Articles

The library.

Forty-nine articles on AI transformation, the V1 Framework, consumer growth, and the operator's case studies behind each.

AI Transformation Pillars

The AI Transformation Playbook for Consumer Brands

The cornerstone playbook. Five phases: diagnose, anchor, pilot, scale, operate.

Cornerstone · 14 min read

Production AI vs AI Demos

The seven properties that separate production AI from demoware.

Pillar · 10 min read

The V1 Framework: An Introduction

90% thinking, 10% prompting. The methodology behind production AI work.

Pillar · 9 min read

How to Build an AI Center of Excellence

Operating-led CoE design. Platform, governance, enablement, measurement.

Pillar · 11 min read

The First 90 Days as a Fractional CTO at a Consumer Brand

The 30-60-90 plan. Diagnose, anchor, deliver. What to refuse.

Pillar · 11 min read

Measuring ROI on AI Initiatives

Three-number framework. The wrong numbers to avoid. Quarterly cadence.

Pillar · 11 min read

AI Change Management for Frontline Teams

Why behavior change is the expensive part. Measuring adoption honestly.

Pillar · 10 min read

AI Governance Without Killing Velocity

Minimum viable governance. Ship pilots first, layer governance from what you learned.

Pillar · 10 min read

From Marketing Technology to AI-Native Operations

The architecture shift from martech stack to AI-native operating model.

Pillar · 10 min read

The AI Operating Cadence

Weekly, monthly, quarterly rituals that produce compounding output.

Pillar · 10 min read

The Hidden Cost of AI Vendor Sprawl

The 70/30 rule. Audit playbook. Consolidation vs best-of-breed.

Pillar · 10 min read

V1 Framework

V1 Step 1: Strip

Removing AI assumptions. What you actually know vs what you are assuming.

V1 · 9 min read

V1 Step 2: Decompose

Breaking AI problems to the irreducible unit of work.

V1 · 9 min read

V1 Step 3: Constrain

Defining the real boundaries. Inputs, outputs, authority, failure modes.

V1 · 9 min read

V1 Step 4: Define Done

Acceptance criteria as the contract between thinking and output.

V1 · 9 min read

V1 Step 5: Instruct

The prompt as specification, not wish. The final 10%.

V1 · 9 min read

Case Studies

How NASM Architected the Marketing Technology Stack

110.6% e-commerce growth, ROAS lifted 160% to 800%+, team scaled 3 to 34.

Case Study · 11 min read

How SplitTesting.com Productized CRO Into an 11x Exit

800% growth in under 9 months. 88%+ clients hit record revenue. Exit at 11x EBITDA.

Case Study · 11 min read

Veyl Ventures: Six-Figure Daily Decisions

17% MoM revenue growth on flat media budget at nine-figure scale.

Case Study · 11 min read

How CreativeOS Embeds AI Into 25,000 Brand Workflows

Production AI architecture serving 25,000+ consumer brands with brand-specific guardrails.

Case Study · 11 min read

From Marketing P&L to AI P&L

The career pivot from growth leadership to AI operations.

Case Study · 11 min read

Three Exits: Patterns That Compound

The patterns shared across three exits. Productizing as the largest lever.

Case Study · 11 min read

Industry Verticals

AI Transformation for DTC Health and Wellness Brands

Where AI moves the P&L for DTC health and wellness. Compliance constraints.

Industry · 10 min read

AI Strategy for E-Commerce: Consumer Retail Playbook

Five AI surfaces in e-commerce. Contribution margin per session as the anchor.

Industry · 11 min read

AI for Subscription Commerce: The Retention Math

Why retention is the P&L. Four AI surfaces, LTV math.

Industry · 9 min read

AI for CPG Brands

Channel mix realities. Shopper marketing, demand forecasting, retailer co-marketing.

Industry · 10 min read

AI for Specialty Grocery and Natural Foods

Curation-led commerce. Perishables forecasting. Brand-trust constraint.

Industry · 10 min read

AI for Consumer Fintech

Regulatory baseline. Four high-ROI surfaces. Build vs buy.

Industry · 10 min read

Practical How-Tos

How to Pick the Right LLM: GPT, Claude, Gemini

Four selection axes. The orchestration play. Eval-set-first.

How-to · 10 min read

Building Your First AI Agent Workflow

Workflow patterns. First agent worth building. Production observability.

How-to · 10 min read

RAG Architecture for Consumer Brands

When to use RAG. The architecture. Cost math. Common failures.

How-to · 10 min read

Prompt Engineering for Marketing Operations

V1 Framework applied to marketing prompts. Brand voice spec. Eval set.

How-to · 10 min read

AI for Customer Service: A Phased Rollout

Read-only to suggested to autonomous. Escalation logic. Metrics that matter.

How-to · 10 min read

AI-Powered Creative Production at Scale

Brief to generation to validation to ship. Guardrails layer.

How-to · 10 min read

Audit Your Marketing Tech Stack for AI Readiness

Four-layer audit. The 70% rule. Scoring rubric.

How-to · 10 min read

AI Tooling Budget 2026

Allocation framework. Audit-first principle. Reserve for experimentation.

How-to · 9 min read

Building Production AI Workflows With Claude Code

What Claude Code is. Production workflows that benefit. Human review pattern.

How-to · 10 min read

How to Hire Your First AI Engineer

When to hire. Production AI engineer vs ML researcher. Interview loop.

How-to · 10 min read

Tools and Templates

The AI Transformation Roadmap Template

The one-page roadmap I use to anchor consumer-brand AI programs.

Tool · 8 min read

The 90-Day AI POC Checklist

Phase-by-phase checklist. Owner, baseline, kill criterion, go/no-go template.

Tool · 9 min read

AI Vendor Evaluation Scorecard

Six-axis scoring rubric. Bake-off protocol. Decision artifact.

Tool · 9 min read

LLM Cost Calculator: Production Edition

Cost line items. Volume forecasting. Worked example.

Tool · 10 min read

AI Initiative ROI Framework

Attribution methodology. Fully loaded cost. Confidence interval.

Tool · 9 min read

AI Adoption Survey Template

The 10 to 15 questions that drive decisions. Scoring and segmentation.

Tool · 9 min read

Personal Stories

Builder, Operator, Dad: The Order Matters

The identity stack. Why the order is structural, not stylistic.

Personal · 7 min read

Three Exits: Lessons From Selling Companies

What was the same across three exits. The post-exit lessons.

Personal · 7 min read

The Day I Apologized to a Friend

Accountability as the leadership move that holds across the identities.

Personal · 7 min read

Parenting and AI

What my kids reveal about how the next generation works with AI.

Personal · 7 min read

The Phoenix Operator

Phoenix metro as home base. The remote, family, and cost math.

Personal · 7 min read