Expert Advisory System

Advisory panels spanning our practice areas — the knowledge architecture behind every decision

23
Advisory Panels
~130
Expert Seats
How it works: Each advisory panel is a curated group of recognized experts — researchers, authors, and practitioners — whose published frameworks guide our decisions in a specific domain. Panels convene on research cadences ranging from monthly to semi-annual, and cross-membership between panels is expected and healthy. The system includes 23 panels in total; the foundational panels shown here govern architecture, organization, and build standards. Additional panels cover domain-specific and cross-cutting specialties.

Architecture & Platform

1 panel

AI Architecture & Platform Panel — 6 experts including Rick Kazman (ATAM), Neal Ford + Rebecca Parsons (evolutionary architecture), Michael Nygard (stability patterns), Gregor Hohpe (platform strategy), Michael Wooldridge (MAS theory), Chip Huyen (AI eval).

Governs architecture decisions, fitness functions, platform strategy, agent interaction protocols, and integration patterns.

Organization & Design

1 panel

Organization & Design Panel — 6 experts including Skelton + Pais (Team Topologies), Eric Evans + Vaughn Vernon (DDD), Melvin Conway, Amy Edmondson (psych safety), Nicole Forsgren (DORA).

Governs department decomposition, team sizing, bounded contexts, DORA metrics, Conway's Law alignment, and cognitive-load management.

Build Standards

7 panels

Web / UX Panel — Jakob Nielsen + Don Norman (NN/g), Luke Wroblewski, Steve Krug, Raluca Budiu. Governs deployed pages, mobile-first design, usability heuristics, and form best practices.

Content Panel — Ann Handley, Joe Pulizzi, Brian Dean, Robert Rose, Andy Crestodina. Governs content pipeline, blog posts, editorial calendar, SEO strategy, and content mission.

Radar / Intelligence Panel — ThoughtWorks Tech Radar, Ben Gilad, Leonard Fuld, SCIP, August Jackson. Governs tech radar, threat detection, competitive intelligence, and scenario war-gaming.

Chatbot / AEO Panel — Aggarwal et al. (GEO/Princeton), Mike King (iPullRank), Lily Ray, Rand Fishkin, Jason Barnard. Governs AI visibility, schema + structured data, E-E-A-T compliance, and entity SEO.

Skill Adoption Panel — Kazman (ATAM), Ford/Parsons (fitness functions), Tornhill (CodeHealth), Forsgren (DORA), Nygard (stability), Huyen (AI eval). Governs adoption methodology and post-adoption fitness functions.

Adult Education Panel — Gagne (9 Events), Bloom (Taxonomy), Minto (Pyramid), Sweller (Cognitive Load), Dirksen (Gap Analysis), Ebbinghaus (Spacing), Roediger (Retrieval), Eyal (Hooks). Governs content arc design, module structure, and mastery gates.

Content Creation Panel — Cathy Moore (Action Mapping), Ruth Clark (Media Selection), Merrill (First Principles), Keller (ARCS), Mayer (Multimedia), Knowles (Andragogy), Wiggins/McTighe (UbD). Governs build playbook, backward design, and adult learning compliance.

Additional Panels: 14 more advisory panels cover domain-specific expertise and cross-cutting specialties across our practice areas. These panels are documented internally and inform our content, strategy, and operations.
Governance: A weekly scan identifies new expert seats across all panels (keeps WHO current). Each panel then runs its own deep research on its own cadence (keeps WHAT THEY TEACH US current). Cross-membership between panels is expected and healthy. All panel research runs as durable, checkpoint-resumable work.