Speaker 1: Welcome back to the CTOX podcast.
Speaker 1: In previous episodes, we covered other positions that are already fractional in nature, but not necessarily by name, like lawyers or accountants.
Speaker 1: And a big question we get is the other kinds of technology leaders that can be fractional.
Speaker 1: There's a whole spectrum of roles, CIOs,
Speaker 1: CISOs, chief product officers, chief data officers
Speaker 1: that companies desperately need on a fractional basis. Today, we're breaking open why this matters and what it means for your practice and your possibilities.
Speaker 1: Lior, welcome back.
Speaker 2: Thank you. This is a great,
Speaker 2: great episode.
Speaker 2: We're gonna make it, tight and short so people can understand if this is relevant for them or not.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So let's start off. Can you break down the different technology leadership roles that actually work as fractional engagements, and how might positioning change based on where you sit on that spectrum?
Speaker 2: Yeah. And at CTOX,
Speaker 2: we call CTOs because it's the most common one. But we have chief information officers, chief product officers,
Speaker 2: chief digital officers, chief data officers,
Speaker 2: chief information security officers.
Speaker 2: So we have we have the c suite of tech. It's all tech leadership.
Speaker 2: Some business require one over another.
Speaker 2: The techniques
Speaker 2: of attracting clients,
Speaker 2: developing prospects, and so on,
Speaker 2: pricing are very similar in that technology leadership space.
Speaker 2: Although generally speaking fractional, you got fractional CFOs and chief marketing officers,
Speaker 2: chief operating officers and so on. We really understand the mechanics of pricing and discovery for technology roadmaps.
Speaker 2: And if the business requires
Speaker 2: more buying than building, then maybe it's a chief information officer.
Speaker 2: If the business feels fairly complete
Speaker 2: on build and buy and security has such big implications, because maybe the niche of the businesses, like health care, certain kinds of manufacturing,
Speaker 2: then CISO chief information security officer makes a lot of sense. The retainers are very similar.
Speaker 2: Some of the business models differ on upside.
Speaker 2: So when you're leading teams, you can have upside related to teams and productivity and stuff like that. If it's staffing or application development and so on, in the CISO world, not as much. Right? But you would still be in very similar retainers
Speaker 2: on your advisory low ticket and leadership high ticket.
Speaker 2: The differentiation so pricing is generally gonna be very similar across the board on all tech leadership, so product data,
Speaker 2: security information and technology.
Speaker 2: And again, a big differentiator for us as CTOs build, CIOs buy, and of course, some CTOs buy and some CIOs can build, but that's the high level differentiation.
Speaker 2: And product.
Speaker 2: Sometimes a company really just needs a smart product leader. They don't and engineers, and they don't really need a CTO.
Speaker 2: Right? Just because of how how they're built, but pricing is gonna be fairly similar across the board.
Speaker 2: The upside is gonna be
Speaker 2: probably different depending on the position. CIO and CTO can be fairly similar,
Speaker 2: but the other one's a bit different. But, again, retainer cash and all that is pretty much the same. And then the road mapping is also gonna be fairly similar. So we teach the functional technology roadmap,
Speaker 2: which is to say technology needs to function and be, like, specific. And the categories
Speaker 2: are about developing initiatives that derisk the business,
Speaker 2: unclog the business, or scale the business.
Speaker 2: Those categories exist across all tech leadership positions,
Speaker 2: meaning they work in product and information, information security,
Speaker 2: and technology,
Speaker 2: as well. So the categories work the same operationally the same retainers are very similar days look very similar.
Speaker 2: This team size is different,
Speaker 2: you're rarely gonna see a c a chief information security officer, a fractional chief information security officer with twenty, thirty people under him, which might be common occurrence for a CTO
Speaker 2: or a CIO.
Speaker 2: Same thing with product. It's rare to see a chief product officer with dozens of people under them.
Speaker 2: See it sometimes, but rare.
Speaker 2: But retainer wise,
Speaker 2: very similar.
Speaker 2: Road mapping wise, very similar.
Speaker 2: Day to day, how you interact with the company,
Speaker 2: meaning the events you the the messages you respond to, the kind of meetings you attend, also very similar.
Speaker 2: What I find is that like in some companies that I'm in, we have a fractional CTO and a fractional chief products officer and a fractional chief information security officer. So you can even see
Speaker 2: those positions and really those positions.
Speaker 2: The key question, are they warranted for the business?
Speaker 2: That's why we say your list of responsibilities and accountabilities
Speaker 2: as a fractional CTO is the exact same list as the full time.
