The Ultimate Guide to Fractional Product Leadership

From top to bottom - what's this "fractional" stuff and how do I get started?

Jan 07, 2024

Fairly regularly, I get asked a variation of this question:

“I’m looking to get into fractional product leadership - do you have any advice on how to get started?”

Fractional product leadership? What’s that? Let’s take it from the top.

Author’s note: This (long!) post is based on my personal experience, as well as my own opinions about how fractional work works. I am NOT a legal or accounting professional. This post is offered “as is” and you should always seek professional advice to ensure that you are compliant with local regulations and legislation.

I don’t have a subscription tier, and I am almost certainly migrating away from Substack due to its support for objectionable content, but if this post is helpful to you, please consider a small contribution to my tip jar.

Cool? Let’s go!

1. How I got into fractional product leadership

Or… Why should I listen to this guy? (You can skip this bit if you find it too self-indulgent)

My name’s Jason, and I’m a fractional product leader. Phew, that feels so good to get that off my chest!

In all seriousness, I’ve been doing fractional work for just over a year as of the date of this post. I’ve been the fractional CPO for RiskScreen and am currently the fractional VP of Product for DICE and fractional CPO for Judge.Me. There are certainly more experienced fractional leaders out there, but I’ve thrown myself into this crazy world and also network a lot with fractional leaders from various industries and functions. When I went into fractional roles, I wanted to do them well. So, I’ve researched the heck out of it.

Before doing fractional work, I spent many years working as a full-time employee for individual companies, one at a time. I worked at one company for 19 years! I spent a long time in technical leadership before going all in on product leadership. At the end of (what I hope to be) my last ever full-time gig, I was at a crossroads. I had enough money put aside to not have to just leap into the next job. I’ve been involved in the product community for a few years now, through connecting and writing on social media, writing newsletters like this, and also through my podcast. I’ve seen what a big world it is out there, and I wanted to experience a lot of it.

I’m lucky to have a large network of product people, through the aforementioned content work. I started that content work with no agenda; I had no plan to go consulting when I started. When I quit my last job, I utilised that network and threw up posts on LinkedIn and Twitter offering… time. I spent a month just talking to founders and product leaders, trying to work out what their problems are and how I might help them with those problems.

But, before that, I spoke to a bunch of people from my network, from content producers to product evangelists to coaches to consultants and advisors. I wanted to know where I could make a difference. Should I be a content guy? A coach? Just get another full-time job? I quickly realised that I wanted to stay close to the craft and not just be a talking head. There are some fine talking heads out there, but I’m not one of them. I’m a doer. I need to make a difference.

Originally, RiskScreen approached me through the social posts I’d made and asked me to review their product transformation plans. I won’t go into confidential details, but I was delighted to be given a shot. I’ll stand up for my value as a product leader as much as the next person, but I had no track record as a consultant at the time. I threw myself into it and interviewed a fair few people from the company, wrote up a report and delivered it to the leadership team. I like to think I did a good job because they asked me to come and help them implement my recommendations as a fractional CPO.

It was on like Donkey Kong…

2. What is Fractional Product Leadership?

“What would you say... you do here?” - Bob Slydell - Office Space

Fractional Leadership (n) - the thing that people try when they get burned out one too many times and don’t want another full-time job that they probably won’t like either.

I’ve seen this story again and again. It’s kind of my story, so I don’t judge it at all. It’s very common for product leaders to get fed up with one job too many, quit the last place they were at, and start thinking about another path.

Some people gravitate towards coaching. I do some of that too, although it’s not my main focus right now. Coaching can be incredibly rewarding, but it’s difficult to replace a full-time product leader's salary through coaching alone. I speak to a lot of product coaches and many of them do other consulting or advisory work to bridge the financial gap.

Some people gravitate towards education, running online courses and communities, or doubling down on content. To be clear, I do some of this too (check out my course, “Succeeding in B2B Product Management”). I love educating people! I love being in communities with people! I produce content all the time! These are all fantastic initiatives for people to get involved in, and if people can make money out of them then I’m all for that.

