Observatory · Field Notes
Field Notes.
Practitioner notes from the reality of the companies. Shorter, declarative: the working surface of the Observatory.
Publication rhythm
- Field Note · 01 · May 1, 2026
The four-loop problem
On organizational habits and the tools we keep forgetting to pick up.
- Field Note · 02 · May 4, 2026
Version control as an operating model
What the bench learns from a discipline that lets you walk things back.
- Field Note · 03 · May 7, 2026
Dashboards don't change behavior. Rituals do.
Why an unwatched surface becomes decoration, and what to do about it.
- Field Note · 04 · May 10, 2026
Trust, measured
From claim to demonstration — what the next data layer makes provable.
- Field Note · 05 · May 13, 2026
The single source of truth is a person
On the systems of record we treat as authoritative and the people who actually know.
- Field Note · 06 · May 15, 2026
What goes unmeasured
On the gaps in every dashboard, and what they measure without showing it.
- Field Note · 07 · May 19, 2026
The dashboard that pays for itself
On what happens when a measurement regime is profitable for the measurer, and how to spot the pattern in your own dashboards.
- Field Note · 08 · May 23, 2026
What does not get said gets made
On what stays unsaid in operator-led businesses, and where the cost shows up when it does.
- Field Note · 09 · May 28, 2026
The shelf stays. The decision moves online.
On where the purchase actually gets decided, and why that place is the whole game for a Bio delivery network.
- Field Note · 10 · July 2, 2026
Every requirement, three solutions. None knows the others exist.
On why the same flexibility that makes a low-code ERP platform valuable is what sinks most mid-market rollouts — and how to introduce one with clear rules, instead of losing control of the configuration.
- Field Note · 11 · July 28, 2026
The automation is not announced
On why the service retailers name as their greatest strength carries no price of its own, and why the automation therefore starts exactly where the customer cannot see it.