THE JOURNAL
Notes on building, shipping & securing the web.
AI · 5 min
Fine-tuning versus better prompting: a practical decision guide
When a fine-tuned model is worth the data work and maintenance, and when prompting, retrieval and a good eval set get you there faster.
Daniel Reyes · May 12, 2026
Security · 5 min
GDPR for website owners: the security side most teams miss
Cookie banners get the attention, but GDPR also expects appropriate security, data minimization and a breach plan. What that means in practice.
Maya Okafor · Apr 21, 2026
Engineering · 5 min
What a proper project handover should include
You own the code, but can your team actually run it? The handover package we deliver at the end of every build, and what to ask any agency for.
Arjun Mehta · Apr 16, 2026
E-commerce · 5 min
Replatforming an e-commerce store without losing revenue
Migrations fail on redirects, data and timing far more often than on design. A sequence for moving platforms without a dip in sales or search traffic.
Ravi Iyer · Apr 15, 2026
Shopify · 5 min
Rebuilding a legacy Shopify theme on Online Store 2.0
Patching a five-year-old theme gets more expensive every season. How we decide when to rebuild and how we do it without a dip in sales.
Sofia Lindqvist · Apr 07, 2026
WordPress · 5 min
Migrating WordPress to new hosting with zero downtime
The rehearsal, sync and cutover plan we use to move busy WordPress sites between hosts without lost orders, broken forms or SEO damage.
Leo Tanaka · Mar 31, 2026
Performance · 5 min
Speeding up WordPress without another optimization plugin
Stacking caching and optimization plugins rarely fixes a slow WordPress site. Where the time actually goes, and how we get it back.
Maya Okafor · Mar 24, 2026
Design · 5 min
A design-to-development handoff that does not lose detail
Handoff problems are rarely about tools. They come from missing states, unclear intent and late involvement. How we keep design and code aligned.
Maya Okafor · Mar 18, 2026
DevOps · 5 min
When Kubernetes is too much: simpler ways to run containers
Kubernetes solves real problems, but not every team has them. How we decide between a managed container platform, a few VMs and a full cluster.
Leo Tanaka · Mar 17, 2026
SEO · 5 min
Local SEO for multi-location businesses that actually scales
Ten locations or two hundred, the same problems appear: thin location pages, inconsistent listings and no one owning reviews. A process that holds up.
Ravi Iyer · Mar 17, 2026
One email a month. Only the good stuff.
Field notes from real client projects. No spam.