Field Manuals · Vol. 2026

Playbooks

Prescriptive frameworks for the mechanics of business. Not theory. Architecture you can hand to a team, feed to an LLM, or use to audit what you already have.

the mechanism, drawn the why, annotated plotted index 5 manuals
The Acquisition Map, drawn as a loop Five stages cycle clockwise (discover, consider, convert, retain, advocate) and advocacy feeds back into discovery. Channels feed the top of the loop: dashed feeds are mostly untracked, solid feeds are mostly tracked. discover consider convert retain advocate tracked untracked
Annotated Demand Map · 6 zones
Annotated Demand Map 6 zones · 2026

The Acquisition Map

Every way a customer finds you, from word of mouth and dark social to paid search and retargeting, through the purchase to the retention loops that feed it. The territory the other playbooks zoom into.

discoverydemandretargetingretentionmeasurement
First principles + cited research Ships with a live companion tool · Should You Run Ads Yet? Open field manual
The Conversion Journey, drawn as a funnel Eleven wireframe blocks narrowing from the landing experience, through the decision and checkout, down to a single confirmation. landing decision checkout confirmation CTA →
Annotated Wireframe · 11 blocks
Annotated Wireframe 11 blocks · 2026

The Conversion Journey

An end-to-end blueprint for the page that turns a stranger into a customer. Every block earns its place against evidence, not opinion.

landingdecisioncheckoutconfirmation
First principles + cited evidence Ships with a live companion tool · Conversion Page Architect Open field manual
The margin waterfall A single order dollar of $128.80 stepping down through cost of goods, selling fees and the refund leak to the $36.13 of contribution you keep. $128.80 price −$53.20 costs −$34.36 fees −$5.11 refunds $36.13 keep
Annotated Waterfall · 7 stages
Annotated Waterfall 7 stages · 2026

The Money You Actually Keep

A stage-by-stage walk down the margin waterfall: what happens to a single dollar between the price on the page and the money in your account.

pricecostsfeesrefundsbreak-even
First principles + cash-flow-correct math Ships with a live companion tool · Margin & Break-even Calculator Open field manual
The Signal Chain, drawn as a signal map Data flows from the browser through a server container, fanning out to GA4, Meta, and Google Ads. Dashed lines show the direct client-side path. collection transmission attribution Browser Server GA4 Meta Google Ads server-side client-side
Annotated Signal Map · 11 blocks
Annotated Signal Map 11 blocks · 2026

The Signal Chain

Where the data actually goes between a click and a conversion. Every hop, every handoff, every place the chain breaks.

collectiontransmissionattributionreporting
First principles + current platform documentation Ships with a live companion tool · UTM Builder Open field manual
The Knowledge Graph, drawn as an entity graph An Organization entity at the centre, wired by @id to its WebSite, WebPage, Person and Service nodes, with sameAs links fanning out to Wikidata and LinkedIn. Wikidata LinkedIn Organization WebSite WebPage Person Service @id sameAs
Annotated Entity Graph · 6 phases
Annotated Entity Graph 6 phases · 2026

The Knowledge Graph

How a search engine — and now an answer engine — turns your website into an entity it can name, trust, and cite. String to entity to connected graph: the map of what the machines actually read.

entitytype@idsameAsrich-results
schema.org 30.0 + Google Search Central Ships with a live companion tool · The Entity Map Open field manual