Writing about the craft.
Essays, teardowns, and engineering notes from the team. What we have learned, shipped, or broken.
recent
First-token latency is a UX problem, not an infrastructure one.
The gap between pressing submit and seeing the first character of output is the single variable that decides whether an AI product feels fast or slow. The fix is not in the model. It is in the interface.
7 min readStructured outputs are the new prompt.
We used to spend half our time on prompt phrasing. Schema-constrained generation changed the job. The schema is now the contract. The prompt is the accent.
7 min readThe best AI feature is the one you don't see.
Conversational AI is the obvious answer, which is why it is also the wrong one for most products. The feature everyone uses is Gmail Smart Compose. The feature nobody uses is a chatbot on the dashboard.
7 min readSearch didn't die. It split in two.
Every commentator is writing SEO's obituary. Our client dashboards tell a less dramatic story. Traditional SEO is quietly steady. AI-answer channels are growing. The split is permanent, and most teams have not adjusted.
8 min readAgents that actually do the work, not just plan it.
Most agent content is about getting a system to plan a task. We spent nine months running agents that have to finish the task. They are not the same problem.
9 min readAI content at scale is a trap. Here's what works instead.
Google's Helpful Content updates have already done the sorting. Sites pumping unedited AI at volume are down. Sites using AI as a drafting assistant are up.
8 min readHow we scope fixed-quote AI projects without regretting it later.
Fixed-quote software work loses money unless you scope well. AI projects are worse because the unknowns are structural, not just technical.
7 min readWhy most AI websites look the same, and what to do about it.
Open ten AI agency websites in ten tabs and squint. You cannot tell which is which. They are all running the same playbook.
7 min readReady to build?
Tell us what you're trying to ship. We'll scope it honestly.