Three ways to work together.
Pick what matches where you are. Or skip ahead and just talk to me.
Engagement 01
Fractional AI Product Lead Retainer
What it is
- I own your roadmap and run customer discovery: specs, sprint planning, and board input, week after week, not once a quarter.
- I sit in your sprints, your customer calls, and board prep. I show up like a VP would.
- I run customer calls each month so the roadmap stays anchored to real user pain, not internal assumptions.
Who it’s for
- Series A and B founders still acting as their own PM, ready to get their time back.
- Founders who've started the search for a first PM and realize they need senior cover before that hire lands.
- Teams that want a senior operator embedded for 6-12 months, not a three-call coaching engagement.
Engagement shape
- Timeline
- 3-month minimum. Most engagements run 6-12 months, through your first PM hire and their first 30-day ramp.
- Cadence
- 15-20 hours per week. Weekly 30-minute founder or CPO sync. Async on Slack during business hours, with a 4-hour response window on workdays.
- Deliverables
- Quarterly roadmap refresh, sprint plans for top-priority features, monthly written summary, board narrative section, and a transition brief when you hire.
Starts at $12,000/month · 3-month minimum
Engagement 02
AI Product Advisory Retainer
This tier is ongoing monthly access for teams with a working PM who need a senior AI thought partner, not embedded execution and not a one-time engagement.
What it is
- Two 60-minute working sessions per month, not status checks. Working sessions with decisions at the end.
- Async review of your PRDs and roadmap drafts, with written feedback inside 48 hours.
- Slack and email Q&A on AI product calls during business hours, plus a monthly one-pager on the top 3 AI moves for the next 30 days.
Who it’s for
- CPOs and Heads of Product at PE-backed portcos under an AI mandate who need senior pattern-matching, not a second PM.
- Founders with a working product team who want a senior AI thought partner alongside their existing leader.
- Teams that need to make better AI build-vs-buy decisions faster, without adding headcount.
Engagement shape
- Timeline
- 2-month minimum. Most engagements run 3-6 months.
- Cadence
- 3-5 hours per week. Two working sessions per month, async review and Q&A in between.
- Deliverables
- Working session recaps inside 24 hours, written feedback on shared documents, monthly one-pager.
Starts at $4,000/month · 2-month minimum
If advisory turns into "we actually need someone to own this," the engagement converts to the Retainer and I credit your last advisory month against the first retainer month.
Engagement 03
Strategy & Audit Sprint
What it is
- A 3-4 week fixed-scope diagnostic on your AI product strategy, built around 4-6 stakeholder interviews and a focused competitive scan.
- A board-ready strategy document: the 3 biggest product bets worth making in the next 90 days, the 3 unvalidated assumptions worth testing now, and what to stop doing.
- A 60-minute walkthrough with your founding team and one revision round.
Who it’s for
- Founders who need an AI product strategy by their next board meeting, not next quarter.
- Teams that want to "try before committing" to a retainer.
- CPOs who need an outside read on whether their AI roadmap is defensible or just incremental.
Engagement shape
- Timeline
- 3 weeks standard. 4 weeks if you need an extra week for interviews or data collection.
- Payment
- 50% on signature, 50% on delivery.
- Deliverables
- Stakeholder interview synthesis (end of week 1), AI opportunity inventory, gap analysis, 8-12 page strategy doc (Google Doc + PDF), 60-minute walkthrough.
$15,000-$20,000 · fixed scope · 3-4 weeks
Most sprint clients continue to a retainer. When that happens, the sprint investment often counts against month one (scope-dependent).
Questions
How does pricing work for retainers?
Retainer pricing starts at $12K/month for the embedded role and $4K/month for the advisory. The exact number depends on your situation, scoped on the discovery call. Sprints are fixed-price ($15K-$20K), 50/50 payment split. Sprints run higher than the monthly advisory because they're concentrated, high-intensity work over 3-4 weeks rather than ongoing access.
What does an embedded engagement look like?
I'm in your Slack, your sprints, and your customer calls. I write or review PRDs, run sprint planning where it helps, and own the roadmap end to end. Weekly 30-minute sync with you. Async during business hours, response inside 4 hours on workdays. Most weeks you'll feel like I'm a member of the team. That's the point.
Do you sign NDAs, MSAs, and DPAs?
Yes. Mutual NDAs before any privileged conversation. MSA and DPA at engagement start, working from your templates with your legal counsel. I don't require you to use my paper.
Can you start before legal closes?
Yes, in most cases. Once an NDA is signed, we can do discovery and scope work while legal drafts the MSA. Let's talk timing on the first call.
What if we already have a Head of Product?
The retainer isn't the right fit. That role belongs to your Head of Product. The advisory tier is built for this case: I sit alongside your existing product leader as a senior AI thought partner, not replacing them. The discovery call will be clearer than me explaining which side of the line you're on.
Why fractional and not a hire?
A senior product leader who has shipped AI at scale is a 6+ month search and a senior-level hire when you find one. Fractional gets you the same operator on day one, scoped to the time you actually need, and keeps your optionality open on the FTE hire. When you make that hire, I help scope the role and write the transition brief.
Where are you based, and what time zones do you cover?
Salt Lake City, Mountain Time. I cover Pacific through Eastern business hours comfortably. International engagements (Europe, APAC) need an honest conversation up front about meeting times before we sign.
What if scope changes mid-engagement?
Retainers are scoped quarterly, so priorities can shift inside a quarter without a contract change as long as the hours hold. Bigger pivots get a 30-minute scope reset and a written addendum. The sprint is fixed-scope by design. Change requests during a sprint either become a follow-on engagement or wait for the final retainer scope.
Easiest way to figure out fit: 30 minutes.
First call is 30 minutes. No pitch deck. No proposal until I understand your situation.