During the orientation for the GBA master’s program at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Dean Rachel Kyte told us that during our time in the program, we would develop “the Fletcher Way of Thinking.” I never gave much thought to that statement until I heard it again from other guest […]
The Fletcher Way of Thinking Read More »
Every SEO has been there. You present a clear fix to a problem, “Put the FDIC disclosure in text on the Certificate Deposit product page”, and instead of agreement, the resistance begins: On the surface, these sound like fair questions. In reality, they’re stall tactics. They’re symptoms of something more profound: organizational drag, the cultural,
The “Whatabout” and “Whydothey” Conundrum: The Challenge of Organizational Drag Read More »
Turning the Signpost Into an Exit Ramp In Part 1, we reframed the collapse of the continuum. In Part 2, we introduced the signpost metaphor: visibility without action is just scenery. Now comes the tactical fix: embed Intent Connectors that transform signposts into exit ramps back into your ecosystem. Now comes the practical question: How
From Zero-Click to Next-Click: How to Build Intent Connectors Read More »
From Dead End to Highway Sign In Part 1, we saw how SEO’s overreliance on single-click thinking left marketers vulnerable. For years, most strategies focused on capturing one query, one page, one click—while ignoring the continuum of how people actually search. AI has blown that model apart. AI spits out a neatly packaged answer—complete, confident,
AI Answers Are Signposts, Not Destinations Read More »
The Shredded Customer Journey Map For two decades, for many digital marketers, the dominant playbook was click optimization. Pick a keyword, rank a page, and wait for the user to click through for the answer. SEO was built on single-query thinking—one idea, one piece of content, one click. For years, I recommended a different approach:
When the Funnel Collapses: Why AI Broke the Searcher Continuum Read More »
For decades, marketers built strategies around a simple belief: people move through a funnel. Awareness → consideration → decision. If you could map the steps, you could intercept them with content. But AI broke that model. Search engines no longer hand off a neat series of clicks. They collapse steps into answers. They satisfy curiosity
When the Funnel Collapses: Rethinking the Searcher Journey in the AI Era Read More »
This was our second trip to Athens. Our first was in 1995 when I was invited to defend a business school thesis on Using the Internet to Reach Overseas Markets. At that time, the Internet was viewed as a fad and not for business. My paper was compelling, so I was invited to present and
48 Hours in Athens Greece Read More »
Why SaaS Software Needs Extra Layers of CYA Hreflang implementation is notoriously fragile. It touches multiple systems, depends on various teams, and spans dozens of moving parts across markets. When it fails, the default assumption is simple: blame the vendor. That’s why we had to engineer CYA (Cover Your Assets) protections directly into Hreflang Builder.
How We Built CYA Protocols Into Hreflang Builder (And What We Learned the Hard Way) Read More »
The first time I ever experienced a “Cover Your Ass” (CYA) boss was as a teenager working summer shifts at a trucking company with my father. The operations manager was the textbook definition. Every move he made prioritized self-preservation and avoiding blame above all else, even if it cost the company money or made the
Epiphany 28: Cover Your Assets – Why Agencies and SaaS Teams Need CYA Protocols Read More »
Why platforms, governments, companies, and consumers must share the burden of trust This article was sparked by a Washington Post story last Friday about a traveler who was scammed after calling a fake number surfaced by Google’s AI Overview. Reading it, I realized the frustrations I first wrote about two years ago—when I questioned whether
Scammed by the Answer: Rethinking Responsibility in the AI Era Read More »