Fractional COO / CTO
A monthly operating partner role embedded in the leadership team. The engagement runs the operating cadence, enforces governance, and surfaces risk one sprint ahead of impact — without full-time executive overhead.
When this is the right call
You need an operating partner for 3+ months — not advisory chat, not a project, but someone who occupies a seat at the leadership table week to week. The Fractional engagement runs the operating cadence, enforces governance, and surfaces risk one sprint ahead of impact, without full-time executive overhead.
- ─Operating cadence runs only when you (or one specific person) is in the room.
- ─Decisions stall waiting for someone with cross-function authority and bandwidth.
- ─Risk surfaces late, after delivery is already off-track.
- ─Board / investor reporting takes a week to assemble each month — not because the data is missing, but because the synthesis is.
- ─The leadership team is structurally short an operating partner — between hires, or with no plan to hire one.
- ─You have governance and telemetry installed but no one enforces them week to week.
If you do not yet have governance, cadence, or telemetry installed, start with Operating Rollout — the retainer compounds discipline; it does not install it from scratch.
How the engagement runs
- 01/05Month 0
Onboarding
Baseline of current state, priorities, and stakeholders. Seat confirmed in leadership meetings, access to systems and data. Engagement scope signed. First operating review live in week two.
- 02/05Weekly
Operating review
Structured review with the decision owner. Priorities, risks, decisions logged. Async update shared the same day.
- ─Weekly operating review
- 03/05Monthly
Operating plan
Priorities sequenced for the month ahead. Risk register refreshed. Executive summary delivered to CEO, board, or investors.
- ─Monthly operating plan
- ─Monthly executive summary
- 04/05Quarterly
Scope review
Engagement scope re-aligned with the state of the business. Capability transfer evaluated — which responsibilities have moved to the internal team, which still require oversight.
- 05/05Continuous
Targeted intervention
Active unblocking where risk concentrates. Governance enforcement when scope slips. Direct oversight on critical delivery issues as they surface.
- ─Governance enforcement
- ─Delivery telemetry tuning
- ─SOP evolution and adoption
- ─Targeted intervention on critical issues
The retainer compounds internal capability and reduces dependency. The exit is when the operating cadence runs without us — not a contract end-date.
Outcomes
- ─Operating cadence running without executive heroics within the first 30 days.
- ─Delivery risks surfaced at least one sprint ahead of impact.
- ─Board or investor reporting delivered on schedule every month, without rework.
- ─Measurable reduction in escalation load against the month-zero baseline.
- ─Capability transfer visible at the quarterly review — internal team absorbing oversight responsibilities over time.
What you commit to
Inputs
- 01Direct access to the CEO, founder, or equivalent decision owner throughout the engagement.
- 02Seat in key operational and planning meetings — leadership rhythm, weekly reviews, strategic planning.
- 03Read/write access to project management, communication, and telemetry tooling.
- 04Minimum three-month initial commitment — meaningful leverage does not compound faster than that.
- 05An existing operating baseline — governance, cadence, and telemetry already in place.
What this is not
Out of scope
- 01Full-time on-site presence — this is a fractional engagement by design.
- 02People management, HR decisions, or hiring authority. We operate on structure, not personnel.
- 03Hands-on IC delivery — engineering, coding, ops execution. The engagement installs discipline; it does not substitute capacity.
- 04Fundraising, investor relations, or board politics beyond operational reporting.
- 05Permanent role. The engagement is structured to compound client capability and reduce dependency over time, not to entrench.
Start with a scoping conversation.
A 30-minute call to confirm fit, map constraints, and propose the smallest viable scope for this engagement. If the context is not right for what we do, we say so before the call ends.