A fully delivered, production-running project management system built for True Build Design — an interior architecture and project management studio in Dubai working on complex residential renovations for homeowners and investors.
True Build Design operates at the intersection of design intent and delivery precision. Their work covers everything from concept through to site supervision — drawings, material selections, approvals, shop drawings, and the detailed coordination that keeps a project from getting diluted by time, budget, and miscommunication.
That level of operational complexity demands systems that match it. This is that system.
"Clarity early. Decisions documented. Craft protected. Timelines respected." — True Build Design
Interior architecture studios managing multiple live renovation projects face a specific operational challenge: every project generates a continuous stream of submissions, RFIs, design change notices, variation orders, vendor coordination, client approvals, and meeting action items — all of which must be tracked, escalated, and documented with precision.
The market solution — enterprise PM software — doesn't fit:
- Procore, Autodesk Build, PlanGrid: $300–$800/user/month → $36K–$96K annually
- Built for large-scale construction, not interior architecture workflows
- Rigid processes that override the studio's own methodology
- Vendor lock-in with no customisation capability
The manual alternative — spreadsheets and email — breaks at scale:
- 20+ hours per week lost to admin across submission tracking, RFI follow-up, and meeting documentation
- No SLA enforcement — approvals sit unreviewed for weeks
- No audit trail for design decisions and client acknowledgments
- Estimated $48,000/year in lost productive time
A 6-database relational architecture built in Notion, managing the complete project lifecycle from client onboarding through to handover — across 15+ simultaneous projects.
┌─────────────┐
│ CLIENTS │ ← Homeowners, investors, project sponsors
└──────┬──────┘
│
┌──────▼──────┐
│ PROJECTS │ ← 15+ live projects, health-monitored
└──────┬──────┘
├─────────────────┬──────────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐
│ RECORDS │ │ ACTIONS │ │ VENDORS │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ Submissions │ │ Tasks from │ │ Suppliers, │
│ RFIs · DCNs │ │ meetings, │ │ contractors │
│ SIs · VOs │ │ approvals │ │ performance │
│ Minutes │ │ escalations │ │ scoring │
└─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘
│
┌──────▼──────┐
│ CONTACTS │ ← Team members, clients, vendor contacts
└─────────────┘
| Process | What Happens Automatically |
|---|---|
| Submission Intake | Reference number generated, Drive folder created, client acknowledgment sent |
| RFI Tracking | 5-day SLA monitored continuously, escalated at breach — nothing waits in an inbox |
| Meeting Minutes | AI extracts action items, creates tracked tasks, assigns owners and deadlines |
| Approval Routing | PM → Design Lead → sign-off chain with PDF output and client notification |
| Daily Digest | Priority-ranked open items delivered before the team's day begins |
| Project Health | Continuous monitoring — flags overdue critical items before they become delays |
| Vendor Scoring | Performance tracked automatically across response times and quality issues |
| Client Notifications | Automated updates with acknowledgment tracking via webhook |
| Approval Reminders | Nudges sent at Day 3, Day 7, Day 10 — nothing sits unreviewed |
| Executive Dashboard | Weekly consolidated view of all project health and team output |
| Document Generation | Registers, reports, and compliance documents generated on demand |
| Cross-Project Intelligence | Recurring RFI themes identified across all active projects |
| Metric | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Software cost replaced | $36K–$96K/year → $1,200/year |
| Weekly admin hours eliminated | 20+ hours |
| Annual productivity recovered | $48,000 |
| Missed submissions or lost approvals | Zero |
| Project delays from approval lag | Reduced 50%+ |
| Simultaneous projects managed | 15+ |
| Record types with custom lifecycles | 8+ |
| Specialised views across the system | 15+ |
| System ownership | Full — client owns everything |
This system was not built through traditional software development. It demonstrates a new model for delivering custom enterprise tooling using AI.
Phase 1 — Architecture Design Strategic sessions to design the complete system — 6 databases, relationship logic, workflow triggers, approval hierarchies, and edge case handling. Every decision documented before anything was built.
Phase 2 — System Specification A 40-page master specification written covering every database property, relationship rule, automation requirement, and business logic condition. The complete operational blueprint.
Phase 3 — Autonomous Build An AI coding agent executed the entire build autonomously via Notion API — creating all 6 databases, their properties, views, relationships, and connections in 12 hours.
Phase 4 — Automation Layer 12 automated workflows deployed connecting the system to email, file storage, PDF generation, AI meeting processing, and webhook endpoints.
| Traditional Dev | This Approach | |
|---|---|---|
| Build time | 60–100 hours | 12 hours |
| Build cost | $3,000–$15,000 | Under $150 |
| Time saved | — | 90%+ |
| Cost saved | — | 97%+ |
| Ownership | Vendor/agency | Full client ownership |
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Core Platform | Notion (6 databases, 15+ views) |
| Automation | 12 workflow pipelines |
| System Architecture | ChatGPT |
| System Specification | Claude |
| Build Execution | Claude Code (autonomous agent) |
| Meeting Intelligence | Groq LLM |
| Document Generation | api2pdf |
| File Management | Google Drive |
| Client Communications | Gmail API |
| Acknowledgment Tracking | Webhooks |
This system was designed and delivered by Awais Ali, CEO & Co-Founder of Trilles AI.
If your studio or firm is managing complex projects across multiple clients and needs a system built precisely around how you work — not how a SaaS vendor thinks you should — this is what we build.
www.trillesai.com