Field Notes
Practical writing for product leaders and boutique advisors – on deciding what to build, answering the hard questions, and running a sharper practice.
Target 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.
Strategy 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.
If 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.
It'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.
The 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.
I 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.
47% 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.
The 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.
The 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.