In the room while the decisions get made.
The right engagement depends on where you are. Some organizations need the function built from scratch. Others need the one they have to finally start working for them.
The engagement
Embedded Operating Design· 6 weeks
The work starts with live decisions. Week one is pressure-testing what's actually happening: where ownership is unclear, where priorities are competing, where the delivery model is breaking down.
Some teams have the talent but not the infrastructure to execute. Others accumulated structure by default. Either way, the output is the team knowing who owns what, what comes first, and how work ships.
Process
Wk 1
Orientation
Map live decisions, pressure-test where friction is structural, align on scope and access
Wk 2–3
Discovery
Leadership interviews across functions; map where decisions stall, where ownership is missing, and what's competing for priority
Wk 4–5
Working sessions
Targeted sessions to clarify who owns what, resolve priority conflicts, and lock in who decides going forward
Wk 6
Alignment
Leadership session to confirm resolved decisions, named owners, and committed next steps. The work is done before this session begins.
What gets built
The operating layer is how decisions get made, sequenced, and shipped after I leave. An engagement leaves six things you can point to.
- ·Decision rights. Who owns which calls, written down and agreed, so they stop routing back to the founder by default.
- ·A sequencing model. Priorities ordered against each other, with what you're deliberately not doing named out loud.
- ·A delivery model. The path from decision to shipped, with the cadence and checkpoints that keep it moving.
- ·A discovery model. How inputs get gathered across functions before a decision, not after.
- ·Hiring architecture. The roles the next stage needs, in the order to add them, so structure leads growth instead of chasing it.
- ·Operating cadence. The few recurring sessions that run the org without you in every one.
What you keep is the machine that runs after I leave. The engagement is six weeks, fixed.
For Investment Funds
Funds support portfolio companies horizontally, advising across many rather than embedding in any. The gap has always existed. AI made it urgent: coordination failure that used to surface at fifty people is now arriving at fifteen, and the cost of leaving the operating model broken is higher when output is multiplied.
The engagement structure is the same. The entry dynamic differs.
- ·Introduced by the fund, contracted directly with the portfolio company
- ·The portfolio company is the principal. The fund is kept informed, not involved.
- ·Working sessions are confidential. No interim process reporting to the fund.
- ·Fund receives a summary of resolved decisions at close, not a process report
In their words
I was brought into B1 to build the program management and operations function. Stephen came in at the same time to build the product side.
He brought what the organization hadn't had: a product delivery framework, a way to surface and sequence inputs from across the organization, and the rigor to make the shift from R&D into something that could actually ship.
Together we scaled the team, sequenced the milestones, and built the accountability structures the program needed. The model became the foundation for a product org we eventually spun out as its own company. Stephen understands how an organization actually functions, not just how it should.
Jeff Werner
Director of Operations, B1
Other ways to work together
When the six-week engagement isn't the right starting point, or the need is more specific.
AI-Native Team Design
The operating model rebuilt for a team where agents do as much work as people: ceremonies, ownership, cost visibility.
Ongoing Advisory
Monthly working sessions with access in between, often after an engagement, so the clarity holds.
Fractional CPO
Senior product leadership before you're ready to hire it full-time.
Early-Stage Clarity Sprint
A locked problem definition and sequenced priorities, for teams that keep relitigating them.
Leadership Coaching
For leaders whose decision load has outgrown their decision architecture.
Common Questions
Decisions keep returning to the founder. Nobody clearly owns the product function. Priorities compete without resolution. If that's the pattern, the engagement is relevant. The friction is structural.
Embedded Operating Design fits organizations with an identifiable structural problem: friction that's acute and has a name. AI-Native Team Design fits teams where the operating model hasn't kept pace with the velocity AI tools enable. If you're not sure which fits, the first conversation is designed to figure that out. Most people know something is off before they know what to call it.
A consultant delivers a recommendation and leaves. I stay through the work. I'm in the room while decisions get made, building the function alongside the team. The measure is simple: can the organization execute without me at the end?
Resolved decisions, with owners named and sequencing locked. Leadership can move without relitigating the same questions. The measure is whether the organization functions differently at the end.
Six weeks fits organizations with an identifiable structural problem: friction that's acute and nameable. If the problem is more diffuse or the organization isn't yet at a growth inflection point, the Early-Stage Clarity Sprint may be the better starting point. If you're not sure, start with a conversation.
For Investment Funds
The portfolio company is always the principal. The fund introduces the engagement and receives a summary of resolved decisions at close. No process report, no interim updates. Working sessions are confidential to the portfolio company's leadership.
Frame it around their interest, not your visibility. The introduction that lands: “I'd like to bring someone in to work directly with you on the execution friction you've been navigating. He contracts with you, not me. I hear about outcomes at close, nothing during.” The CEO needs to trust that this is in their interest. The contractual structure supports that; the framing has to lead with it.
Still not sure if it's a fit? That's what the first conversation is for.