How I help / 02 · Lead & Stabilise
Delivery needs a leader now
Fractional COO / Head of Delivery, 2-3 days a week. Not only advice from the side: I take the wheel and own delivery decisions, people and results, reporting to the CEO.
In which situation
- Delivery has no single owner: project managers report to a CTO or a COO whose own backlog is already full.
- Client escalations land on the founder's phone, releases slip, margin goes down.
- Your delivery or operations leader has left, and the search will take months.
What you get
- Fractional COO / Head of Delivery, 2-3 days a week. I own delivery decisions, people and results, reporting to the CEO. Wider operations where agreed.
- Ownership, a weekly rhythm, and numbers that tell the truth.
- Interim, when your delivery leader has left: I step in quickly, find out what is really going on, take over day-to-day delivery and keep it stable. Together we hire the successor, and I onboard them, so they start with what I have learned, not from zero. Typically 3 days a week; the exact intensity depends on the context, the urgency and the complexity of the situation, and we agree it upfront.
What I do
- First weeks: an escalation protocol and a weekly delivery rhythm.
- Then, where those weeks show it is needed: the project management layer is strengthened, person by person.
- Succession from day one: we grow your strongest PM into the delivery lead, or run the hire together.
What I need from your team
- A clear mandate from the CEO.
- Access to people, projects and numbers.
- One contact person who works with me day to day.
- One person who will take over from me.
Duration and limits
- Fractional: 2-3 days a week, usually 3 to 6 months. Time-limited by design. Interim: typically 3 days a week, until the successor is in place and the handover is done. Agreed upfront.
- Usually starts with Express Diagnostics, so we both know what we are fixing.
- I report to the CEO. Wider operations only where we agree.
Relevant experience
Delivery Director of a SoftServe location of up to 250 people with P&L; COO and General Manager roles. Took over a delivery location from a predecessor and ran it for nine years.
Questions people ask
Isn't a full-time hire cheaper?
A search for a full-time leader often takes several months, and the person still needs onboarding and management. I start now, and part of my job is to grow or find that person. If you already know you need a permanent leader and can wait, hiring directly may be the better choice.
Only 2 days a week?
We agree upfront how urgent escalations are handled: through which channel and how quickly I respond. The system I build is meant to make the night calls stop.
What happens when you leave?
I plan my exit from day one: I leave a person in place, not a gap.
After the main work
Advisory Retainer. Regular sessions with the founder or delivery lead at an agreed frequency, and a light check that the system still holds. Operational management stays with your team.
First step
A 30-minute intro call.