How to scope a project so a vendor can't scope-creep you
Scope creep isn't usually bad faith, it's a scope document that never defined its own edges. How to write one a vendor can't quietly expand.
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Thoughts
Notes on systems, process, and the decisions behind them.
Behind the scenes: how I structure a first client audit
Every engagement starts the same way: an audit, before any recommendation. Here's exactly what that process looks like, step by step.
The 3 questions to ask before adding another SaaS subscription
Every subscription looked justified the day it got approved. Three questions, asked before the next signup, catch most of the bloat before it starts.
The automation that saved 10 hours a week (and the one that didn't)
Two automations, built a month apart. One saved ten hours a week. The other quietly failed. The difference wasn't the technology.
Why your bottleneck usually isn't the tool
'We need better software' is the most common wrong diagnosis for a slowing business. How to tell a tooling problem from a process problem before you buy anything.
A build-vs-buy call that looked obvious, and was wrong
The build-vs-buy call looked obvious. Eight months later, it wasn't. What the evaluation missed, and the question that would have caught it.
Systems thinking, applied to your grocery list
Systems thinking sounds abstract until it's applied to something as ordinary as a grocery list. The same method scales straight up to your business.
What happens when you actually map a business's workflow on a whiteboard
Two hours with a whiteboard surfaced four ownerless handoffs and two steps nobody could explain. What mapping a real workflow actually reveals.
Red flags in a freelancer/agency pitch before you sign
A good pitch and a good engagement are only loosely related. Five signs in a freelancer or agency pitch worth catching before you sign.
The onboarding process that was quietly losing customers
Revenue looked fine. Churn quietly wasn't. The audit that found the leak wasn't in the product, it was in the first two weeks of onboarding.