Fractional CTO through an enterprise launch

Our client runs a workplace platform that lets supervisors give workers instant cash rewards for safe behaviour and good work, on the spot. The company had a launch lined up with some of the best-known employers in Australia, across quick-service restaurants, property and logistics. Customers at that scale expect the launch date to hold and the first release to work. The engineering team was based in Poland. The founders' strength was the product and the customer relationships, and there was no senior technical leader in the business to direct the team. With the launch close, they needed someone to take responsibility for engineering straight away, without stopping to recruit a permanent CTO.

We stepped in as fractional CTO on a three-month engagement with two goals: get the launch out smoothly, and leave the team with engineering practices that would keep the product moving in the right direction after we left. We took over the management of the existing team rather than replacing or supplementing it. The engineers already knew the codebase. What they needed was technical direction, clear priorities and a consistent way of working. We worked alongside the founders as their technical counterpart, so the launch commitments made to customers and the work the team was doing stayed in step.

Over the three months we provided: Engineering leadership - day-to-day management of the team in Poland, and a single point of technical accountability for the founders. Launch delivery - priorities and scope set against the launch, so the team focused on what the launch needed and risks surfaced early enough to deal with. Engineering practices - standards for how work is planned, reviewed and released, built into the way the team already worked rather than added on top. A link between the business and engineering - customer commitments turned into engineering work, and engineering risks explained to the founders in business terms.

The platform launched successfully with its enterprise customers. Our engagement covered the three months leading up to it. The team came out of the engagement with practices it could carry forward on its own, so the product could keep moving in the right direction without a full-time CTO in place. What this engagement demonstrates: senior technical leadership that steps into an existing team, takes responsibility for it, and gets a high-stakes launch out without disrupting the work already under way.