A fractional CTO is meant to be more embedded than a consultant, but more flexible than an interim/full-time exec with real accountability for direction, standards, and outcomes.
If you've been stuck in "everyone is busy but nothing is predictable," this is the intervention.
You'll recognize at least 2–3 of these:
This is the “make it real” layer most pages don't specify.
What's broken, what's risky, what's salvageable, what to stop doing.
3–5 decisions locked (and documented) to prevent rework.
Cadence, quality gates, release safety, clear ownership.
Priorities tied to outcomes (reliability, activation, retention, cost).
Top tech + security risks ranked by impact and urgency.
Fractional CTO engagements typically cover strategy, architecture decisions, team leadership, and vendor/build-vs-buy choices—not just technical opinions.
This is a high-converting section because it answers the buyer's silent question: "Which kind of help do we actually need?"
Consultant: solves a specific problem, then exits (transactional)
Interim CTO: full-time temporary replacement during a gap/transition
Fractional CTO (this): ongoing part-time leadership to set direction and build a repeatable engineering system
If your issue is a recurring pattern (not a one-off project), fractional leadership is usually the correct tool.
Pick the level of leadership you actually need:
Weekly leadership sync + async decision support.
1–3 days/week leading roadmap, standards, and delivery rhythm.
Short-term stabilization for outages, missed delivery, or team breakdown.
We align to a small set of metrics based on your situation:
Planned vs shipped, cycle time, rework rate.
Incident frequency, MTTR, rollback rate.
WIP limits, scope churn, "stuck" initiatives.
Escaped defects, test coverage trend (where appropriate).
Answers to the most common pre-engagement questions.
Usually within days to a couple of weeks depending on access and scope. Fractional models are designed for fast onboarding and immediate impact.