But, let’s concentrate on the world of fractional leadership, and consulting in general. There are various versions of consulting-type work and they’re often misunderstood, both by people trying to get into this world, as well as by the people hiring them. However, to be clear, this is how I’m defining things:

Interim product leadership

Fractional leaders could, in some cases, be considered interim leaders since their time at a company can be (but is not always) time-bound. However, an interim leader implies a full-time role for a relatively short period. Perhaps it’s a 6-12 month maternity cover. Perhaps there’s a new full-timer coming in who can’t start yet. Perhaps the team need someone to get them to the next financial event. There are many valid reasons to hire an interim leader, but an interim leader is effectively a day-to-day leader and just as involved in operational work as a full-time leader. Just not for as long.

Fractional product leadership

Fractional product leadership is different. A fractional leader may or may not be time-bound, but they’re by definition part-time. I’ll cover terms of engagement later, but, in general terms, a fractional leader’s job is to provide top-level expertise, guidance, strategic support and steering. Fractional leaders are not operational leaders; they need a team to do the execution. Fractional leaders can be excellent options for cash-strapped organisations that don’t have the budget for the full-time role yet but need steering in the right direction. They can help with transformations or prepare the ground for a full-time person to take over. Fractional leaders use their deep expertise to help companies develop that expertise themselves.

What about advisory work? Consulting?

There are some similarities between fractional work and consulting or advisory work. However, a consultant will generally be brought in to deliver a time-bound piece of work. They may well have a standard process or methodology that they use repeatably. An advisor may be a longer-term sounding board for the leaders within the organisation. A big difference is the amount of involvement the fractional leader has with the teams and the somewhat wider, more flexible remit of a fractional leader.

Is it always about leadership?

I’ve been asked before about part-time individual contribution work. It’s not as common, and it might be considered tough to manage a product part-time (although I have seen it work in some organisations). I don’t see this as fractional work, though. Fractional leadership is about bringing a high level of expertise to the top of an organisation to help change the system in some way.

3. Characteristics of a Good Fractional Leader

“You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps” - Walt Disney (allegedly)

Is fractional work for you? It’s hard to know until you’ve done it, but I do get the feeling that many people gravitate towards the perceived benefits of fractional leadership without considering whether it’s really for them.

So, what are those benefits?

Working part-time gives you the ability to spend time on other stuff that’s important to you.
You get to focus on high-leverage, impactful work that makes a difference rather than getting bogged down in minutiae.
You get to work with a lot of different people and types of companies. Every contract offers something new.
You’re your own boss and can (eventually) choose the clients you want to work with.
Your effective hourly rate will probably be pretty high.

And some of the disadvantages?

Many company leaders don’t fully understand what a fractional leader is, and most of your (temporary) coworkers definitely don’t - this can mean you’re dragged into things you shouldn’t be, and not included in things you should be. It requires discipline.
As a product leader, you may be involved in crafting strategies you will never have to see through, and you may not feel quite the same level of ownership of the product(s) being developed.
Being your own boss means… you’re your own boss and have to take care of all of your own business admin. There are no benefits. You don’t get paid sick days or holidays.
Your high hourly rate is generally diluted by working fewer hours.

So what are some of the characteristics you need to succeed as a fractional product leader?

You need to be able to onboard and make an impact super-fast. No “The First 90 Days” here - you need to be able to apply broad pattern recognition to get up and running quickly.
You need to be able to handle intense context-switching. All product people should be good at context-switching, but fractional leaders experience this on steroids (especially if you have multiple contracts at once - more on this later).
You need to be able to be emotionally disconnected. You’re there to help accelerate something, but this isn’t your product or your company. You need to stay out of politics and pick your battles. On the odd occasion that I’ve gotten too emotionally involved, it has always been a mistake.
You need to be credible-sounding, no-BS and build working relationships with people quickly. There may be resistance or scepticism to your arrival, either from leadership teams or individual contributors. You need to be able to use your combination of people skills and deep expertise to bridge any gaps quickly.

Again, you’re not going to know if fractional leadership is for you unless you try it, but it is not just “full-time product leadership just less of it”.

The most important thing

No one likes making decisions under duress. I was lucky, after finishing my last full-time job, to have a little bit of money put aside. I could pay the bills for a few months. I had sufficient runway.

