Field Notes
Practical writing for product leaders and boutique advisors – on deciding what to build, answering the hard questions, and running a sharper practice.
All Field Notes posts, page 3
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsTarget Spent $7 Billion in Canada to Learn Something the Third Question Would Have Told Them
New research on 20 global retailers finds expansion failures are decided before entry, by a question most teams never ask.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsStrategy Is a Filter, Not a Plan
A product that had burned through three PMs was building everything from scratch. The fix wasn't a better roadmap. It was cutting until one thing left.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsIf a Client Plus Claude Plus One Engineer Can Do It, the Work Isn't Yours Anymore
A sharp test for advisory work: could your client plus a good model plus one engineer deliver 80% of it? The usual answer to that test is too soft.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsIt's the System 98% of the Time. Deming Said 94%. Your Instinct Says It's the Person.
In my engagements, what arrives as a people problem turns out to be a systems problem about 98% of the time. Deming put it at 94. Here's why we get it wrong.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Five Whys Finds About 3% of Your Problem
Researchers drew the full causal tree for one incident and found 75+ causes. A Five Whys pass finds one of them. Here's when that's fine, and when it isn't.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsI Wrote Down Eight Risks. All Eight Happened. Nobody Moved.
I logged eight risks against a product at Adaptavist. Within a year all eight had happened and we killed it. Writing them down changed nothing.
Field Notes
Consulting Operations47% of Boutique Firms Lost a Quarter to Half Their Pipeline to ‘No Decision’
Nearly half of boutique firms lost a quarter to half their closed-lost pipeline to no decision. That isn't a closing problem. It's an evidence one.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Five Lenses I Run Before I Diagnose a Team
A team blamed an engineer for 90-day tickets. His actual time in queue was five. Here are the five lenses I run before I diagnose a team.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Person Closest to the Problem Is the Last to See It
The person closest to a problem is often the last to see its gaps — that's how expertise works. Which is exactly why a solo advisor needs outside eyes.
Field Notes
Consulting Operations'MBB Depth Without the MBB Team' Is Half an Answer
A wave of vendors offers boutique advisors MBB-depth research without the MBB team. It's real, it's cheap, and it's only half of what the work needs.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsHow to Research an Audience You've Never Served
Researching an audience you've never served is a different job: the whole task is telling real demand from polite interest. Here's how it's done.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsYour Features Shipped. Your Metrics Didn't Move. The Gap Has a Name.
Your team ships on schedule and the numbers stay flat. That's the build trap — and cheap AI building made it easier to fall into and costlier to ignore.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsYou Don't Choose a Direction Once
You can't set a heading once and walk — the trees pull you off course. Product direction is a bet you re-make, not a decision you make once.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsThe Highest-Value Answer in Market Validation Is 'No'
Validation isn't a green light. For one client, its most valuable output was a no — before a dollar went into a market that wasn't there.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsWhen Your Research Tool Tells You What You Want to Hear
An AI research tool handed me a confident number that was exactly what I wanted to hear — and wrong. The verification gap is the step cheap answers skip.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsI Ran Three Research Projects Through Tavily and Exa. Exa Won All Three.
I ran the same deep-research plan through Tavily and Exa three times, blind-judged and single-variable. Exa won all three — cheaper, faster, more complete.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsAn 80% Team Beats a 95% Team
Ship at 80% and a learning team compounds past a team that polishes to 95% – because shipping is the loop, and the cost of over-polishing is invisible.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsResearch Agents Get Less Accurate the More They Read: 42% Worse From 2 Tool Calls to 150
Deep research agents keep link validity above 92% at every depth while fact-check accuracy falls 42%, so here's the order to verify a report in.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsYou've Researched Enough When Three People Who Live the Problem Agree It's Real
Analysis paralysis isn't cured by more confidence. The stopping rule: when three or four people who live the problem agree your hypothesis is real.
Field Notes
Consulting OperationsYour Metric Isn't a Target. It's a Hypothesis You Forgot to Test
Features ship and the metric stays flat because teams treat the metric as a target to hit, not the hypothesis it was built to test.
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