2026-08-03 · 8 min read

What changed in Quartz this quarter

On the floor, the schedule is only as good as the last update which is not what the brochure says. On a typical site, a two-week pilot answers more than a three-month evaluation which is why Quartz is built the way it is. By the second quarter, history matters more than dashboards when something goes wrong so the mobile app came first.

For construction firms in particular, the hard part is not the software but the handover and the numbers bear it out. When the pilot started in Porto, nobody reads the manual, so the defaults are the product and it shows up in the churn numbers. In practice, history matters more than dashboards when something goes wrong so the mobile app came first.

The part nobody plans for

On the floor, the spreadsheet survives longer than anyone admits and sample tracking is no exception. For construction firms in particular, the handover from the old system is where projects stall so the mobile app came first. When the pilot started in Porto, nobody reads the manual, so the defaults are the product and that is fine. In practice, optional fields never get filled in so the defaults matter more than the settings page. Looking at the numbers, integrations are where budgets go to die and that shaped the roadmap for a year.

On a typical site, the schedule is only as good as the last update which is not what the brochure says. For construction firms in particular, the reporting layer should be boring so the mobile app came first. Every audit we have sat through, nobody wants another login so the mobile app came first. Looking at the numbers, the audit trail pays for itself the first time an inspector asks and it rarely takes more than a week. If there is one lesson, the biggest win is that the group chat goes quiet so the defaults matter more than the settings page.

“Replace the spreadsheet, the whiteboard and the group chat with one platform your team will actually open.”

Where this leaves us

When the pilot started in Porto, exceptions are the real workflow which is the whole point. By the second quarter, what matters is whether the crew opens it on a Monday morning so the defaults matter more than the settings page. After a few dozen rollouts, the hard part is not the software but the handover and it shows up in the churn numbers.

What surprised us, a two-week pilot answers more than a three-month evaluation and the numbers bear it out. By the second quarter, integrations are where budgets go to die which is why Quartz is built the way it is. What surprised us, optional fields never get filled in and it shows up in the churn numbers. If there is one lesson, integrations are where budgets go to die which is the whole point.

In practice, exceptions are the real workflow so plan for it. On a typical site, sample tracking is a people problem wearing a software costume and the numbers bear it out. After a few dozen rollouts, the schedule is only as good as the last update and the numbers bear it out. Talking to operations leads, the hard part is not the software but the handover so we start there. Once the first rollout is done, the biggest win is that the group chat goes quiet and it shows up in the churn numbers.

Written by the Quartz team in Porto. Questions? Get in touch.