Blog | Nick Jensen

Field Notes

Notes from the work. Things I've learned, built, and figured out along the way.

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The 200-Line Rule That Changed How I Ship Code with AI

When I first let AI agents write code autonomously, the PRs were enormous. One constraint changed everything.

I Built a Brain with Claude Code — Here's How It Runs My Engineering Org

One prompt. No additional input. I let Claude make all the decisions — project structure, skills, scheduling, everything planned around my desired outcome. Here's what happened.

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We're Leaving Shopify Behind (Again). Here's the Migration Playbook.

We are migrating TonyRobbins.com from Shopify Storefront API to native Stripe checkout. Not because Shopify is bad. Because we outgrew what it can do for us. Here is the 8-phase playbook we are using to do it without breaking anything.

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How I Run 3 Engineering Teams with 1 AI Brain

I manage three engineering teams across two products with an AI system that runs daily standups, triages PRs, monitors production, and manages my inbox. Here is the actual architecture and what it gets wrong.

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Claude Code's Source Leaked. Here Are 7 Things I'd Change.

The Claude Code source code became publicly accessible. I spent a day reading it. The engineering is impressive, but there's an architectural blind spot: the system optimizes for content delivery but not attention management. Here are 7 concrete changes I'd make.

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Plugins Are Wasting Your Tokens, Thanks Vercel

I traced where my context window was going during a Claude Code session. A single plugin injected 48,000 tokens of irrelevant documentation across 6 turns. Here's what I found and why plugin architecture for AI coding tools needs a rethink.

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Technical breakdowns

I Taught My AI Agent How to Write Architecture Decision Records

Most teams abandon Architecture Decision Records because they're too hard to sustain. This post shows how I turned Olaf Zimmermann's ADR research into an AI agent skill that handles readiness, creation, anti-pattern detection, completeness, and lifecycle management.

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Technical breakdownsProduct thoughts

I Built an Autonomous Coding Swarm. Here's What I Learned.

This isn't a post about replacing developers. I'm a developer. I like being employed. This is about what happens when you stop treating AI coding tools as fancy autocomplete and start treating them as actual teammates.

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Product thoughts

Product updates

I have been spending a lot of time with Claude Code recently. There have been so many great updates pushed by the team at Anthropic lately that it is hard to keep up with.

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Stripe Checkout: From Payment Processing to Conversion Optimization Engine

What if checkout was not an engineering-owned system at all? What if it was a marketing-owned conversion tool, built on solid engineering foundations? This is the story of how we rebuilt checkout from the ground up. Not as a form. As a platform.

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From Email to Instant Close: How I Built a Proposal System That Actually Gets Results

Tired of proposals disappearing into email purgatory? I built a Next.js + Sanity system that transforms static PDFs into interactive web experiences with one-click acceptance, instant notifications, and optional Stripe payments. Here's how it works and why it converts better.

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Introducing the Nano Banana Image Generator Plugin for Sanity Studio

If you're using Sanity Studio for content management, you know how crucial great imagery is for your projects. This plugin brings the power of Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash Image model directly into your Sanity Studio interface.

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Supercharge Your Sanity CMS Development with Claude Code Plugins

Discover Sanity Agents - 7 powerful Claude Code plugins that revolutionize Sanity CMS development with AI-powered schema building, GROQ optimization, and zero-downtime migrations.

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Claude Code Plugins: Boost Developer Productivity with AI-Powered Development Tools

Discover how Claude Code plugins transform software development with customizable AI workflows, specialized agents, and team collaboration features. Learn practical implementation strategies for individual developers and engineering teams.

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From AI Assistant to 10x Engineer: Building a Production-Grade Claude Code Workflow

You start your day excited. Claude Code is going to help you crush this feature. Three hours later, you're staring at TypeScript errors you didn't catch, inconsistent code patterns, and Claude confidently telling you those 47 errors are "unrelated to our changes."

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Optimizing CLAUDE.md: How to Scale Your Codebase Documentation for AI Assistants

Treat CLAUDE.md as an index, not an encyclopedia. Extract detailed patterns to /docs/claude/, use tables instead of prose, and teach discovery over solutions. We reduced our file from 1,400 to 420 lines while maintaining code quality.

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Building an Ecommerce Shop with Sanity Part 1: Why We Are Leaving Shopify Behind

Why we left Shopify behind and started building a custom ecommerce experience with Sanity CMS. This is Part 1 of a technical series covering the full build.

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Building an Interactive Proposal System with Sanity CMS

How we built a complete proposal management system with digital signatures, payment integration, email notifications, and a drag-and-drop Kanban board—all powered by Sanity CMS.

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From Dashboards to Conversations: What Happens When AI Can Actually Talk to Your Data

Instead of dashboards and filters, I just type things like: "Which campaigns are driving the highest qualified leads by lifecycle stage?" "How did ROAS shift after the new creative went live?"

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Javascript basics for Google Tag Manager

Master the JavaScript fundamentals you need for Google Tag Manager. From variables and functions to DOM manipulation, these basics will level up your GTM skills.

