I build large software systems and spend most days examining how technology, people, and incentives collide in the messy real world. I care about clarity, first principles, strong design patterns, and decisions that hold up under real-world pressure. I’m a builder by nature, a mentor by habit, and skeptical of buzzwords and performative certainty.

Outside of work, I’m a mother, a lifelong learner, and someone constantly balancing ambition, family, health, and meaning. I run small experiments in how I learn, work, and live, and I write to make sense of those experiences.

This website is where I write - articles, essays, blogs, and short reflections on software architecture, leadership, AI, modernization, systems thinking, execution, learning, and the human side of building things. Some pieces are polished. Some are exploratory. All are written to think clearly, not to market or perform.

Recent & Featured

Reading comes first

No infinite scroll. Each piece stands on its own. Come in, read, and leave with a clearer mental model.

Essay · AI Stack

Agents vs Skills vs MCP

A pragmatic framework for deciding how orchestration, knowledge, and integration layers work together in 2025, including real architecture diagrams and ready-to-use configurations.

18 min Published Feb 2025

Framework · Leadership

BVDLC Phase 0

How I run the first 72 hours of any modernization effort - problem definition, success metrics, ROI, and risk before a single line of code is written.

14 min Published Feb 2025

Guide · Claude Code

Claude Code Skills Quick Guide

Step-by-step instructions for writing reusable SKILL.md files, optional folder structure, and the five skills worth building this week.

6 min Published Jan 2025

Long-form

Essays & deep dives

Structured arguments, annotated diagrams, and decisions tested against messy constraints.

Short notes

Musings, experiments, observations

Frameworks

Instrument the invisible work

Building a scorecard for architectural cleanups so leadership sees compounding value instead of invisible toil.

Note · Feb 11
Frameworks

Phase 0 standups

Teams want to skip the context work, so we run short daily standups during Phase 0: alignment, metrics, blockers, sign-off. Keeps the urgency without losing rigor.

Note · Feb 6
Context Systems

Context check-ins

Replaced “prompt reviews” with “context reviews.” Once a month we prune anchors, templates, and examples - treating them like code.

Note · Jan 28

Themes

Tags that keep me honest

Architecture in real life

Design patterns, integration scars, modernization playbooks.

Human systems

Trust, incentives, meetings that matter, unglamorous execution.

AI & tooling

Pairing with copilots, evaluation criteria, production guardrails.

Learning experiments

Small bets, reflection prompts, routines that survive real life.

Motherhood & ambition

Balancing care work with leadership without pretending it’s easy.

Health & meaning

Slow progress logs, what I’m reading, how I reset.

Archive

Index by year