Field Notes - Dec 2, '25

Executive Signals

Internal brand is the new design system: anchor internal UIs to brand tokens for trust and speed
Demos prefer loops over ladders: show ingest-to-result path and suppress flaky integrations in live rooms
Backpressure beats burstiness: separate test lanes and protect production queues under load
Network-only access : SSO, RBAC, and audits before wider use
Reviews are the release train: align UI polish with CI gates to compound speed

If a connector has a deterministic failure, do not bring it into a live room. Lead with a stable “ingest → process → result” loop to land the value story, then expand coverage once adapters are reliable.

Gate actions behind a verified logged-in state
Keep auto-retry with jitter for transients; suppress noisy paths in demos
Publish a live “known issues for demo” list to avoid improvisation

Customer Success

Fail-Forward Playbook for Compliance Bots

Make failures boring and recoverable so users never feel the blast radius. Engineering owns fix-and-rerun by default; business intervenes only when time-sensitive.

On final retry fail, post to ChatOps, update CRM status, attach error and screencap
Provide a “reset in CRM” action to revert state, then rerun from queue
Run a morning sweep to triage failures before users notice

Product

Brand-Guided AI for Internal UI Velocity

Treat internal tools as part of the external brand experience. Feed brand tokens to design/LLM to generate first-pass dashboards, then apply a neutral base with brand accents for emphasis and state. This builds trust in demos and cuts bikeshedding.

Convert brand guide into tokens for color, typography, spacing
Prompt AI for a few layout options; tighten in paired sessions
Keep neutrals as base; reserve brand colors for CTAs and status

Segment-Level Motion Prompts > Global Prompts

For avatar and video generation, motion should follow the script’s rhythm. Attach a movement prompt per segment, default to a sane template, and persist it. Avoid stochastic motion that fights timing.

Store movement_prompt alongside narration for each segment
Default to a stock prompt; make it user-editable and deterministic
Offer clear “Select” vs “Generate” modes to reduce cognitive load

Engineering

Stabilize Queues with Backpressure and Burst Control

Burst tests drowned production signals and buckled workers. Add backpressure, isolate test lanes, and enforce timeouts so capacity remains available for real jobs.

Throttle CRM ingestion with rate limits and batch windows; split test from live lanes
Set safe concurrency per vendor/source and autoscale to that ceiling
Enforce hard job timeouts around 10–15 minutes to kill hangs

Auth Before Audience

A network-only dashboard works for engineers, not for broader access. Before adding non-engineering viewers, add real auth, roles, and auditability while keeping endpoints private.

Ship SSO and RBAC for view, run, and reset permissions
Emit audit logs for every action; verify before any public ingress
Create a read-only role for compliance to prevent risky clicks

Review Hygiene Compounds Speed

Design drift and merge debt slow delivery. Land pixels and code together by tightening review hygiene and making CI non-negotiable.

Align preview controls horizontally; contain popover overflow
Remove duplicate labels and “current/current” cruft to keep inputs scannable
Make lint, type-check, and format mandatory pre-commit; resolve branch conflicts daily