Advisory
Strategic counsel on a specific problem
Sometimes you do not need someone embedded in the organisation. You need one person who has seen this particular decision before, is not invested in the outcome, and will give you a straight answer.
Book a conversationWhat people bring
Build versus buy. The most consequential and most frequently botched decision in small technology organisations, usually because the cost of building is estimated by the people who want to build it.
AI adoption. Where it earns its keep and where it is theatre. I run a good deal of my own operation on agents, so the view is from having done it rather than from having read about it.
Architecture at a fork. Rewrite or refactor. Monolith or services. Cloud migration timing. Decisions that are expensive to reverse and easy to get wrong for locally sensible reasons.
Team structure and first hires. Who to hire first, how to structure as you grow past the point where everyone knows everything, and when a manager is genuinely needed rather than merely traditional.
A second opinion. Your team has recommended something, it sounds plausible, and you have no independent way to test it.
When it makes sense
When the problem is bounded. Advisory works well for decisions with a shape — a choice to make, a plan to test, a proposal to challenge. It works badly as a substitute for leadership: if the honest answer is that nobody is running technology, a monthly conversation will not fix it, and I will say so.
It also suits organisations that have had a fractional CTO and no longer need one. Keeping a line open to someone who knows the history is cheap, and it is often what stops a good decision quietly unwinding a year later.
How I work
A light-touch retainer with no minimum commitment, or a single focused engagement where that is all the problem warrants. Usually a regular conversation plus availability in between, sized to the problem rather than to a package.
I would rather have one useful conversation than a standing monthly meeting that neither of us needs. If there is nothing to discuss, we do not meet, and I do not bill for it.
What you get
A straight answer, including when the answer is that you are asking the wrong question. Reasoning you can re-use, not just a recommendation — the aim is that you make the next decision of this kind without me. And someone who is not selling you the implementation, which is a materially different incentive from most sources of technology advice.
The engagement
- Commitment
- No minimum
- Format
- Light-touch retainer, or a single focused engagement
- Typical cadence
- Sized to the problem
- Works well with
- Following a fractional CTO or due diligence engagement
Common questions
Is there a minimum commitment?
No. Some arrangements run for years at a conversation a month; others are a single afternoon that settles one decision. Both are fine.
Can advisory become a fractional CTO engagement?
Frequently, and it is a sensible way round. A couple of conversations tell us both whether the fit is right before anyone commits to six months.
Do you advise on technology you would not implement yourself?
Yes — and I do not implement any of it, which is the point. I have no delivery arm to feed, so the recommendation is not shaped by who would get the work.
Other services
Most engagements start with a conversation about what you are actually trying to do. No charge, no pitch deck.
Book a conversation