IDEAS, DECISIONS & LESSONS

Journal

Notes on AI, architecture and building useful products.

6 articles

25 Jun 2026 · 5 min read

agile

Agile English: Running Sprint Retrospectives That Actually Work

How to facilitate sprint retrospectives in English — phrases, vocabulary, and scripts for Vietnamese tech leads managing international teams.

11 Jun 2026 · 9 min read

agile

QC/Agile English: How to Run and Participate in Sprint Retrospectives That Actually Improve Things

A retro that ends with three vague action items nobody does is worse than no retro. Here's the English for facilitating retrospectives that surface real problems, produce committed actions, and don't turn into complaint sessions — from opening the meeting to closing with accountability.

24 Mar 2026 · 5 min read

agile

How to Speak Up in Sprint Retrospectives: A Vietnamese Developer's Guide

Practical English phrases and templates for speaking confidently in Agile retrospectives — share wins, raise issues, suggest improvements without feeling awkward.

15 Mar 2026 · 6 min read

business-english

English Upgrade #6: Retros — Giving Feedback and Improving Your Team

How to run retrospectives, suggest improvements, and talk about team productivity in English. Blameless language, action items, and phrases for difficult conversations.

10 Mar 2026 · 10 min read

AI-Powered Migration Playbook: Lessons Learned — What We'd Do Differently (Part 7 of 7)

Part 7 of 7 — The final retrospective. Ten anti-patterns to avoid, what AI genuinely can't do, what surprised us, and where AI-assisted migration is heading next.

04 Mar 2026 · 36 min read

architecture

Shipping the Template: Multi-Tenant Onboarding, Cost Savings, and the Honest Retrospective

Part 9 of 9 — Turning MarketingOS into a reusable template: new client onboarding in under an hour, multi-tenant content management, cost analysis showing 70% reduction per site, lessons learned, and what I'd do differently.