Field Notes

Practical writing for product leaders and boutique advisors – on deciding what to build, answering the hard questions, and running a sharper practice.

June 25, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Intent 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
June 24, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
The 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
June 22, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
The 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
June 21, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
AI-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
June 20, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
The 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
June 19, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Your 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.
June 18, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Getting 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
June 16, 2026
Field Notes
Product Strategy
The 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
June 15, 2026
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
June 14, 2026
Field Notes
Product Strategy
Run 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
June 13, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
AI 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
June 12, 2026
Field Notes
Product Strategy
Code 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
June 11, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
How 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
June 10, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Boutique 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
June 5, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Document Synthesis Is the Leverage Point
Why document synthesis is the single highest-leverage AI capability for boutique advisors.
June 4, 2026
Field Notes
Knowledge & AI
The No-Staff Knowledge Stack in 2026
How solo consultants build a knowledge system that scales beyond memory without hiring.
May 29, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
The 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.
May 28, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Why 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.
May 27, 2026
Field Notes
Consulting Operations
Consulting 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.
May 26, 2026
Field Notes
Managed Intelligence
How 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.