Ideas & field notes
Notes on strategy, program design, customer experience, and learning. Questions to help you see the work differently and choose a useful next step.
Field notes by email
Practical notes for small business owners and nonprofit leaders on strategy, programs, customers, and AI workflows. Unsubscribe anytime.
Strategy · 6 min read ·
The organizations shaking up big systems are rarely the big ones. Here is how the small ones do it, and how to decide what to do next when every door seems to be waiting.
Read the field note ↗
Strategy · 6 min read ·
Duckworth’s new book shows how the people, places, and objects around us shape what we do. What situational agency looks like for owners, nonprofit leaders, and small teams.
Read the field note ↗
Program design · 7 min read ·
Advice from researchers, educators, funders, and product teams for anyone building something people learn from: relationships first, learning science, co-design, and a person in the loop.
Read the field note ↗
Community · 6 min read ·
A child’s future is shaped long before kindergarten and well beyond the classroom. What that means for education organizations, community groups, and local businesses, with practical ways to help.
Read the field note ↗
AI workflows · 6 min read ·
How small teams can use Claude’s skill creator to turn a sales process into a skill for replies, follow-up, and call prep, with a person approving what goes out.
Read the field note ↗
Community · 5 min read ·
Small business owners and nonprofit leaders often carry hard decisions alone. How a community of practice or peer group works, what makes one last, and how to build one with peers, staff, or volunteers.
Read the field note ↗
Customer experience · 5 min read ·
A service blueprint shows what your customers experience and everything behind it. The five components, the line of visibility, and how small businesses and nonprofits use blueprints to fix friction.
Read the field note ↗
Market intelligence · 5 min read ·
Before you launch, reprice, expand, or ask a funder for support, know who you serve. How buyers, users, and funders differ, what a landscape review shows, and how to turn findings into decisions.
Read the field note ↗
Strategy · 5 min read ·
When a small business or nonprofit keeps fixing the same issue, the real cause is often one layer down. How to separate symptoms from causes and reframe the problem before you spend.
Read the field note ↗Program design · 3 min read ·
Entrepreneurial mindset needs more than encouragement. Design programs that give learners repeated opportunities to decide, test, reflect, and try again.
Read the field note ↗
Customer Experience · 6 min read ·
The customers, families, and donors who leave rarely tell you why. The friction usually shows up long before the exit, and you can often fix it once you know where to look.
Read the field note ↗
Business Model · 7 min read ·
When the programs multiply faster than the funding, contracts, or paying customers that support them, the fix is usually a clearer decision about what to keep.
Read the field note ↗
Strategy · 8 min read ·
Many plans stop working because the world moved and the plan stayed put. Here's how to tell, and what to do before you start over.
Read the field note ↗For educators and leaders
A dedicated collection on teacher voice, coaching, and professional learning that changes classroom practice.
Three free PDFs for the work these notes describe: the Problem Clarity Worksheet to name the real problem, the Pilot Plan to test a new program small, and the Situation Map to see what is shaping the people you serve.
