June 2026
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsI'm Not a Coach. That's the Point.
As AI commoditizes knowledge and effort, judgment becomes the scarce skill. Joe Hudson teaches you to build it. A consultant is someone who already has it.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsYour Product Strategy Wasn't Built for Things That Make Their Own Decisions
Fieldway's take on the 2026 'Agentic Product Evolution' study (IJCA; 10 enterprise implementations, 25+ product leaders): most product strategies still use
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsDue Diligence Now Has to Catch AI-Washing, Not Just Check the Tech
Fieldway's take on PwC's 2026 M&A outlook: roughly a third of 2025's 100 largest deals cited AI in their rationale, and PwC now calls AI due diligence
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsIntent Is the New Constraint: Where Engineering Craft Moved in 2026
Fieldway's take on the Goldratt-style argument running through 2026 commentary (berme.io; Linear's CEO; Theory of Constraints): as agents thin out the
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Real Threat to Boutique Advisors Isn't the Big 4. It's In-House.
Fieldway's take on the 2026 Management Consulted rankings, which for the first time added an Internal Consulting category (and put a government agency, DOGE
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Death of the Billable Hour Was Always Going to Be an AI Story
Fieldway's take on the 2026 outcome-pricing shift (Inc 6-trends + AlphaSense): clients can now see the deck took an afternoon, so consulting is moving off
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsAI-Washing Just Became a Legal Liability, Not a Credibility One
Fieldway's cross-audience take on the 2026 enforcement wall: the SEC has charged firms for misrepresenting AI capabilities ('AI-washing'), 2026 exam priorities
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Squeezed Middle: Why the Consulting Market Is Splitting in Two
Fieldway's take on the 2026 consolidation data (AlphaSense + Consultancy.eu deal flow + Management Consulted rankings): the top 5 firms now hold ~40% share and
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsYour CEO Has Detailed Opinions About Software Delivery and No Idea How It Works
Fieldway's take on Rebecca Murphey's 'Physics of Software Delivery': why executives hold firm delivery expectations they were never taught to understand.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsGetting Faster at the Wrong Things: What Atlassian's 2026 Product Report Actually Says
Fieldway's data-led read on Atlassian's 2026 State of Product Report: half of product teams save 10–60 min/day with AI, yet 49% still lack time for strategy
Field Notes
Product StrategyThe 88% That Never Ship: Why Enterprise AI Agents Die in Pilot
Fieldway's take on the spring-2026 agent data cluster (Forrester/Anaconda/IDC via Digital Applied + GoGloby): 88% of agent pilots never reach production, and
Field Notes
Product Strategy"Agentic Engineering" Hype Meets Delivery Reality
A June 2026 paper announces "the end of software engineering" as AI agents take over. The same month, delivery commentary says shipping got harder, not easier
Field Notes
Product StrategyRun AI Adoption as a Measured Pilot, Not a Mandate
A mandate to "use AI" measures compliance. A pilot measures truth. How to roll out AI coding tools as a real experiment – with a hypothesis, a baseline, and a
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsAI Passed the Professional Licensing Exam. So What's the Moat Now?
An AI passed every recent U.S. Customs Broker License Exam. When a machine can pass the credential, knowledge recall stops being the moat – judgment and
Field Notes
Product StrategyCode Fast, Ship Slow: What Your AI Coding Tools Are Hiding
AI coding tools make writing code feel dramatically faster while what actually ships barely moves. The fix isn't a better tool – it's measuring delivery
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsHow Boutique Advisors in Fintech and Healthcare Stay Ahead of Regulatory Change
AI-assisted regulatory-change monitoring for high-value verticals – using verified tooling (privacy: TrustArc; trade/sanctions: Descartes) plus the
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsBoutique Advisory Beats the Big 4 on AI Transformation (4.28 vs 2.78)
Why the buyer evaluating AI-transformation approaches should pick boutique: vendor independence, senior delivery, integrated change management — with the
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsDocument Synthesis Is the Leverage Point
Why document synthesis is the single highest-leverage AI capability for boutique advisors.
Field Notes
Knowledge & AIThe No-Staff Knowledge Stack in 2026
How solo consultants build a knowledge system that scales beyond memory without hiring.
