How We Engage
Four ways to bring us in.
Independent delivery, scoped to exactly where you need it — backed by AI-driven delivery intelligence and a senior owner accountable for the outcome. Your team keeps its tools; we bring our own.
The Engagement Lifecycle
Four engagements. One lifecycle.
The Blueprint
The bid that wins the work — and becomes the plan.
You're bidding on a project, and the proposal has to win it. The Blueprint is a 2–3 week working engagement: we build your bid with you — phased plan, honest cost ranges, resources, scope, and requirements — as an interactive digital artifact. Your client doesn't get another PDF; they get a living estimate they can explore. And if you win it, we'll run it — the Blueprint converts straight into an Operator engagement, so the plan you bid is the plan that ships.
Who It's For
- Fractional CTOs and consultants who need to win the bid — and want the delivery run after they do
- Firms bidding on an upcoming project who need the proposal to stand out and hold up
- Teams that know the work cold but need a credible plan and number to win it
- Owners tired of losing bids to slicker proposals with worse delivery behind them
- Owners about to sign an SI's proposal who want an independent should-cost first — know what it should cost before you sign
- Anyone who wants the estimate to become the plan — not die in a slide deck
What You Get
- A phased, milestone-level plan with effort estimates and target dates
- Cost as honest ranges — low, likely, high — rolled up to a total and a projected end date
- Resource plan, scope and requirements, and a starter risk register
- An interactive artifact your client can explore — built with you, refined together
- Win it, and we'll run it: one click converts the Blueprint into an Operator engagement
Duration
2–3 weeks · working sessions with a founder
Best For
Firms and teams bidding on upcoming projects that need a winning, credible estimate
Pricing varies by engagement — let's talk.
The Operator
Your fractional delivery lead. Not advisory — in the work.
We embed as your delivery lead and own the project week to week — managing the vendor, running the plan, keeping stakeholders aligned, and resolving blockers before they become crises, all backed by AI-driven foresight that keeps surprises off your roadmap. The senior delivery leader you'd hire if the project justified a full-time salary — fractional, so it doesn't have to. AI-driven monitoring watches your project every day; a senior owner steps in with the judgment.
Who It's For
- Owners, COOs, and IT leaders running a major technology project without a senior delivery lead
- Companies that have the strategy and the vendor in place but no senior owner accountable for execution
- Anyone who needs a senior operator, not a coordinator — at a fraction of a full-time hire
What You Get
- Embedded delivery leadership led by a founder
- Zero tool changes for your team — we work above Jira, Office, or whatever you already use
- Vendor and SI management week to week
- Governance structure and stakeholder alignment
- Honest progress reporting directly to leadership
- Flexible scope — heavier during active delivery, lighter during planning
Duration
3-month minimum · Typically 6–12 months
Best For
Growing companies with a major technology project in flight and no senior delivery lead
Pricing varies by engagement — let's talk.
Ground Truth
Is your SI lying to you? Time to find out.
Your implementation is graded on your SI's own status reports — self-graded homework. Ground Truth is the independent audit: senior eyes and AI-driven analysis sitting in your meetings, reviewing the plan and the numbers, and projecting where timeline, cost, and risk are actually heading. You get a clear, data-backed picture of project health, an honest answer on whether the story you're being told matches the truth, and a straight recommendation on the path forward. The clarity you need before you sign the next change order.
Who It's For
- CFOs and COOs watching implementation costs creep with no clear explanation
- Executive sponsors getting optimistic status reports that don't match what they're hearing internally
- Owners and boards needing an independent view on a major in-flight project
- Anyone who senses something is wrong but can't get a straight answer
What You Get
- Plain-language written assessment report
- Live executive briefing on findings
- Independent evaluation of SI performance vs. plan
- Honest recommendation on path forward
- Optional ongoing monthly oversight retainer
Duration
2–3 weeks
Best For
Companies with an in-flight implementation that feels off
Free · The SI Audit Checklist
10 questions to ask your SI this week.
Your implementation is graded on your SI's own status reports — self-graded homework. Straight questions deserve straight answers. Ask these in your next status meeting and listen for the dodge.
- 1
“Show me burn versus budget, by workstream, as of today.”
What evasion sounds like: "We’ll pull that together for the next steering committee." A healthy project has this ready; a wobbling one needs two weeks to assemble it.
- 2
“What slipped in the last 30 days?”
What evasion sounds like: "Nothing major" — with no list. Every real project slips something monthly. Zero slippage means nobody’s tracking, or nobody’s telling.
- 3
“What is on the critical path right now, and who owns the item at the front of it?”
What evasion sounds like: A Gantt screenshot instead of a sentence. If the delivery lead can’t name today’s critical-path item from memory, nobody is steering.
- 4
“How many defects are open, and how old are the ten oldest?”
What evasion sounds like: "QA is on track." Defect aging is where go-lives die quietly; a count without ages is a vanity metric.
- 5
“What has been descoped since we signed?”
What evasion sounds like: "We’re managing scope carefully." Descoping isn’t a sin — hiding it is. You should have a running list you approved item by item.
- 6
“When did you last run an end-to-end test with our real data?”
What evasion sounds like: "Data migration is scheduled for a later phase." Fake data hides real failures — the later real data arrives, the later the truth does.
- 7
“Who on your team billed hours to us last week, and on what?”
What evasion sounds like: Names you’ve never seen in a status meeting. You may be funding the bench between their other clients.
- 8
“What change orders do you expect in the next 90 days?”
What evasion sounds like: "None currently identified" — followed by three arriving after the point of no return. A good SI forecasts change orders; a cornered one springs them.
- 9
“If this were your money, what would you do differently?”
What evasion sounds like: Silence, or flattery. An honest partner answers instantly — they’ve been thinking it for weeks.
- 10
“If go-live were tomorrow, what breaks first?”
What evasion sounds like: "We’re confident in the plan." Confidence is not an answer to a technical question. The team that can name what breaks is the team that’s actually looked.
Three or more evasive answers? Your status reports and your reality have parted ways.
Pricing varies by engagement — let's talk.
The Turnaround
We take the wheel. This is not a report — it's a rescue.
For projects that have already broken down — a failed go-live, an SI gone quiet, costs that have doubled. We come in fast, get to the truth, and take over delivery leadership to drive the recovery. We manage or replace the SI, rebuild the plan, and stand up our own AI-driven risk and drift tracking — no new tools for your team — so the project stays visible and predictable from here forward. From the moment we engage, we own the outcome.
Who It's For
- CEOs, COOs, and CFOs with a visibly failed or stalled implementation
- Anyone accountable for a project that has gone off the rails and needs someone to take charge
- Organizations whose SI has underdelivered, gone silent, or walked
- Board members fielding hard questions about a major IT spend
What You Get
- Rapid damage assessment — what happened and what's salvageable
- Full delivery leadership for the recovery
- SI management or replacement coordination
- Rebuilt plan with realistic milestones
- Clear go/no-go checkpoints at each recovery phase
Duration
Typically 10–20 weeks to full recovery
Best For
Projects in active crisis that need someone to take charge now
Pricing varies by engagement — let's talk.
Not sure which fits?
Let's just talk — 30 minutes, no pitch deck.
