Scaled homebuilding from 117 to 919 units with simple AI tools

THE OPTIMISATION ALCHEMIST AWARD - PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Turning Low-Hanging AI Fruit into Transformative Impact

The Philosophy

Not every optimization requires complex automation or custom code. Sometimes the biggest wins come from the simplest tools—a well-crafted Custom GPT, a reusable prompt, a clever way to let AI handle what used to eat hours of your day.

I've become obsessed with finding these opportunities. Where can simple AI tools create disproportionate impact?

As Head of Organizational Development at Fifth Avenue Properties—a homebuilder scaling from 117 to 919 home starts this year, with a BHAG of 5,000—I don't have time for complexity for complexity's sake. I need fast wins that compound.

That's what the Optimisation Alchemist does: turns simple AI tools into gold.

The Custom GPT Library

I've built a library of Custom GPTs, each designed to solve a specific problem with minimal friction. Some are more effective than others—that's the nature of experimentation. But the ones that work? They've transformed how we operate.

My Custom GPT Arsenal:

Custom GPT What It Does DISC Analysis Analyzes DISC assessments for new hires, helps write tailored job descriptions HR Policies Deep-researched and trained on Alberta HR policies—instant HR guidance New Home Sales Expert Analyzes competitor specs, prices, square footage, and market positioning Customer Informer Customer communication assistance Area Sales Shopper Market and area analysis for sales team Job Description Generator Creates role-specific job descriptions Airtable Prompt Creator Helps craft prompts for Airtable analysis and automation KPI and Rocks Generator Creates KPIs and quarterly rocks aligned with EOS methodology Thought Partner General strategic thinking companion Prompt Engineer Helps craft and refine prompts for other AI tools Health and Wellness Personal wellness support Meal Planner Weekly meal planning with a twist (see below) Book Writing Writing assistance for long-form content The Meal Planner Story: One of my Custom GPTs shows how I've embedded AI into every part of life—not just work. The Meal Planner creates weekly meal plans with shopping lists, but it has context built in:

- "With Kids" — Plans meals for when my partner has her kids over

- "With Jeff" — Gives the phone number to a pizza place

(I know my strengths.)

The next evolution? An agent that automatically orders the groceries. The shopping list is already generated—why not have AI place the order too?

The Power of Specialization: A general AI assistant is good. A Custom GPT trained on Alberta HR law and your company's policies? That's a team member who never forgets a regulation.

Optimization #1: DISC Analysis for Hiring

Before: Manually reviewing DISC assessment results, interpreting the patterns, figuring out how to communicate with different personality types, writing job descriptions that would attract the right candidates.

After: I paste the DISC results into my Custom GPT. In minutes, I get:

- Interpretation of the candidate's behavioral style

- Communication recommendations

- Job description language tailored to attract similar profiles

- Interview questions designed for their personality type

The Impact: What used to take significant time and guesswork is now fast and consistent. Every hire gets the same quality of analysis.

Optimization #2: The Contract That Impressed the Lawyer

The Story: Our VP of Finance needed to write a contract. Using ChatGPT with the skills he learned in our training sessions, he drafted it in minutes—not hours, not days. Minutes.

Then he did the smart thing: sent it to a lawyer for review.

The Result: The lawyer gave it two thumbs up. No edits. No revisions. A contract drafted by AI, approved by legal counsel without changes.

Why This Matters: This isn't about replacing lawyers. It's about arriving at the lawyer's office with a 95% complete document instead of a blank page. The lawyer reviews and confirms instead of drafting from scratch. Faster. Cheaper. Better.

Optimization #3: Airtable Development at AI Speed

The Challenge: Building a sophisticated Airtable system—with proper relational architecture, junction tables, formulas, automations, and interfaces—takes hundreds of hours if you're doing it manually.

The Optimization: I use Claude Code and ChatGPT as my development partners:

- Describe what I need in plain English

- AI helps design the schema

- AI writes the formulas

- AI troubleshoots when something breaks

- AI suggests optimizations I wouldn't think of

The Impact: What would have taken weeks takes days. What would have taken days takes hours. The KPI dashboard, the executive meeting tracker, the margin analysis system—all built at AI speed.

