Field Notes

Subscribe

Observations from the trenches on product strategy, AI in production, and systems that earn trust.

Interconnected publishing network representing an owned website syndicated across federated channels
Essays · · 7 min read

Protocols, Not Platforms: Why I Wired My Site Into the Fediverse

Why I integrated ActivityPub into ryanw.eu, adopted a POSSE publishing model, and treat the Fediverse as distribution infrastructure rather than rented audience.

Read Article →
Engineering the Connective Layer: Bentley Systems Dublin
Company Teardowns · · 9 min

Engineering the Connective Layer: Why Bentley Systems Is One of Dublin's Most Interesting Product Challenges

A Dublin product leader's analysis of Bentley Systems: connected data, internal platforms, and trustworthy AI inside one of Ireland's most strategic software challenges.

Read more ↗
Architectural visualization of a personal digital ecosystem representing editorial judgment and owned web presence
Essays · · 5 min

Why I Have a Website When LinkedIn Exists

LinkedIn is a database. A personal site is a product decision. What maintaining one taught me about editorial judgment.

Read more ↗
Layered architectural blocks with misaligned seams representing domain drift across teams
Applied Strategy · · 8 min

Domain Bugs Cost More Than Code Bugs

Domain-Driven Design, ubiquitous language, and bounded contexts matter because product teams ship the wrong workflow when legal, product, and engineering mean different things by the same word.

Read more ↗
Weighted scoring spreadsheet used to separate customer signal from noise and rank roadmap themes
Applied Strategy · · 6 min

Signal to Noise: The Spreadsheet That Changed What We Shipped

A Zendesk case study in customer feedback prioritization: how a simple weighted scorecard separated signal from noise, surfaced hidden issues, and changed the roadmap.

Read more ↗
Operational infrastructure representing AI production readiness, monitoring, and rollback controls
Applied Strategy · · 8 min

Your AI Demo Is Not Production Ready

A production-readiness release gate for AI features: representative evals, structured outputs, tool safety, observability, rollback, and the evidence I expect before GA.

Read more ↗
Tablet displaying task completion dashboard with green checkmarks and metrics
Applied Strategy · · 5 min

Stop Measuring Engagement, Start Measuring Task Success

High engagement in a product employees have to use doesn't mean good UX. It means no alternative. Here's how to pick HEART categories that matter.

Read more ↗
Brass balance scale with geometric blocks and weighted trade-offs representing nuanced prioritisation
Applied Strategy · · 9 min

Why Raw RICE Fails on Internal Platforms

RICE still works as a shared prioritisation language. On internal platforms, the failure starts when teams treat raw reach math as the answer instead of adding a domain-risk pass and documenting the rationale.

Read more ↗
Open notebook with architectural diagrams alongside a laptop — knowledge management workflow
Applied Strategy · · 4 min

Documentation Is a Product Surface

Knowledge shouldn't be a side project. Teams that treat docs as a first-class feature ship faster and break less.

Read more ↗
Aerial view of city intersection with competing light trails converging
Applied Strategy · · 6 min

The Loudest Request Is Rarely the Most Important

Product teams drown in feedback: tickets, sales calls, NPS, stakeholder opinions. Without a scoring system, the loudest voice wins. Here's what replaces gut feeling.

Read more ↗