May 19, 2026
I love talking to people who came up through this industry the hard way and then figured out something that makes all of our lives better.
Fiona Sanipelli is one of those people. She studied architecture, spent nearly 20 years in hospitality design, worked her way through some of the most celebrated firms in New York, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, got so frustrated by the chaos of spec writing that she and her brother built a better solution.
That became DesignSpec. In this episode, we talk about her path through the industry, why your specs are either saving your projects or quietly killing them, how the right software can genuinely replace a hire, and what both of us actually think about AI and where it's headed for designers.
Whether you're a solopreneur juggling everything yourself or you have a team trying to get more organized, there is something in this conversation for you.
Connect with Fiona here:
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/designspec/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/designmanager/
- https://www.instagram.com/designspec.com_/
- https://www.instagram.com/designmanager/
Mentioned in this episode:
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Join The Designer’s Edge here: https://www.reneedevignierdesign.com/construction-management-interior-designers
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Grab Your Free Script Guide here: https://www.reneedevignierdesign.com/push-back-script-handout
- Access the full video interview with Elana Steele of Steele Appliance here: https://www.reneedevignierdesign.com/appliance
Find the full shownotes at: https://devignierdesign.com/interior-design-spec-writing-software