Field Notes
Practical writing for product leaders and boutique advisors – on deciding what to build, answering the hard questions, and running a sharper practice.
Nobody Can Estimate a Theme. Stop Asking a Strategy for a Ship Date.
A new direction tells a team what to build, not when it'll ship. A date pinned to a theme is a cheap yes. Here's what to ask for instead.
Docs Were a Top-5 Reason Customers Cancelled. Three Years Later, a Top-5 Reason They Bought.
At Adaptavist, documentation went from a top-five reason customers cancelled to a top-five reason they bought. No new features required.
51% of Software Operators Say Fewer Than 1 in 4 Customers Use the AI They Built
Half of software operators say fewer than a quarter of customers use the AI they built. Building got cheap. Building the wrong thing didn't.
Perdue Tested Concept, Pack and Price Before Air Fryer Wings Shipped. The Platform Crossed Nine Figures.
Perdue validates platform bets with full rigor and runs trend bets in a single batch. Most software teams use one speed for every bet.
Postwright Release Note: One Fix at a Time
A security scan of Postwright 0.3.0 found 46 issues in its libraries. 0.3.1 upgrades them one at a time, each tested on the real installer.
Postwright Release Note: Shorts From Your Phone
Porting my publishing system into Postwright turned up bugs in my own. Phone shorts are now free in Studio, and setup works on a Mac that isn't mine.
The Customer's First Answer Is a Solution. So Is ChatGPT's.
Customers answer with solutions, not needs, and AI tools summarizing customer feedback make the same mistake. Here's how to get past both.
When Editorial Started Hiring Its Own Agencies, That Was Product's Real Status Report
When your internal customers start building around you, product has already lost the room. AI is making that easier, and harder to see.
We Tripled Output and Stopped Working Weekends in the Same 90 Days
AI startups are bringing back the 72-hour week. At CoinDesk, the fix that tripled output also ended weekend work. The research agrees.