I’m relaunching larsbarkman.com. This is the honest account of why.
Why I Write
To catch myself in the act of thinking. That is the honest answer to why this site exists.
Not to build a following, not to fill a content calendar — I write because it is how I work things out. A position I suspect I hold but haven’t tested. A problem I’ve been circling without landing anywhere. A domain I think I understand until I try to explain it.
Writing forces vagueness into something specific. You cannot write “it depends” forever — at some point you have to say what it depends on, and why, and what you’d do differently in each case. That pressure is the point. The thinking happens during the writing, not before it.
The material that comes out of that process may well be useful to others working through the same problems. And for anyone considering working with me, it is probably the most honest signal available — how I frame a problem, where I push back, what I care enough about to think through carefully. If the writing helps someone decide I’m not the right fit, that is equally useful.
What Ends Up Here
Most of what I write comes from one of two sources: findings from client work, and the ventures I’m building myself.
On the consulting side, I keep seeing the same patterns — delivery that breaks when teams grow, architecture decisions that looked reasonable until you try to maintain them two years later, operating models where the org chart and the actual work have nothing to do with each other. The writings here are the notes I kept while working through those problems with real organizations.
On the venture side, I’m building things I believe should exist — starting with a model and tooling for professional digital solution lifecycle management. A live experiment, and I’ll write about it here as it develops: the decisions, the dead ends, and what the practice of building reveals that the theory didn’t anticipate.
What the Site Covers
The site is organized around what I actually do:
- Writings — thinking in the open, drawn from both client work and what I’m building: enterprise design, engineering leadership, solution design, and the experience of running a solo consulting practice
- Consulting — where I work directly with enterprises to make digital delivery dependable, from designing solutions to building the capability to deliver consistently
- Ventures — what I’m building to close gaps I keep running into in the market
If any of this connects with a problem you’re working through — or if you disagree with how I’ve framed something — I’d rather hear about it than not. The most useful conversations start with a disagreement.
You can follow along via RSS, or find me on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and X.
Leave a comment below or get in touch if something here connects with work you’re doing. Follow via RSS to read along as the thinking develops.