On the Ask Us Anything podcast, BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen taps former Trade Tales guests to answer real, confidential designer questions, offering a safe space to discuss business challenges. Have a question of your own to ask? Send an email to start the conversation.

This week, Chloe Redmond Warner, the founder of Oakland, California–based interiors firm Redmond Aldrich Design, joins the show to answer a question from a designer who recently attended an industry panel and was shocked to discover how much structure there was in a fellow designer’s process. She doesn’t have a standard operating procedure, and for her first decade in business, she saw that as an asset: The flexibility allowed her to tailor her approach to each client’s unique preferences. Now she’s wondering if stronger systems could lend her firm a greater sense of professionalism.

Redmond Warner jumps in with advice on why an unstructured design process might miss out on the value-engineering phase, how to find the sweet spot between client responsiveness and total control, and why issuing a project schedule from the outset can help establish a firm’s sense of authority.

Crucial insight: One of Redmond Warner’s biggest pieces of advice is to avoid leaving the timeline open-ended. She recommends starting with an anticipated move-in date and working backward to block out time for the design phase, ordering and production. “Making that calendar will take the wishy-washiness out of it,” she says. “It’s just a window of time, that’s it. You meet three times within that window: once with choices, once with a solution and then once to value-engineer. Then, you just move it forward.”

Key quote: “The value that interior designers give in this world, where there’s now infinite choice and infinite access, is clarity and taste and the edit. I see our value in providing a clear and safe and fun bridge from point A to point B … rather than a meandering path through a meadow.”

This episode was sponsored by Four Hands and Crypton. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.