Operating insights
The Playconomix Playbook
Practical field notes on product, sourcing, supply chain, community, leadership, and building companies that can handle their next stage.
The next hire should remove a constraint, not just reduce somebody’s annoyance.
Growing companies often hire around the loudest pain. A smarter approach is to identify where one inv...
A forecast can create leverage before it creates a purchase order.
Most growing brands buy reactively: demand spikes, panic begins, and the supplier names the terms. A credible forw...
Gross margin can make smart people stupid if they ignore the value of distribution.
A direct order may look more profitable than a wholesale unit. But a retailer relationship can cr...
Scarcity turns every channel manager into a lawyer.
When inventory is abundant, allocation feels academic. When stock gets tight, every order is suddenly strategic, urgent, and atta...
A forecast is not a prediction carved into stone. It is a company-wide argument about the future—with math attached.
Bad forecasts often look precise because one person quietly fill...
Let’s kill one of the dumbest ideas in modern business: holding people accountable does not ruin culture. Avoiding hard conversations ruins culture.
I’ve watched good companies tie...
AI can do some incredible shit. It can also help you execute a terrible process faster, at greater scale, with fewer humans noticing until the customer is furious.
Founders keep as...