I'm not a developer. But with AI as my thought partner, I build like one.

Optimization #4: Strategic Analysis at 30,000 Feet

The Scene: On a flight with our Head of Strategic Organization. The question: "What's it going to take to scale to 5,000 homes per year?"

The Optimization: We opened Claude, connected it to our Airtable via MCP, and ran real-time analysis of our organizational structure:

- What redundancies do we have?

- What gaps exist in our org chart?

- What roles do we need for 5,000-unit scale?

- What would it look like if we leveraged AI to operate leaner?

The Impact: Strategic planning that used to require weeks of consultant work—done on a flight. Real data. Real analysis. Real decisions.

The optimization isn't the AI. It's having AI connected to your live data so insights are always one conversation away.

Optimization #5: Executive Meeting Data → KPI Tracker

Before: After executive meetings, someone had to manually extract the data and enter it into our KPI tracking system. Tedious. Error-prone. Often delayed.

After: AI does the data entry for me. Meeting notes flow through our automation pipeline, and AI extracts the relevant KPIs and updates the tracker.

The Impact: I don't touch the data. I don't do manual entry. The system updates itself, and I review the results.

Optimization #6: Compare and Contrast Everything

My Go-To Prompt Pattern: I constantly use "compare and contrast" as an analytical framework:

- Compare and contrast two potential vendors

- Compare and contrast our process vs. industry standard

- Compare and contrast two candidates

- Compare and contrast our Airtable structure options

Why It Works: This simple prompt pattern forces AI to surface differences and similarities I might miss. It's not sophisticated. It's just effective.

Optimization #7: Workflow and Structure Analysis

The Pattern: Before building or changing anything, I ask AI to analyze the existing workflow or structure:

- "Analyze this Airtable schema. What are the weaknesses?"

- "Look at this process. Where are the bottlenecks?"

- "Review this org structure. What's missing?"

The Impact: AI spots issues I'm too close to see. It's like having a consultant on demand—one who doesn't charge by the hour and is available at 11 PM.

The Compounding Effect

Here's what most people miss: simple optimizations compound.

- A Custom GPT saves 30 minutes → used 50 times = 25 hours saved

- A reusable prompt pattern saves 10 minutes → used 200 times = 33 hours saved

- AI-assisted Airtable development saves 100 hours → enables systems that save 10 hours/week forever

The Optimisation Alchemist doesn't chase complex solutions. They find the simple tools that create leverage—and use them relentlessly.

Tools I Use

Custom GPTs: 13+ specialized assistants for specific tasks Claude: Strategic analysis, Airtable development, deep thinking ChatGPT: Custom GPTs, quick analysis, document drafting Claude Code: AI-assisted development and debugging Airtable: Where optimizations get implemented MCP Connections: Live data access for real-time analysis

Key Learnings

1. Simple tools, big impact — A well-designed Custom GPT can transform a workflow without any code.

2. Specialize your AI — A general assistant is good. One trained on your specific domain (Alberta HR law, your industry, your processes) is 10x better.

3. Reusable patterns win — "Compare and contrast" isn't clever. It's just effective. Find patterns that work and use them constantly.

4. AI + Live Data = Magic — Connecting AI to your actual business data (via MCP) turns strategic analysis from a project into a conversation.

5. Let AI do the tedious work — Data entry, first drafts, initial analysis. Save human brainpower for decisions.

6. Validate with experts — The VP of Finance's contract was AI-drafted but lawyer-approved. AI accelerates; humans validate.

7. Compound your wins — One optimization used once is nice. One optimization used 100 times changes everything.

Relevant URLs

www.fifthavehomes.com, fifthaveproperties.com

Closing

I don't look for the most complex solution. I look for the simplest tool that solves the problem.

A Custom GPT that analyzes DISC assessments in minutes. A prompt pattern that surfaces insights I'd miss. An AI connection to live data that turns strategic planning into a conversation at 30,000 feet.

This is optimization alchemy: taking simple AI tools—Custom GPTs, clever prompts, smart connections—and turning them into gold.

We're scaling from 117 to 919 homes this year. Our BHAG is 5,000. We don't have time for complexity. We need simple tools that create massive leverage.

That's what I build. That's what I teach. That's how we scale.