Speaker 2: The difference is just how much time it takes to service the business for those
Speaker 2: list of responsibilities and the things you are accountable for.
Speaker 2: And what experience is necessary?
Speaker 2: If the necessary experience is leadership and people, then we're generally talking about chiefs or VPs
Speaker 2: or directors.
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 2: But if the experience necessary is something else, then we're not talking about chiefs. So maybe you just need a chief technology officer and you need a director of product,
Speaker 2: for example.
Speaker 2: So positions are very similar. Pricing is very similar. Upside, a little bit different just because of the
Speaker 2: amount of people and kinda needle that you're moving in each one of those hats.
Speaker 2: And and also meeting cadence and roadmapping very similar, which is why people are successful
Speaker 2: when they come in. I would think it would probably not
Speaker 2: be as relevant to have a program that's dedicated just for chief product fractional chief product
Speaker 2: officers. Like, we definitely cover the gamut. But if somebody's a fractional CFO
Speaker 2: or a COO, a lower content is great and in principle,
Speaker 2: you know, selling anything, selling anything, if you're selling lemonade or selling this.
Speaker 2: But in practice, the details matter quite a bit, and the pricing matters quite a bit. So in the tech leadership
Speaker 2: cadre,
Speaker 2: pricing is very similar, road mapping and servicing is very similar,
Speaker 2: methodologies are very similar, so that's why we cater to all tech leadership across the board.
Speaker 1: In your own fractional CTO practice, you've shared here that you frequently operate as a fractional CTO and chief revenue graph,
Speaker 1: chief revenue officer
Speaker 1: or chief growth officer. How do you think about wearing those multiple executive hats? And do you think people should be open to holding more than one fractional title across different clients?
Speaker 2: Yeah. For sure. It's, it allows me to charge more. Meaning, I create more value so I can extract more value, and I can align
Speaker 2: my compensation
Speaker 2: to more results of the business.
Speaker 2: So, certainly,
Speaker 2: if you can do it, it's also sometimes
Speaker 2: it either you can correlate it directly to more value creating,
Speaker 2: or you can make it you make yourself more sticky. So if you think about
Speaker 2: kind of these thought models of barriers to entry, like how difficult it is to replace you.
Speaker 2: Meaning how like, for them to find another one versus barriers to exit. So how difficult it is for you to leave
Speaker 2: or for them to see you leave. So if you're coming in, and you're very talented and you're effectively like a CTO and you're effectively like a chief information security officer and you're effective like a chief product officer,
Speaker 2: they might wanna leave, but they're gonna replace it with three people.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of advantages in explicitly wearing multiple hats
Speaker 2: down to the proposal, like how you present the engagement when you first started.
Speaker 2: Even if it doesn't go into pricing, meaning you're not charging more for those hats, but you want it to be explicit in front stage
Speaker 2: so you keep the contract, and the lifetime value grows.
Speaker 1: What's the one thing you'd want someone to walk away with today if they're realizing their fractional path might not be the CTO title specifically?
Speaker 2: Focus on what you're passionate about.
Speaker 2: If you like building, yeah, definitely, like, CTO positioning is great. If you're more of a people product person,
Speaker 2: then do that. Like, wear wear the front stage that you like the most.
Speaker 2: And you like the most personally, maybe you also have the most history with it, but doesn't matter why you like it, you like the most.
Speaker 2: And be proud of the fact that you're a powerhouse,
Speaker 2: and you can wear multiple hats.
Speaker 2: So there's always this front stage positioning. You don't wanna just say,
Speaker 2: all these five things,
Speaker 2: because some your clients, your niche is gonna really want one to begin with. But certainly, as you develop the relationship and you go to the proposal stage, if you're about to build a product team and act as a chief product officer,
Speaker 2: absolutely
Speaker 2: make sure they understand. Hey. Good news.
Speaker 2: I'm also a chief product officer. You're not gonna need one. I'm also a chief data officer. You're not gonna need one, if those statements are true, of course.
Speaker 2: And, yeah. So find your fun stage focus on what gives you the most passion and delight,
Speaker 2: and don't forget to explicitly be proud of the fact that they're not gonna need to hire more people, but you're gonna do those activities
Speaker 2: and functions.
Speaker 1: Beautiful.
Speaker 1: If this episode made you rethink how you are positioning your fractional practice, share it with a tech leader who needs to hear it and connect with us at CTOX.
Speaker 1: See you next time, Lior. See you next time.