Travertine Field Notes: a product leader's site that reports from the shop counter

Below a masthead closed by a dashed rule, the page opens on a single row: Field notes and Liyana's name in the display face at the left, and Chief Product Officer with Singapore / Southeast Asia in small umber type at the right. The dispatch beneath is numbered 01 and carries its topic, AI in small-business software, its September 2026 date and an estimated reading time. Then comes the largest line on the site: An AI bookkeeper earns trust by saying when it is unsure. Its standfirst and a link to read the dispatch follow.

That order suits a product executive. Her case for showing confidence scores instead of advertising automation rates is her most contestable belief, and a nominating committee chair meets it before any job title. Everything else on the site is evidence that she has acted on it.

To the right of the dispatch, behind a fine vertical rule, her portrait sits at a modest height above a caption written like a photographer's note: her name, her location, the three languages she works in (English, Malay and Indonesian), what she is open to and a link to start a conversation. The composition can add a sideways-scrolling rail of career chapters beneath the dispatch; Liyana's demonstration leaves it out and keeps her six roles on the Career page.

Further reading lists her other two essays as numbered entries with topic, date and summary: one on pricing a micro business by its month rather than by its seats, the other on why localisation starts with tax rules rather than translation. Her conviction follows as a quotation, that a small business forgives plain software but not software that loses an invoice or pretends to be sure. Three measures sit beneath it: 412,000 paying businesses, US$126 million of revenue in 2025, and abandoned invoice sessions outside major cities down to 9 per cent.

Her thesis, introduction and four proof points come next, then a record band listing her two directorships and her formation, with a remark from Rimbunara's chief executive about how her board papers begin.

On the Career page, titled Field notes from an executive career, every one of her roles becomes a two-column dispatch. A stone-coloured panel on the left holds the dates and the employer's geography, from till installations across Peninsular Malaysia to kiosks across Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi; the wider column gives scale, reporting line, team, budget, mandate, outcomes and the reason for leaving.

Board Readiness opens under The boardroom territory I know, with her contribution set between two rules. A shaded register on the left shows the committees she could join and the one she would chair after a year, twenty-five available days, two current directorships and her governance learning. The wider column carries three judgement examples, including the incident paper in which she named her own fraud-model decision, then her plan for a first year and an exposure list that separates presenting to a board from serving on one.

Travertine sets dark brown text on a warm limestone-cream ground, with deeper stone panels and an umber accent for datelines, labels and links. Headlines use Instrument Serif, a single-weight display serif that gives a long essay title presence without heaviness. Body text, figures and the record pages use Sora, a geometric sans-serif that keeps ringgit, rupiah and peso amounts legible at small sizes. The palette feels calm and material rather than technical, which suits readers wary of software marketing: directors of consumer, logistics and telecommunications groups in Singapore and Malaysia.

The design suits any leader whose authority was earned close to customers in particular places: product and technology chiefs in fintech, agritech or logistics across emerging markets, regional general managers, and marketing or operating executives who write from field research. It also serves all ten leadership roles, from chief executive to chief product officer. It asks for essays that start from something seen, and for a career record that states each employer's geography.