Field Notes - Dec 10, ’25

Executive Signals

• Onboarding is the new provisioning: CRM status flips auto-mint secrets and IDs
• Queues beat flags: control blast radius with input hygiene, not codepaths
• Holiday freeze, empty pipes: test end-to-end during vendor blackouts
• Slip dates, not quality: gate go-live on proofs, not vibes
• Simple until sensitive: consolidate credentials when data risk is trivial

CEO

Soft Gates Beat Holiday Cliffs

Treat early January as a soft gate, not a cliff. If readiness drifts, push dates. Define go/no-go on proofs: submit a real case per program, persist the reference number in CRM, and run the credential pipeline end-to-end without a human in the loop.

• Run a readiness review 7–10 days prior; publish DRI and cutline
• If fewer than 80% of programs meet proofs, slip two weeks and keep testing
• Communicate the slip early; align security policy before reschedule

Engineering

Route Secrets Through CRM, Not Slack

Ad-hoc credential handoffs don’t scale. Productize secrets provisioning off CRM onboarding: when compliance flips to complete for a new account, auto-create a DevOps ticket to mint secrets and return stable IDs that engineers map consistently.

• Enforce a naming schema: {adapter}/{resource}/{account}
• Templatize DevOps requests; require secure-channel handoff and deletion of shared creds
• Track SLA; most teams have 15–30 days before first run—use it

Consolidate Credentials When Risk Is Trivial

When workflows touch no PII or financial data and the blast radius is spam at worst, don’t explode per-environment logins. One credential set across environments with monitoring and incident-driven rotation beats complexity-driven failure.

• Classify data/workflow first, then set the minimum viable control
• Maintain a rotation playbook; enable fast secret swaps
• Escalate exceptions with the security lead; default to simplicity

Test During Vendor Blackouts

Holiday shutdowns are ideal for end-to-end testing. Submissions still generate reference numbers even if no one processes them. Pre-select one dealer per program, send a courtesy heads-up, and run flows while queues are quiet.

• Curate one live test account per OEM/program with prior approval
• Ensure only one item is “Ready/New” per program to prevent fan-out
• Capture reference IDs and artifacts for reconciliation

Control Blast Radius With Queue Hygiene, Not Test-Only Code

If an adapter processes an entire program, avoid “test-only” branches in production. Condition inputs instead: enforce exactly one eligible item in the queue, make runs idempotent, and persist reference numbers for dedupe. Use API tools to reset statuses between trials.

• Assert pre-run: exactly one eligible job per program, else fail closed
• Make runs idempotent; persist reference numbers for deduplication
• Keep dry-run behind a flag in staging, not production