The Master Playbook
Your AI Isn't Broken.
Your Playbook Is.
For leaders who greenlight AI. For practitioners who make it work.
The WISER Method is the field manual for teams operationalizing AI. 26 Plays. A full narrative case study. 35 downloadable templates. Built by practitioners who shipped systems for over half the Fortune 100.
This Is Not a Book You Read.
It's a Book You Use.
Every chapter builds on the last. By the time you reach the method, you have the mental models to use it. By the time you reach the case study, you recognize the patterns.
26
Plays
Objectives, inputs, steps, success criteria, adaptations, and pitfalls
35
Templates
Downloadable and ready for day one
5
Canons
Witness, Interrogate, Solve, Expand, Refine
22
Chapters
Structured progression from problem through mastery
A Full Narrative Case Study
One company. Five canons. Discovery through deployment. Follow Wingman Services as they navigate every stage of the WISER Method, making the mistakes you will want to avoid and earning the wins that prove the system works. This is not a hypothetical. It is the methodology in motion.
Who Is This Book For
Two paths through the same book. Both intentional.
For Leaders
Parts I, II, and III give you roughly 80 pages of strategic foundation. Enough to sponsor well, fund wisely, and recognize when things go wrong. You do not need to run the plays to lead the teams that do.
For Practitioners
The entire book is your workbook. Part IV is where you will spend most of your time in the field. Each Play is structured so you can pick it up cold, run it, and get a result.
Something Unprecedented
Reviewed by the AI Models Themselves
We asked four frontier AI models to review this book as experienced business book critics. Their full assessments are below. Your job, the one AI can't do, is to discern how and when to trust their output. That collaboration is what this book is about.
OpenAI
“If this book succeeds, and it deserves to, it will not be because it is quoted on LinkedIn. It will be because teams quietly use it to build systems that work, scale, and endure. In the end, this is the best compliment a business book can earn... WISER Method belongs on the shelf alongside The Phoenix Project, Thinking in Systems, and Human Compatible.”
Anthropic
“Wilson and Franco have done the work. WISER Method reads like a field manual written by people who’ve shipped systems, watched them fail, learned why, and shipped better ones... The market has no shortage of AI hype. What it lacks is operational wisdom from practitioners who’ve shipped real systems.”
“After reviewing it, I suspect we may have found the Lean Startup of the AI era... It is the most important business book on AI operations to date. Don’t just read it; dog-ear the ‘Plays’ and put them into the field.”
xAI
“One of the most important business books of the 2020s AI era, not because it predicts the future, but because it equips serious practitioners to shape it without self-delusion. In a field drowning in speculation, WISER Method delivers sobriety, structure, and hard-won wisdom.”
Reviews generated by prompting each frontier AI model as an experienced business book critic.
The Arc of the Book
Five parts. Each one builds on the last. By the end, you won't just know what to do. You'll know why it works.
The Problem
Why AI projects fail. Not the technology. The habits, the assumptions, the playbooks built for a different kind of system.
The Worldview
What makes AI operationally different from software. The mental models you need before the method makes sense.
The Case Study
One company, five canons, discovery through deployment. Watch the methodology work before you run it yourself.
Starter Plays
The field manual. 26 Plays with everything you need to pick them up cold and get a result. This is where practitioners live.
Mastery
Advanced frameworks, creating your own plays, integrating with existing methods, and knowing when the system needs to be rebuilt.
About the Authors
Robb and Anthony have been building together for twenty years. Between them, they have designed, shipped, and scaled systems for over half the Fortune 100. They built this playbook for themselves. Now it is yours.
Robb Wilson
Founder and CEO of OneReach.ai, an enterprise AI runtime with deployments across more than half the Fortune 100, recognized by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC. Bestselling co-author of Age of Invisible Machines (Wiley). Contributor to Harvard Business Review. Co-founded Effective (acquired by WPP) and founded UX Magazine. More than 130 awards across design, technology, and AI. Co-creator of AI First Principles.
Anthony Franco
Founded EffectiveUI, the world’s first UX and digital product development firm (acquired by WPP). His teams built one of the first iPad applications, the first FDA-approved critical health mobile app, and national security systems. Five companies founded and sold, more than 250 awards. Co-creator of AI First Principles. CEO of First Strategy, architect of the WISER Method.
Get the Playbook
Five canons. One method. Built by people who ship.
ISBN: 979-8-218-93145-2
LCCN: 2026902988
Published by First Strategy in association with UX MAG
262 pages. 8" x 10" format. First Edition, 2026.