Some people I know seem to have a practically infinite runway, either through savvy past investments or a partner in full-time work. Whatever the length of your runway, you need to make sure you have enough. The precise value of “enough” depends on how quickly you can get up and running, but without enough runway, you’ll either panic and give up before you get started, or you’ll end up making sub-optimal decisions under duress.

Runway will be something you think about constantly until you get properly established. I have a friend who once had 6 months without a contract. He had built up a reserve, so everything was fine, but if he hadn’t, he’d have been living on the edge and everything would have been more stressful. We all dream of the day when we are financially set and don’t have to worry about this anymore, but that is unlikely to be on day one.

Personally, I have a spreadsheet set up with all of my different sources of current and future income listed out, and a little formula that says how many months I have left. You don’t want any surprises. Keep an eye on your runway, and try your best to build some up before you start.

4. The Boring Admin Stuff

“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible” - Francis of Assisi

I’m based in the UK, therefore much of this section is told from the perspective of UK law. That said, I’m sure there will be many similarities around the globe. In any case, this section is offered just as commentary, not legal or tax advice. It’s offered “as is”, and I recommend consulting with legal and/or accounting professionals to ensure that you’re compliant with laws that apply to you.

As a fractional product leader, you are a service provider to a business. You are not an employee of the company you work for. You’re not on the payroll. You’re a supplier. You need to look after your own affairs.

First things first, register as a business

In the UK, there are two main ways to set yourself up as a business. You can either be a sole trader or a private limited company. The latter separates you (the person) from the company. As a sole trader, you and the business are effectively the same entity.

There are some benefits to being a limited company, primarily around being tax efficient as well as limitation of personal liability, but there are also higher administrative overheads and filing requirements. As a sole trader, you simply have to register online and then submit an annual self-assessment tax return. You will pay more tax, and I’ve heard rumours that some companies might see non-limited companies as less credible. For the record, I started as a sole trader for simplicity’s sake, and remain so to this day (and it has not raised a single question with any client or prospect).

There’s much more information about the pros and cons of limited companies versus sole trading right here

In the UK, if you’re expecting to turnover more than £85,000 per annum, you’ll need to register for VAT (Value Added Tax - basically a tax on sales). Some people prefer to register anyway because it can look more credible. If you register for VAT, you must levy 20% on any UK B2B sales. It can get more complicated if you’re selling overseas but, generally, you do not levy VAT on overseas B2B services due to “place of supply” rules. Sales tax rules vary around the world so, again, check with your accountant.

Side note: It took about 3 months between submitting my VAT registration application and getting a VAT number. During those 3 months, I was legally required to charge VAT whilst simultaneously being legally unable to charge it. I ended up having to explain this to every early client, increase my invoices by 20% (without mentioning VAT), and then issue a refund and re-invoice them once my registration was complete. It worked out OK, but it was a massive hassle. Speak to your accountant about this!

Speaking of which…

Get an accountant (or equivalent)

Whether you’re a limited company or not, you’re going to need to submit accounts in one form or another. You could try to do this yourself, but I seriously recommend getting accounting support.

This can take one of two forms:

An online self-service accounting platform
An actual living, breathing accountant

The latter will be more expensive but offer a more personalised service. In either case, you’re looking for support for bookkeeping, VAT and self-assessment returns (or accounts filings for limited companies).

I use Crunch, which is a solid enough platform that handles all my needs. It’s self-serve, but you also have access to certified accountants in case of queries. I use it for bookkeeping, registering business expenses and preparing invoices for clients.

There are other platforms available, of course, but if you use code JasonKni1 then I get a kickback. Or don’t, I won’t judge you.

Get a business bank account

It’s best practice to keep all of your business banking separate from your personal banking. This makes bookkeeping substantially easier.

I use Tide, which does a good basic job. There are plenty of other alternatives (UK folks can check out sites like Money to the Masses, set up by my friend Damien Fahy, for top recommendations). If you do use Tide, use code K7E76K and we’ll both get £50!