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The hidden costs of meetings

Meetings are silently draining your team's productivity and budget. Here's how to calculate their true cost and reclaim your most valuable resource: time.

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Your A/B test is lying to you

Your A/B tests are giving you false confidence. Most testing setups produce misleading results because of flawed methodology, not flawed tools. Here's how to fix it.

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Another use case for HubSpot custom events

Custom events allow you to define and track events that are unique to your business. Custom events can be tied to event properties, which you can then use across HubSpot's tools.

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Google Tag Manager Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide

A comprehensive guide to Google Tag Manager covering setup, tags, triggers, variables, and best practices. Updated for 2026 with server-side tagging, consent mode, and AI-assisted tag management.

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Tools of the trade...

The tools I rely on daily keep evolving. Here is the original 2024 list, what changed, and the stack that actually powers my work in 2026.

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How do you integrate ChatGPT into your automation workflows?

ChatGPT is powerful on its own, but integrating it into your existing automation workflows is where the real magic happens. Here's how to get started.

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1 million opt-ins in 26 days…

We generated 1 million opt-ins in just 26 days. Here's the strategy, the execution, and the lessons learned from scaling a campaign that fast.

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7 Lessons Marketing Ops Can Learn from Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift runs marketing ops better than most companies. Seven lessons on audience segmentation, data-driven decisions, and community building.

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Rocking Marketing Ops: Lessons from Bring Me The Horizon

Bring Me The Horizon keeps reinventing themselves and winning new fans. Here's what marketing ops teams can learn from their approach to staying relevant.

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Leveraging AI for Problem-Solving

AI isn't just for automation. It's a powerful thinking partner for solving complex problems. Here's how to integrate it into your decision-making process.

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AI: Your Job's Future Isn't What You Think

I wrote this in 2023 saying AI would augment jobs, not replace them. Two and a half years later, here is what actually happened and what I got right and wrong.

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Short essays

Remove the Minutiae

The small tasks are eating your calendar alive. Here's how to identify the minutiae, eliminate it, and refocus on work that actually moves the needle.

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Short essays

Swing And A Miss

Not every experiment lands. Here's what I learned from a swing and a miss, and why failure is a feature of the process, not a bug.

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Short essays

Treating The Symptoms

You're putting out fires instead of preventing them. Here's how to stop treating symptoms and start fixing the root causes that keep your team stuck.

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Your first 100 subscribers

The first 100 subscribers are the hardest to get. Here are practical, no-BS strategies to start building your email list from zero.

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Short essays

Solving Problems Like Steve

Steve Jobs didn't just build products. He solved problems differently. Here's what his approach teaches us about simplicity and focus.

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Where do SaaS ideas come from?

Stop looking for startup ideas. The best SaaS products come from solving problems you already have. Here's where to find them.

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Short essays

Voting For The Homecoming Queen

Business isn't a popularity contest. Stop chasing vanity metrics and start measuring what actually matters for growth.

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So, you want to build a startup? Quit looking for startup ideas.

Quit hunting for the perfect startup idea. The best businesses start with a problem you can't stop thinking about, not a brainstorming session.

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Short essays

Delivering a Better Customer Experience

Customer experience isn't about grand gestures. It's about consistently delivering small improvements that compound over time.

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Short essays

The Stories We Tell

Features don't sell products. Stories do. The narratives we build around our work shape how people experience and value what we create.

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Short essays

Proof First

Too many builders skip validation. A proof-first mindset saves you from building something nobody wants.

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Short essays

Cut The Crap

Most of what fills your day doesn't matter. Cut the noise, focus on what moves the needle, and watch your output change.

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Short essays

Learning Without Action Is Just Entertainment

Consuming content feels productive. It's not. Real growth happens when you stop learning and start doing.

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Short essays

Talk To Me!

Stop broadcasting. Start having real conversations with your customers. The difference between talking to and talking at defines your brand.

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Short essays

Open Tab Syndrome

If you have 47 browser tabs open right now, this post is for you. Open tab syndrome is a productivity killer disguised as multitasking.

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Short essays

Product Habits

Great products don't just solve problems -- they build habits. Here's how to design features that naturally keep users engaged.

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Getting Lost In The Woods

Getting lost isn't failure. It's exploration. Sometimes the detour is exactly what you needed to find the right path forward.

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Short essays

Success Comes From Playing Games

The most successful people treat work like a game. Clear rules, measurable progress, and leveling up. Here's how to apply game thinking to your career.

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Short essays

Know your customers better than a concierge.

The best businesses know their customers better than a hotel concierge. Here's how to build that level of understanding at scale.

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Short essays

Importance of Routine

Routine feels boring until you see the compound effect. Consistent daily habits are the secret weapon of every builder who ships.

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Short essays

How To Create A Losing Product

Want to guarantee your product fails? Follow this anti-playbook. Most products lose for the same preventable reasons.

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Short essays

The Battle For Your Digital Soul

Big tech is fighting for your attention, data, and habits. It's time to understand the battlefield and take back control.

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Short essays

I run this lonely road

Building is lonely. No one sees the vision until it's real. Here's what keeps you running when the road feels empty.

