Engagements

What the work actually looks like.

We take on fractional engagements based on fit. Each one is scoped to a real question the leadership team is trying to answer, not a set of hours.

Below are the four areas the work usually falls into, and the three shapes an engagement typically takes. Most real engagements are a mix.

Best fitSeries A through Series C software companies and PE-backed growth-stage teams with a real product organization. We take selective advisory work with earlier or later-stage teams when the problem is the right fit.

01 · Basecamp

AI Advisory & Adoption

When it fits

You're being asked (by your board, your CEO, your customers) what your AI strategy is — and the honest answer is either that the team is experimenting without a thesis, or that you've shipped AI tools nobody actually uses.

What you leave with

A written point of view on where AI meaningfully changes your product and operations, and where it's theater
A prioritized set of bets: what to build, what to buy, what to defer
An adoption plan for the humans on the other end — the change management, workflow redesign, and enablement that turn shipped tools into changed behavior
Team enablement so PMs, designers, and engineers can evaluate AI features without a specialist in the room

02 · Ridge

Product Strategy

When it fits

The roadmap is a list of features, not a set of bets. Leaders don't agree on the top three priorities. New work keeps landing on top of unfinished work.

What you leave with

A vision and narrative your team can repeat without a deck
A roadmap architecture: horizons, bets, and the tradeoffs behind them
An operating cadence (planning, reviews, escalations) that actually runs

03 · High Camp

Team & Org Design

When it fits

You're scaling the product org and it shows: unclear leveling, hiring loops that miss, first-time managers underwater, or a structure that no longer fits the strategy.

What you leave with

An org design that matches the strategy and the current stage
A hiring bar, interview loops, and calibration your leaders trust
Coaching for first-time managers and directors, plus a leveling framework that survives your next round of hires

04 · Summit

Product Execution

When it fits

Strategy exists on paper, but shipping is inconsistent. Discovery is shallow, analytics are decorative, and PMs are running project management instead of product work.

What you leave with

Hands-on partnership with your PMs, designers, and researchers on live work
Discovery, research, and analytics practices installed in the team, not left in a report
Delivery process tuned to the team's actual size and maturity

Engagement shapes

Three ways we can rope up.

Scout

2 to 4 weeks

A short, focused diagnostic. We sit in on your team, review the product, data, and org, and leave you with a concrete plan and a clear point of view — not a deck to file away. Sometimes the plan is the whole engagement; sometimes it's the prelude to ropes up.

Rope Up

3 to 6 months, 1 to 2 days per week

Embedded fractional partnership with your leadership team. Setting strategy, running the operating rhythm, and making the calls on org and hiring. This is where most of the durable change happens.

Summit

3 to 6 months, 2 to 3 days per week

Deep execution partnership. Same as Rope Up, plus hands-on craft work with your PMs, designers, and researchers on live product bets until the shipping muscle is theirs.

What we don't do

Deck-only strategy work with no execution follow-through.
Full-time interim CPO roles. Fractional means fractional.
Recruiting-only engagements. We'll help build the bar and run loops, not replace a recruiter.
Generic AI enablement or prompt-engineering training.

Not sure which shape fits? That's usually the first conversation.

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