clients today, visibility and communication aren’t nice-to-haves, they’re assumed.
“Clients don’t always say, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’” he laughs. “But it’s because they expect that kind of transparent experience. Which tells me Digs is working, they’re confident, they feel like they’re in the loop.”
One Team, One Platform
From subcontractors to superintendents to homeowners, everyone touches Digs in Jon’s workflow.
Some trade partners log in daily. Others just need access to appliance specs or updated prints. But either way, the message is the same:
“This is how we’re running the job. Everything you need is here.”
That clarity, combined with Digs’ ability to grow with him, is helping Jon scale smarter, protect margins, and stay focused on what he loves most: building incredible homes with a high-performance team.
“We’re not trying to be the biggest. We just want to be the best at what we do. Digs helps us keep that promise.”
Jon’s Advice to Other Builders
“If you care about being transparent, if you want to eliminate mistakes, if you want to hand off something organized at the end of the build, get Digs. Just don’t tell my competition.”
Want to see how Digs works on a real job site?
Book a quick demo here.
