May 2026
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Knowledge Recreation Tax: How to Calculate Your Number
Knowledge recreation — rebuilding context you already built — is a cost most advisors never calculate. Here's the arithmetic to find your number.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsWhy Solo Advisors Max Out at 5–6 Concurrent Engagements
The solo advisor capacity ceiling sits at 5–6 engagements. Here's the working-memory physics behind that number — and the two unlocks that move it.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsConsulting Scope Creep Is a Documentation Problem
52% of consulting projects hit scope creep, at a 27% average overrun. The issue isn't your statement of work — your engagement intelligence isn't live.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceHow Stanton Ridge Raised Its Proposal Win Rate from 31% to 44%
A boutique strategy firm cut proposal time from 16 hours to 5 and raised win rate from 31% to 44%. The variable wasn't the AI tool — it was what they fed it.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIKnowledge Debt: The AI Prerequisite Your Practice Hasn't Solved Yet
Your AI tools aren't underperforming. Your knowledge infrastructure isn't ready for them. Here's how to diagnose knowledge debt in your advisory practice.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIWhere AI Processing Ends and Advisory Judgment Begins
How one advisory intelligence operation structures the 70/30 AI-human divide – and what boutique advisors need to know about where judgment must stay.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIAI Is Rewriting Search. Here's How Your Website Writes Back.
AI Mode crossed 1 billion users at Google I/O. Organic clicks are falling. WebMCP is how websites talk directly to AI – and Fieldway built it on fieldway.org.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIConsultant AI Guides All Cover the Same Five Things. Here's the Sixth.
Every 2026 consultant AI guide covers five areas. They're all right. None covers a sixth area – and it may be the most expensive gap in your advisory practice.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceThe Consulting Firm AI Margin Gap Has Nothing to Do With Tools
The 2026 SPI benchmark shows a 17.9% vs. 6.0% EBITDA gap. The difference isn't which AI tools consulting firms use — it's what's organized underneath them.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIHow I Built an AI Publishing Pipeline
I spent about a month building a pipeline that handles my newsletter, blog, LinkedIn, and Facebook from a single Obsidian draft. Here's what I built.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIHow I Built a Drop-a-File AI Video Publishing Pipeline
How I built a drop-a-file AI video publishing pipeline using Claude Code – and what it says about running content ops without the grind.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceThe 30-Client Plateau Is a Knowledge Problem, Not a Headcount Problem
When boutique advisory practices hit the capacity ceiling, most reach for headcount. What we see consistently: it's a knowledge problem, not a bandwidth one.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceThe Fractional COO's Role Just Changed. Here's the Gap It Left.
AI drove a 46% fractional COO demand surge by restructuring the role itself. Here's what the unbundling left behind – and why it matters for boutique advisors.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceWhat Boutique Advisors Actually Need From a Research Partner
Boutique advisors don't need more research help – they need a synthesis layer. Here's what that looks like, and how to tell the difference.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceYour Clients Compare Your Deliverables to Their Salesforce
64% of mid-market executives expect real-time consulting visibility, up from 31% in 2023. Here's why the static deliverable is now a structural problem.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceEnterprise Document AI Isn't Built for Boutique Advisory Practices
Hebbia runs $3K–$10K per seat per year. Blueflame is now part of Datasite. Neither has a boutique tier — and the gap is structural, not cosmetic.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceThe $50K Alternative to McKinsey: Managed Intelligence for Advisors
DiligenceSquared delivers M&A research for $50K vs. $500K–$1M from McKinsey. Bridgetown raised $19M on the same thesis. The model this validates matters.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIWhy Your Meeting Notes Aren't Building Institutional Knowledge
Your AI meeting tools capture what's said. Institutional knowledge requires a synthesis layer above capture — curation, retrieval, and patterns that compound.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIWhat the 20% Capturing AI's Value Are Actually Doing
74% of AI's economic value flows to 20% of companies – and the other 80% are using AI too. Here's what separates the top performers from everyone else.
Field Notes
Managed IntelligenceWhy Your CRM's AI Doesn't Know When a Client Is at Risk
Generic CRM AI flags at-risk consulting clients correctly just 41% of the time. Here's why that gap exists and what the firms hitting 79% built instead.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsHow One-Person Advisory Firms Hit 60% Operating Margins
The best solo advisory practitioners aren't working more than their peers. They've solved a structural problem the others haven't — and the margin gap shows it.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe 70% That Gets You to Your Best Work
There's a 70/30 split in most advisory engagements. The extraction layer is the 70%, and it doesn't require your 20 years. Here's what changes when it moves.