You want a bank that has open banking connections to your accounting software. I have an automated feed going from Tide to Crunch, which makes bookkeeping incredibly easy. Other than that, it’s just a bank account. If you’re setting up a limited company, you’ll pay yourself a salary and dividends from this account. If you’re a sole trader you can withdraw money whenever you like. I pay myself a salary from my business account to my personal account every month. I never use the business account for any non-business spending. Keep your finances clean and orderly and any filing requirements will be much easier to fulfil.

Get insurance

When you’re a full-time employee, you’re covered by your employer. When you’re a service provider, you need to cover yourself.

In the UK, you primarily need two types of insurance:

Public Liability Insurance - to protect against claims by members of the public in case of “slips, trips and falls”. You don’t want a coworker tripping over your bag in the office and leaving you liable!
Professional Indemnity Insurance - to protect against claims from your clients for damages caused by work you’ve done for them.

You’re likely to be working for yourself, but if you employ people directly, you’ll also need Employer’s Liability Insurance. Check out more details about the types of insurance here.

Get a pension!

This is easily forgotten, and I didn’t get one for the first year, but you’ve got no benefits anymore and it’s important to make sure you’re thinking of the future. There are various options out there and it’s important not to forget yourself.

5. Finding Your First Client

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” - Arthur Ashe

Sometimes people will be talking about “going fractional” with me and they’ll say something along the lines of “You have such a great network, it must be easy to find work”.

On the one hand, I really do have a great network, and I’m very grateful for it. I’ve worked hard to build it, but I’m still grateful for it.

I also have to say that I’ve not been short of work since starting my first consulting project that led to my first fractional gig. I know people who have struggled to get any kind of consulting work and gone back to full-time work demoralised.

But, I don’t believe that having a big social network is a prerequisite for getting fractional work. When I put my initial “Hey you guys” post out, saying that I’m looking to go consulting, I got an outpouring of goodwill. When I offered my calendar link out, I got dozens of people wanting to chat with me. I had some really good chats with a bunch of people.

However, in total, it all turned into one short project that, thankfully, turned into a fractional role. Everything else died on the vine. Every other opportunity that I’ve nurtured has been through good old-fashioned micro-networking, going to meetups, speaking with investment firms, and getting referred or introduced to people.

So, do you need a large social media following to get clients?

Let me be clear on this. I am all for people finding their voice on social media, getting their content game on and building their following. But, a large social media following is generally a low-power network. What this means is that you’ll probably attract a lot of followers that share your interests. You’ll have many, many fantastic conversations with these people. But, most of them will be people who want to work for you or with you, not hire you. A smaller, high-power network is almost certainly going to pay more dividends, and you can develop that without a large social following.

So, no, you don’t need 150,000, or even 5,000 followers to get clients. And, let’s face it, you don’t even need very many clients! As a one-person band, you just need one client to get you started. How do you get that client? The old-fashioned way. Milk the network that you do have. Look up old colleagues. Ask for referrals. Connect with people. Put yourself out there.

Getting your story straight and niching down

It’s important to have a story about why people should hire you. For me, that story was relatively easy - I’ve got good professional, first-hand experience as well as incredibly wide second-hand knowledge from all the content work I’ve done, and all the people I’ve interviewed on my podcast. Is that second-hand experience a replacement for first-hand experience? Not at all. But, I’d still rather have it than not. I also post a lot about the problems of growing B2B startups, so it was an obvious starting point for me to focus primarily on £1-10M B2B sales-led SaaS companies. That doesn’t mean I won’t work for people outside of that, but that’s my ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and what I optimise for.

In any case, there are lots of people out there trying this out these days, so it’s important to get your story straight. You should identify the special characteristics that make you attractive to a potential client. Identify the niche that you are the best person for. Identify the types of holes you are best placed to fill. It’s easy for people to think “I can do anything!” and advertise very generic services, which sounds great (bigger funnel, yay!) but ultimately makes you nothing to anyone. You need an angle. Then go out and gladhand away and make those connections.

On the flip side, I’ll also say that, whatever your angle, you should seriously consider taking whatever first offer you get. Simply having experience to refer to will automatically make you seem credible (and you’ll learn a lot from that experience). Getting a win on the board will also make you feel good about this career choice!

PS Elena Verna and Jonathan Yagel have a great post here going into prospecting for clients when you don’t have a big following.

