October 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations84.8% Say AI Saves Time. 29.9% Say It Pays.
AI now touches 43.6% of professional services projects, but few firms turn the saved time into revenue. For an advisor who bills hours, that gap is structural.
Field Notes
Release NotesPostwright Release Note: Your List Stays Put
Postwright 0.4.1 sends your newsletter through Kit or Mailchimp, to the list you already have there, and still waits for your blog post to go live.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsWhen Engineers Stop Arguing, Metrics Stop Moving
A team that stops pushing back on product's tickets isn't aligned. It has gone quiet, and the people who could tell you why the metrics won't move stopped
Field Notes
Release NotesPostwright Release Note: More Places, Same Order
Postwright 0.4.0 adds Bluesky, Mastodon, X, WordPress, Ghost and more. Companion posts and cross-posts go out only after your blog post is live.
Field Notes
Consulting Operations3 in 4 Growth Bets Fail: The Test Founders Skip
Snap's first product manager says growth almost always comes from the core. Before you bet on a new market, run the core test first.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsWhat a Parent Can't Approve: 4 Weeks Inside FERPA
A product leader's read of FERPA, school data agreements and state law, and why the rules shaped the data model before anyone designed a screen.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Compliance Officer Committed to Reading All 55 Pages. That's How You Know It Landed.
A well-received deck isn't the same as analysis that landed. For boutique advisors, the real signal is the most skeptical person in the room.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsDon't Announce the New Direction. Lead the Team to It.
A direction announced to a team gets compliance. One the team helped build gets commitment. How to lead people to a change instead of announcing it.
Field Notes
Consulting Operations54% of a Room Full of Product Leaders Said Their Default Is to Make Every Call
Most product leaders default to deciding everything themselves. It works at launch, then it makes them the bottleneck. Here's what to do instead.
Field Notes
Release NotesPostwright Release Note: Long Videos, Edited
Postwright 0.3.2 edits raw talking-head video for you, cutting false starts, retakes and long pauses, then waits for one review in the app or on Telegram.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsMixpanel Shut Down Two Products. Retention Went From 50% to 85%.
Mixpanel didn't fix churn by adding features. It shut down two products, put engineering back on its core, and retention went from 50% to 85%.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsHow You End a Project Decides Whether Anyone Takes the Next Shot
Teams that get punished for stopping a project stop raising the alarm early. How you end a failed bet shapes whether anyone flags the next one.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsNobody 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.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsDocs 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.
Field Notes
Consulting Operations51% 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.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsPerdue 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.
Field Notes
Release NotesPostwright 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.
Field Notes
Release NotesPostwright 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.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe 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.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsWhen 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.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsWe 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.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsSoftware Teams Don't Have a Gate. I Spent Two Days With People Who Do.
At a summit built for physical products, I saw what most software teams lack: a point where a bad project can actually be stopped.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Most Common Root Cause in a Stuck Product Team Is Someone Avoiding a Conversation
When a product team is stuck and the systems cause won't show itself, look for the conversation someone has been avoiding. It's usually there.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsIf Your Best Customer and Your Worst Prospect Give the Same Answer, the Question Tested Nothing
A validation question earns its place only if your best customer and your worst-fit prospect would answer it differently. Most don't.
Field Notes
Consulting Operations31% of Expert-Network Experts Say They've Taken Calls They Weren't Qualified For
A survey of 1,368 network experts found 31% took calls they weren't qualified for. If your name is on the recommendation, the call isn't the evidence.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsEvery Language We Launched Grew 70–120% a Week. The Demand Was Visible Before We Built Anything.
The best market validation is often demand you can already see in what people do. Here's how we found it at CoinDesk before building anything.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsFive Months Late, They Expanded the Offshore Team to 60 Engineers. It Got Later.
A late team kept adding people and kept getting slower. Brooks's law explains part of it. What it leaves out is what late teams actually lack.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Best Product Validation I Ever Got Was a $6.5 Million Quote
A client could afford a $6.5 million training quote and still refused it. That refusal was the best product validation I've ever had.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsVision Is the Destination. Mission Is the Vehicle. Strategy Is the Route.
When a team cannot state all three, build decisions default to whoever spoke loudest, and the features stop adding up to anything.
