Scenarios at Join — Ari Zilnik

A contractor doesn’t decide “which countertop” in isolation. They decide “which finish package for kitchens and bathrooms” against budget and schedule. Join asked users to evaluate one decision at a time — which isn’t how owners weigh options — so we rebuilt the flow around bundled packages, and the cycle from scenario creation to owner sign-off dropped by half.

Scenarios is Join’s side-by-side comparison view for construction project decisions. Join is project management for the people who build actual buildings; this is the view where owners sign off on the expensive choices.

Decisions as packages

A contractor builds two options — say, premium finishes on a compressed schedule against a value-engineered version that stretches the timeline. Join recalculates every linked line item underneath, and the owner reviews two packages instead of forty individual decisions.

Join Scenarios overview listing two alternative versions of a construction project — Two versions of the same project, built to be weighed against each other.

Pricing flow inside Scenarios showing cost propagation across linked line items — Change one option and every linked line item reprices underneath.

A flat comparison, no ranking

The hardest design decision was hierarchy. The default pattern in comparison UIs is to badge a “best” option, but owners on multi-million-dollar projects didn’t want to be steered — they wanted to weigh the trade-offs themselves. I made the comparison deliberately flat: every dimension visible, no option marked as preferred.

Scenarios comparison view showing two packaged project options side-by-side with their cost and schedule trade-offs — Every dimension visible, nothing badged as recommended. The owner makes the call.

Interactive prototype of Scenarios comparing two bundled options with live trade-off calculations — Two bundled options compared side-by-side with cost and schedule trade-offs visible at a glance.

Progressive disclosure

The default view is intentionally lean — users click into specific dimensions when they need detail. The owner-facing read stays calm for sign-off meetings while the contractor side keeps the richer working data for internal use.

Scenarios decision workflow showing a contractor preparing options for an owner sign-off meeting — The contractor's working view: richer data in private, a calm read for the sign-off meeting.

Collaboration features inside Scenarios showing comments and sign-off rituals — Collaboration around scenario sign-off.

Results

The scenario-decision cycle dropped 50%, measured from creation through owner sign-off. And a segment we weren’t designing for showed up on its own: architects now account for 20% of Scenarios users. The comparison view matched how they present design options to their own clients, and they found the feature without anyone selling it to them.

“This is like a happy meal for decision making. Everything you need, all in one place.”

“We used Scenarios on a $150M job and it cut our decision timeline in half.”

Credits

Design: Ari Zilnik

Product: Steve Matthews

Engineering: Dan Anthony

Engineering: Mark Deutsch

Shipped at Join, 2024.