What a Year of Powering Procraft Taught Us About How We Solve Problems

The Powering Procraft series was built to introduce people — the technicians, engineers, and directors who actually do the work behind every install we talk about elsewhere on this blog. Nobody was handed talking points. Everyone was just asked about their path into AV, what they're proud of, and how they define a job done right.

But eight interviews in, a pattern showed up that none of them planned. Ask enough people the same honest questions, separately, across different roles and even different coasts, and you stop hearing individual answers. You start hearing one philosophy, described a half-dozen different ways.

Ask Enough People What "Quality" Means, and You Get One Answer

We didn't prompt anyone toward a company line. Here's what came back anyway, role by role:

"Minimal mistakes made and a perfect landing for device and cabling, with extra time spared for commissioning." - Owen Jurardo, Field Technician

Aaron Alvarez, also a Field Technician, describes it as:

"Double-checking every step... making sure all terminations are 100% correct and fully tested, with the final result clean, organized." 

Will Schwartz, Design Engineer, keeps it simpler:

"The ones that work... if I can walk away from a fully functioning system that the customer understands how to use — big or small — I'm proud of it." 

And Mike Boyle, On-site Technician, puts it as

"a completed scope of work with a system tested thoroughly and a clean job site/work area."

Different titles, different specialties, and the definition doesn't move. That's not a coincidence. That's what happens when a standard is actually shared instead of just stated.

Nobody Guesses. Everyone Isolates.

The second pattern showed up in how each of them talks about troubleshooting under pressure. Corin Grover, Director of Integration for the East Coast, calls his approach "Keep It Simple Stupid" — retrace your steps, start with the easiest thing to rule out, and work up to the hardest. 

Aaron starts with fundamentals — "structures, power, signal, breakers, and connections" — then traces backward through the system.

Will puts a number on the instinct behind it: he attributes 95% of on-site issues to poor communication, not equipment, and warns that "panic breeds panic" once something goes wrong.

Matt Encinas, Senior Director of Operations, describes the same discipline from the top: slow down, isolate the root cause instead of chasing symptoms, and verify everything against spec.

None of these are flashy answers. They're all the same instinct wearing different words: don't react, diagnose. It's the field-level version of something we've written about before — that clarity, even under pressure, is a discipline, not a personality trait.

Communication Isn't a Value Statement — It's a Practice

Ask a company what it values and you'll usually get "communication" somewhere on the list. It's said so often it stops meaning anything. What's different here is how specifically each person ties it to actually getting the job done. Dave Pett calls it "trust and communication," especially with a teammate you haven't worked with before. Owen puts it plainly: "A great team starts with communication to make sure everyone is on the same page." 

Will Schwartz frames it as a mentorship obligation —

"you are only as strong as your weakest link" — and talks about empowering junior staff to take calculated risks rather than just handing down instructions. Corin has an acronym for the whole idea: T.E.A.M. — "Together Every Angle Mastered."

This series has also introduced Sarah Reed, Senior Project Manager, whose spotlight covered her own path through the industry and the projects she's proudest of — one more vantage point on the same through line running underneath all of these: the work only holds together if the people on it are actually talking to each other.

Eight People, One Definition of "The Procraft Way"

The clearest signal came from the question every spotlight asks: what does "the Procraft Way" mean to you? Matt: "Powered by People" — quality work paired with respect and care for clients, subcontractors, and colleagues. Corin: "Taking the time to do it right the first time, so you only have to do it once." 

Owen: "Thinking down the line, keeping the next person in mind and doing my best to set them up for success." Mike: "Completing work the right way. Being able to put your name on something and stand by it." Will describes it less as a rule and more as a feeling — work worth showing to your own friends, with the crew's morale still intact within three hours of wrapping.

Nobody rehearsed that. Five people, on five different days, in five different roles — from a field technician to a director on the opposite coast — landed on the same idea from five different angles: ownership, care, and a willingness to be judged by the work.

Why This Actually Matters to a Client

None of this is culture for culture's sake. It's the reason the standard holds regardless of who's on-site on a given day, which coast they're working from, or which name is on the work order. A client hiring Procraft isn't hiring one person's expertise — they're hiring a group of people who, independently and without coordination, all define quality, communication, and ownership the same way. That consistency is harder to build than any single project, and it's the thing this series keeps proving one conversation at a time. If you like this piece, you may like the others in our Enterprise AV Series!