Eight years as a senior business and technical analyst across data migration, transformation, and project delivery. Field Notes is the playbook I wish existed on my first project — built from the ones I actually ran, not from the outside looking in.
There's a whole industry selling six-figure "frameworks" — a rebranded slide deck, a Notion template, and a consultant who's never sat in a delivery seat. If it isn't built with AI actually doing the heavy lifting, it's just paper with a nicer cover. And if it doesn't come from someone who's actually run the project, it's a guess in a template.
Field Notes is the opposite bet. Every playbook here comes out of a real engagement — a data migration that had to reconcile to the cent, a transformation program that had to survive contact with the business, a UAT cycle that actually caught what mattered. Written from the seat of a contributor, not from the outside looking in. If something didn't work, the playbook says so.
Each playbook ships with the templates used on the real venture — not a mock-up built for the sales page.
Reconciliation that actually reconciles, a cutover plan the business can follow at 2am, and a rollback plan nobody hopes to use but everyone needs.
Moving stakeholders from "this doesn't apply to me" to "when do we start," and keeping a transformation program honest once the target operating model meets the org chart.
Writing requirements developers can actually build from, catching the assumption that kills a sprint before it ships, and running a walkthrough that finds gaps instead of ticking a box.
Test case design that covers what the business will hit on day one, a defect triage process that doesn't stall a go-live, and sign-off that means something.
Writing solution design and process documentation that survives the handover to BAU, without the 40-page document nobody reads.
Prioritising when three project managers all think you're theirs, keeping a status update honest, and knowing when to escalate versus absorb.
Fixed pricing. No enterprise quote, no "book a call to see the price."
Every playbook starts on an actual project — not a hypothetical case study.
The requirement that got missed, the cutover that nearly didn't reconcile, the stakeholder conversation that went sideways — written down as it happens.
Condensed into a playbook and the exact templates used on the project. No filler chapters to hit a page count.
When the next project changes the approach, the playbook gets updated — not left to go stale.
Tell me which playbook you're after, or what you're stuck on. I'll point you at the right one — or tell you honestly if I don't have it yet.