Captain’s log, stardate 20230801

James Williams - Fractional CTO Masterclass

James Williams of Cofebe joined me on Ditching Hourly to give what amounted to a masterclass on how to avoid failure and delight clients as a fractional CTO.

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Key Points

Fractional CTO services allow entrepreneurs to access valuable CTO insights at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time CTO.
Fractional CTO engagements typically last anywhere from eight months to a year, with the aim of eventually hiring a full-time CTO or team.
The focus is on outcome-oriented implementation rather than just selling hours, ensuring that both parties are invested in achieving business goals.
Keeping the narrative on the goal helps avoid debates over past proposals or task lists.
Setting the tone for the consultant relationship by being honest, direct, and committed to achieving results.
Using qualitative goals and demo-driven plans to measure progress and ensure client satisfaction.

Quotable Quotes

”We don’t even do scope of work.“
“It’s not about the hours. It’s about the outcomes.”
“They’re less concerned about what our Jira tickets look like and more concerned about the outcomes that we can achieve.”
“I would rather take the advisory part and use their team if they have one.”
“Instead of waiting for mommy to come tell us what to do, let’s dictate the roadmap to the client and proactively share our vision.”
“Business guys get yachts, and engineers get nice monitors, and I want to cut that crap out.”
“How do you go from $110,000 a year to $230,000 a year or $300,000?”
“The chance of failure increases proportionally with you accepting what the client tells you what to do.”
“If you accept 100% of your client’s suggestions and three months from they can’t launch or it fails, guess whose fault that is?”
“If you keep the narrative on the goal, you can avoid debates about scope.”
“I ask a trillion questions upfront to disqualify prospects before considering pricing.”
“To guide the engineers, I write paragraphs on how the client should feel at every demo and what the qualitative goal should be.“
“My goal is always to get smaller, not bigger.”

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Yours,

—J