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Short essays

Squirrel!

Another new tool. Another exciting idea. Another half-finished project. Shiny object syndrome is real, and here's how to beat it.

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Short essays

Product Validation

The graveyard of failed products is full of ideas that were never validated. Test your assumptions before you build.

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Short essays

Renting Your Runway

You don't need a massive war chest to start. Rent your runway, bootstrap smart, and extend your timeline to profitability.

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Short essays

Start Small & Stay Lean

Don't scale what isn't working. Start small, stay lean, and only grow the things that have proven themselves.

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Short essays

Lessons learned from building stuff that nobody wants

I've built things nobody wanted. The lessons were painful but invaluable. Here's what I learned so you don't repeat my mistakes.

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Short essays

Slow Down to Go Fast

Moving fast without direction is just motion. Sometimes the fastest path forward is slowing down to think, plan, and validate.

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Short essays

Do you know who is watching?

Low engagement doesn't mean no one's watching. Your silent audience is bigger than you think. Keep showing up.

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Building scalable, conversion-driven digital products that bridge strategy, design, and engineering. From Next.js and React to Stripe and Python — I craft seamless user experiences that grow businesses and delight customers.

Field Notes

The 200-Line Rule That Changed How I Ship Code with AI

I Built a Brain with Claude Code — Here's How It Runs My Engineering Org

We're Leaving Shopify Behind (Again). Here's the Migration Playbook.

How I Run 3 Engineering Teams with 1 AI Brain

Claude Code's Source Leaked. Here Are 7 Things I'd Change.

Plugins Are Wasting Your Tokens, Thanks Vercel

I Taught My AI Agent How to Write Architecture Decision Records

I Built an Autonomous Coding Swarm. Here's What I Learned.

Product updates

Stripe Checkout: From Payment Processing to Conversion Optimization Engine

From Email to Instant Close: How I Built a Proposal System That Actually Gets Results

Introducing the Nano Banana Image Generator Plugin for Sanity Studio

Supercharge Your Sanity CMS Development with Claude Code Plugins

Claude Code Plugins: Boost Developer Productivity with AI-Powered Development Tools

From AI Assistant to 10x Engineer: Building a Production-Grade Claude Code Workflow

Optimizing CLAUDE.md: How to Scale Your Codebase Documentation for AI Assistants

Building an Ecommerce Shop with Sanity Part 1: Why We Are Leaving Shopify Behind

Building an Interactive Proposal System with Sanity CMS

From Dashboards to Conversations: What Happens When AI Can Actually Talk to Your Data

Javascript basics for Google Tag Manager

The hidden costs of meetings

Your A/B test is lying to you

Another use case for HubSpot custom events

Google Tag Manager Essentials: A Comprehensive Guide

Tools of the trade...

How do you integrate ChatGPT into your automation workflows?

1 million opt-ins in 26 days…

7 Lessons Marketing Ops Can Learn from Taylor Swift

Rocking Marketing Ops: Lessons from Bring Me The Horizon

Leveraging AI for Problem-Solving

AI: Your Job's Future Isn't What You Think

Remove the Minutiae

Swing And A Miss

Treating The Symptoms

Your first 100 subscribers

Solving Problems Like Steve

Where do SaaS ideas come from?

Voting For The Homecoming Queen

So, you want to build a startup? Quit looking for startup ideas.

Delivering a Better Customer Experience

The Stories We Tell

Proof First

Cut The Crap

Learning Without Action Is Just Entertainment

Talk To Me!

Open Tab Syndrome

Product Habits

Getting Lost In The Woods

Success Comes From Playing Games

Know your customers better than a concierge.

Importance of Routine

How To Create A Losing Product

The Battle For Your Digital Soul

I run this lonely road

Squirrel!

Product Validation

Renting Your Runway

Start Small & Stay Lean

Lessons learned from building stuff that nobody wants

Slow Down to Go Fast

Do you know who is watching?

Building scalable, conversion-driven digital products that bridge strategy, design, and engineering. From Next.js and React to Stripe and Python — I craft seamless user experiences that grow businesses and delight customers.

Field Notes

The 200-Line Rule That Changed How I Ship Code with AI

I Built a Brain with Claude Code — Here's How It Runs My Engineering Org

We're Leaving Shopify Behind (Again). Here's the Migration Playbook.

How I Run 3 Engineering Teams with 1 AI Brain

Claude Code's Source Leaked. Here Are 7 Things I'd Change.

Plugins Are Wasting Your Tokens, Thanks Vercel

I Taught My AI Agent How to Write Architecture Decision Records

I Built an Autonomous Coding Swarm. Here's What I Learned.

Product updates

Stripe Checkout: From Payment Processing to Conversion Optimization Engine

From Email to Instant Close: How I Built a Proposal System That Actually Gets Results

Introducing the Nano Banana Image Generator Plugin for Sanity Studio

Supercharge Your Sanity CMS Development with Claude Code Plugins

Claude Code Plugins: Boost Developer Productivity with AI-Powered Development Tools

From AI Assistant to 10x Engineer: Building a Production-Grade Claude Code Workflow