The future of work already started
Manage the new hybrid workforce.
Software no longer just assists: it holds roles. My new book, Empleado IA (AI Employee), and the Hybrid Workforce Standard answer the question no company can keep dodging — who is accountable when a system decides.
Master Joe Phillips·Costa Rica
Track record
25+
years building software
Since 2000
1,000+
clients served
SaaS and custom dev
1
verifiable exit
Zumo → Huli Health, 2018
4
academic credentials
Accounting, CS, MPM, ML
About me
Builder, not commentator.
I'm Master Joe Phillips. A Costa Rican by birth and a citizen of the world by choice. I've spent more than two decades building software — first as an employee, then as a founder.
I founded Trifecta Software in 2011 ( CostaRicaCRM.com and custom dev for U.S. clients). In 2014 I co-founded Zumo Imagination as CTO; the healthtech scaled across Latin America and was acquired by Huli Health in 2018. In 2016 I founded Spearhead Technologies (Facturero.com).
In January 2021, before the GenAI boom, I completed Expert in Machine Learning with Python at PROMIDAT. The black-belt metaphor isn't borrowed — I learned it in the dojo, across decades of disciplined practice.
The belt path
Seven belts. One path.
It isn't metaphor — it's the book's method. Each belt is a domain you train, not an event you acquire. Skipping them amplifies chaos. Walking them builds mastery.
The black belt isn't the end of the road. It's the beginning.
White Belt
The human foundation of every system
Mindset · Learning · Team · AMARTE
Yellow Belt
The warrior's judgment
Honor · Respect · Focus · Discipline · Hwa · Won · Ryu
Green Belt
Mastery of continuous improvement
Measure · Detect · Improve · Customer Centric · Green Matrix
Blue Belt
The science of leverage
5 levers: money · people · processes · technology · influence
Brown Belt
Systematize before you scale
PAF: Prepare · Aim · Fire · Purpose-Metric-Promise Triangle
Red Belt
Living systems
Measure / adjust · Operational resilience · Continuous evolution
Black Belt
Everything that exists before the prompt
Master Map of AI Systematization · The prompt as consequence
New book
AI EmployeeHow to design, onboard and manage the new hybrid workforce.
A chatbot answers. A copilot helps. An agent executes a task. An AI Employee holds a role. A human remains accountable.
The category already exists commercially. What did not exist was the administrative layer: who answers when the system decides, what it may decide alone, how its performance is measured, and how its access ends the day the role is no longer needed. This book builds that layer, and out of it came the Hybrid Workforce Standard, the open, free standard I published at hybridwf.com.
- eBook
- USD $11.11
- USD $22.22
- Length
- 284 pages
On Amazon, Kindle and paperback · 284 pages · Looking for the first one? AI Black Belt
Speaking
On stage, next.
Past
Escala Next Level Summit (de Ismael Cala)
El 95% Está Fallando: La Verdad Sobre la IA Que Nadie Te Está Diciendo
Cala Center · Miami, EE.UU.
Upcoming
Blockchain Jungle Costa Rica
Empleado IA
Costa Rica
Past
Business Essentials
Curso intensivo de fin de semana
San José, Costa Rica
Press
In the media.
Nearshore Americas
Engineers Spend Days Fixing AI Code Created in Hours
Read →
Revista SUMMA
AI can multiply productivity… or chaos
Read →
Primera Línea
Regular columnist — Leadership and Artificial Intelligence
Read →
La República
Zumo Medical launched digital health-record platform
Read →
El Financiero
Entrepreneurs build app to streamline administrative work for healthcare professionals
Read →
Contact
Ready to enter the dojo?
Keynote · Executive mentoring · Workshops · Consulting · Media. Three direct paths, a human reply in 24-48h.