Machiel, what do you do?

I help architecture and interior design firms build their digital practice through systems thinking. That's my elevator pitch, but let me unpack what that actually means.

What I mean by the Digital Practice

The digital practice isn't simply about BIM anymore—I learned this after years of watching firms adopt tools without changing behaviours. In 2023, I realised we'd hit a ceiling: software expertise without reinvention is a cul-de-sac.

When I talk about the digital practice, I'm not simply referring to IT or your BIM Team. I'm talking about how firms integrate the right technologies and skills to create adaptable systems.

We are surrounded by technologies and the people that use them, not just your day-to-day operators, but also new skills and different people. The world of tech has created this complex system that needs untangling and alignment.

The digital practice focuses on finding the right tech & people for the problems you have, aligning the tech to the practice (Theory of Design) and rolling it out - your team of digital-native specialists.

Why Systems Thinking?

Over the years of consulting various practices on their tech stacks and providing guidance with roles (and some clients being part of the hiring process), I've come to realise that most practices haven't looked at their practices as a system, a living one, through a systems thinking method.

This is the approach, the intrinsic belief in how practices should reframe their technologies.

I'm using nature as the model: ecosystems that evolve through feedback loops, constraints, and balances. Systems aren't rigid; they are observable, testable and fluid.

The goal is to create a responsive system that adapts to changing requirements in creative design and design delivery.

Systems thinking allows us to see beyond the surface-level events—the missed deadlines, the software crashes, the workflow bottlenecks—and examine the patterns, structures, and beliefs that create those events. Most firms react to problems at the event level. Systems thinking helps us intervene at the structural level where real change happens.

The Four-Level Framework

This framework is a model, and like all models, it's useful, not perfect. It simplifies the complex reality of how practices operate, but that simplification is what makes it actionable.

To make this practical, I use a four-level framework, a lens to view the digital practice operations:

• Practice Systems

• Capability Systems

• Process Systems

• Task Systems

Each level serves a distinct function, and all must align with each other and with the practice to work. When one level contradicts another, you get friction: technologies that don't serve the vision, processes that don't match capabilities, tasks that undermine strategic goals.

Practice System

This is the top level, the system that sets direction and constraints. It encompasses the domains of leadership, vision, theory, and positioning, among others. It includes things like:

• Your theory of design (the fundamental belief in how you do design—not your philosophy or style, but how architecture comes into being in your practice).

• Your business model and market positioning.

• Marketing narratives and client value propositions.

This level is largely conceptual, theoretical, and strategic. It sets intent and directions, defining what the practice stands for and how it differentiates itself. It allocates attention and resources.

Capability Systems

Capability systems are the abilities the practice must maintain and improve, independent of specific teams and tools. They translate the practice systems into tangible enablers. This includes:

• Technologies and platforms you adopt (chosen because they serve your theory of design, not because they're industry standard).

• Roles, skills, and team structures.

• Hiring standards and training methods.

Capabilities respond to and support the practice systems. They set the frameworks in place for operations and turn theories into practical steps.

This is where I see the first failure mode: changing tools first without changing the constraints. Firms adopt new software while keeping old rules, then wonder why nothing improves.

Process Systems

The process systems are the end-to-end flows that transform inputs into client-visible outcomes. They typically define:

• How data is created, transformed, and delivered.

• How models and drawings are produced.

• How activities trigger and respond to each other.

Processes are more concrete ways of working as a more controlled system. They provide guidance and clarity for how work happens across teams, projects and technologies.

These processes only work when they're designed to leverage your capabilities. A common mistake: improving the task while the process is broken. You can't template your way out of a broken workflow.

Task Systems

Tasks are the executable steps, checklists, scripts, templates—the methods used to execute processes. They include:

• Templates and standards.

• How-to guides and step-by-step procedures.

• Training modules and daily actions.

Tasks turn process guidance into actions.

Tasks also generate feedback. When tasks consistently fail or feel inefficient, that's a signal that something at a higher level—process, capability, or even practice system—needs attention. Without consistent feedback loops, the system can't learn.

Why does this matter?

Digital success isn't about finding and implementing the latest technologies or features, or adopting isolated best practices. It's about creating an observable, adaptable, and intentional system where:

• Vision guides capabilities.

• Capabilities enable processes.

• Processes define tasks.

• Tasks give feedback and insights to improve the system.

This is how firms become intentional about technologies: choosing tools that serve strategy, building teams that can execute, and refining workflows that deliver predictable outcomes.

Without this alignment, you get what I call "digital drift": new tools that sit unused, processes that work around the technology rather than with it, and teams that revert to old methods because the new ones don't make sense within the practice's actual beliefs and constraints.

How I work with clients

The approach is to unpack the needs - those that will drive the biggest value for the practice - across the four system levels and address the issues at the right level.

By diagnosing at the right level, we can design the right systems that will allow us to execute with the right conviction. Sometimes that means refining practices, design theory, and the market narrative; and other times, it means restructuring teams, skills, and technologies.

Often, it's about defining processes so that tasks can be standardised and scaled.

The method is simple: Document what actually happens. Watch how the system operates under real-world conditions. Then adjust; change one constraint or feedback loop at a time and watch for side effects. I've seen practices reduce RFIs by 28% in 8 weeks just by changing a constraint (no agenda, no meeting) and a feedback loop (daily automated issue summary). Same number of people, different system design.

Yes, I still build templates, troubleshoot models or software, and optimise workflows. I'm still an outsourced specialist who patches problems, provides training or develops standard workflows. But the difference is I'm addressing issues at the right system level, not just applying tactical fixes.

What I do

I help creative firms design responsive systems for their digital practice.

The question I'm asked most often by former clients and people I've worked with is: "What are you doing now?" Usually, it's followed by, "Are you still doing what you did before?"

The answer is yes, but with a different approach and focus. I'm repositioning my work to go beyond problem-solving in specific technologies and instead enable practices to think and operate in their digital practices through systems thinking.

If you want to examine your practice from a different perspective, align vision, capabilities, processes and tasks, I can guide that process.