Field Notes - Oct 29, '25

Executive Signals

FYP over followers: early comments drive reach, manufacture luck with variant testing
Categories sell, features stall: lead with "front-end firewall," not CSP mechanics
Artifacts are interfaces: profiles, PDFs, logs convert automation into auditability
Sequence before scale: add one new capability per adapter to preserve velocity
Secrets rot faster than code: vault, rotate, and own credentials with clear DRIs

Social reach is stochastic in the first hundred views. Beat randomness with systematic testing and skimmable structure: grade‑7 readability, “see more” triggers, and line‑break cadence. Treat the first hour as launch ops, not luck.

Draft 10 cornerstone posts on one theme; publish 5 stylistic variants each
Pre‑wire allies to comment, not just like; optimize for “see more” clicks
Use AI style‑transfer (technical, operator‑dry, storyteller); keep what sustains engagement

Sell Front‑End Security as a Category

Non‑security buyers don’t speak CSPs. Reframe as a “front‑end firewall” that governs the browser surface where tags and third‑party scripts run. Lead with a simple analogy, one concrete misuse case, then the before/after control.

Publish a 10‑post series: problem → why it’s invisible → the control you apply
Use plain language and visuals; one takeaway per post, short paragraphs
Speak in category terms (“tag managers”), focus on outcomes: fewer rogue scripts, less leakage

Product

Canonicalize Brands Upfront

Multi‑brand portals disagree on strings. Normalize before submission and before CRM writes so reporting and routing stay clean. Keep a minimal synonym map to a single canonical brand and gate submissions on it; route edge cases to review.

Maintain a versioned mapping dictionary with shortcodes and variants
Enforce submit‑time validation: brand ∈ allowed set per portal
Log ambiguities; require human pick‑list resolution within 24 hours

Engineering

Pre‑Scan Forms to Make Adapter Builds Deterministic

Stop hand‑inspecting DOMs. Ship a lightweight “page artifact profile” that exports inputs, labels, and metadata. It gives developers and models a deterministic target list and turns adapter authoring into fill‑in‑the‑blanks.

Provide one‑click profiling that exports JSON for prompts and tests
Cache profiles per portal; refresh on detected layout changes
Require the profile as a PR artifact for any new adapter

Sequence Adapters by Marginal Complexity

Order OEMs so each adds exactly one new capability (auth, upload, evidence mode). This onboards new engineers faster, composes the platform deliberately, and sustains velocity without silent scope creep.

Maintain a capability matrix; pick the next two with a single new delta each
Target time‑to‑adapter ≤ 5 days before advancing tiers
Freeze scope per tier; defer extras instead of “just adding it now”

Treat Evidence PDFs as a First‑Class Service

Audits need two modes: URL‑to‑PDF stubs and full site screenshots. Implement a deterministic service with headless capture, templating, hashing, and storage so compliance never becomes bespoke per brand.

Mode A: lightweight PDF with source URL; Mode B: crawl, screenshot, stitch
Acceptance gates: checksum recorded, size limit respected, redactions applied
Store artifacts for 13 months with immutable logs

Feature Flags Make Automation Reliable

Headful versus headless and manual‑login pauses are essential controls. Use them to debug new portals, then lock production to headless with rich failure artifacts.

Standardize flags: headful, manual_login, dry_run, screenshot_on_error
Require headful + manual_login until secrets are live and stable
In production, default headless; on failure, capture DOM, screenshot, and HAR

Rotate Credentials Annually, Not in Spreadsheets

Credentials in spreadsheets fail audits and incidents. Move to a managed vault with ownership and rotation SLAs: one reset post‑launch, then annually or on personnel change.

Migrate secrets to a vault with access logs and least privilege
Set rotation policy with 30‑/7‑day expiry alerts and a clear DRI
Maintain tested break‑glass accounts offline; exercise quarterly