The SWAP Signal: Founder’s Broadcast - Issue 01

Heather Bemis
Jul 23
3 min read

Updated: Jul 23

It’s Official: SWAP PM Has Launched! 🚀

After years of visioning, building, testing, breaking, rebuilding, and fine-tuning… we’re finally here: SWAP PM is officially live.

But this isn’t just a product launch. It’s personal.

As a practicing architect, I remember sitting in the office of a highly respected design firm, surrounded by incredibly smart, capable professionals, and wondering:

Why do we keep struggling to hit our milestones?

It wasn’t a motivation issue. It wasn’t a competency issue. These were top-tier teams. But the same pain points kept surfacing:

Unclear expectations.
Late or uninformed owner decisions.
Design consultants missing targets.
Internal team members unsure of what was expected, or when.
Constant design iterations, with no clear point to stop designing and start coordinating.
And overall communication chaos: Are we talking about this in an email? A Teams chat? Bluebeam? A note on a sticky somewhere? Which version is the right one?

At first, I thought: Maybe this is just our firm.

But then it hit me:

If we were struggling, we couldn't be the only ones.

Other design teams were likely facing the same friction.

And they needed help, too.

I started to realize what was missing: A shared system that brought alignment, visibility, and timing to the design process, specifically for design teams.

Back in 2015, while working on the new Biology Building at Colorado State University, I was introduced to the Last Planner System® through the Lean Construction Institute. That was the first time I saw a structured, human-centered planning approach that actually worked….and it stuck with me.

But on that project? The system was managed entirely through a spreadsheet.

Since then, I’ve seen teams adapt the process in all kinds of ways — Miro boards, large-format Bluebeam markups, updated spreadsheets — each one a workaround to make the system fit the way design teams operate.

There are other platforms out there that work well for construction, but they weren’t built for the messy, iterative, collaborative world of design.

Design teams needed a tool that spoke directly to them.

And that’s when I began to ask:

What if we could take the thoughtful structure behind what pull planning does so well, and reframe it to match how designers naturally think?

A system that supports creativity and coordination – without sacrificing clarity or momentum.

And that’s how SWAP PM was born.

SWAP Integration is the project advocate, supporting design teams from the outside and SWAP PM is the tool we use on the inside, to bring everything and everyone together.

Not just another task list.

A system built by people who’ve lived through the chaos; designed to create order, accountability, and momentum.

So every team member knows what’s next, who owns it, and when it’s due.

And now, SWAP PM isn’t just a tool used by SWAP Integration, it’s available to every project manager, everywhere, for every project.

We’ve always believed project management should feel like progress, not punishment.

Now, you finally have a platform that makes that possible.

And we’re kicking it off with a🔥new video that shows what SWAP PM is all about. Check it out and share it with your team:

👉 Launch Video

Building SWAP PM has been one of the hardest (and most fulfilling) things I’ve done in my career. It’s shaped by my 17+ years as an architect, a facilitator, and now a founder trying to make the process better for everyone in it.

Thanks for being here for Day 1.

We’re just getting started.

xo Heather

Heather Bemis is the Founder & CEO of SWAP Integration and the creator of SWAP PM, a cloud-based platform that brings structure and clarity to project planning in the AEC industry. A licensed architect with 17+ years of experience, she’s passionate about lean processes, team alignment, and building tools that make collaboration easier and more effective.

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