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.
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 it's almost always fixable if 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 rarely another program. It's a clearer decision about what to keep.
Read the field note ↗
Strategy · 8 min read
Most plans don't fail because they were wrong. They fail because the world moved and the plan didn't. 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.
Use the Customer Experience Blueprint or PL Session Planner to work through a challenge with your team.