6. Terms of Engagement

“Read your contracts. Up and down, left and right” - Lauren Jauregui

Hurray! You’ve got your first client. Now what? Well, you’re going to have to agree on a few things, and all of these are going into your service provider contract that you and your client will sign.

Length of engagement (e.g. fixed, project-bound or rolling)

This depends on what they’re hiring you for. Some potential goals include building a product team from scratch, providing strategic support for a pivot, helping a leadership team line things up for a funding round or exit, helping change ways of working or product culture within an organisation, supporting the team through a transformation, or doing the groundwork for a future, permanent product leader to take over.

I aim for shorter engagements with an option to renew. I also try to get as specific as possible about the things that I’m signing on to do. That doesn’t mean I can’t be flexible or do other things, but these are the things I’m definitely going to do, and what I’m going to be judged on.

Availability requirements (effectively, how many days you’ll be around)

Originally, I thought that flexibility was key and my first fractional contract effectively said “I’ll be available up to 16 hours a week, and be as flexible as possible around the needs of the business”. I didn’t want people to feel like they had to move everything around my 2 days.

It worked OK, but there were some downsides. Firstly, no one ever knew whether I was guaranteed to be available and also it was sometimes difficult to build up any momentum on things I was working on because I’d immediately have some other thing to take care of. The context-switching was intense, and I don’t think it worked as well as it could have. So, I tended to gravitate towards fixed days to solve this problem.

In other contracts, I’ve named very specific days of the week that I’ll be around. This can work OK, although can limit flexibility too much the other way, so these days I tend to agree on a certain minimum number of hours, with a strong preference for blocking full days, and update my availability in their calendar weekly. This means that the client knows when I’m around, and I know when I need to stop other people from booking me.

How much you’re going to charge

For some people, including me, it’s incredibly difficult to put a price on your services. Maybe there’s some imposter syndrome here, but also it’s difficult. It’s tempting to try to go in low because you don’t want to lose the opportunity. This is understandable, but you’ve also got to cover your end.

You probably can’t charge as much as the top people in the field, but some advice I got early on was “No one will ever negotiate you up”. That’s to say, it’s generally better to go in high and spark a conversation than go in low and leave money on the table. You’re providing a premium service that they need. Also, remember that they’re not paying any employee “On Costs” - you’re not on their insurance, you’re generally providing your own equipment, and you don’t get any benefits. Don’t just charge a fraction of your old salary - you’re worth more than that.

There’s also occasional debate in the fractional community about time-based charging, e.g. per hour or day. Many people operate on a retainer basis, where they’ll agree on a monthly fee that is tied to specific outcomes or goals, rather than just elapsed time. I’ve operated on this basis, as well as on a per-day basis, depending on the needs of the client and how flexible we need to be. I don’t think there’s any one right way but do remember that charging per day does mean that your income could be variable.

Ultimately, you can charge what you can charge. In the UK, I’ve spoken to senior people who recommend a starting rate of anywhere between £750-1,250 per day for a fractional product leader. If you have lots of credibility in a particular space, you can charge more. If you really, really want to land a deal, you could treat it as a loss leader. There are no right answers here. You are not a fungible resource. Charge what you can charge.

Putting this all in a contract

After all this, you’re going to need to sign a service-provider contract with your client. Again, I’m not a legal professional, so this section is provided “as is” and I recommend engaging an actual contract lawyer.

Generally speaking, I use a standard, pro forma service provider contract with standard terms and conditions. Occasionally, clients will ask you to use their service provider contract. Generally speaking, this is fine but you, obviously, need to check the terms carefully.

I’m not going to through every aspect of contract law (please, please, PLEASE speak to a lawyer), but some key things to be aware of:

Restriction on “other activities” - You’re a service provider and should be able to engage in work with other companies, providing you fulfil your obligations to this client.
Non-compete clauses - You generally don’t want these in there. I’m, generally speaking, more accepting of very targeted non-competes (e.g. companies in the exact same industry) but never for longer than the contractual term.
Status and substitution - You’re a service provider, not an employee. You’re supposed to be responsible for your own tax and legal obligations. As you’re providing services as a company, they’re employing that company, not you personally. This also means you have the right to substitute an appropriately skilled replacement if necessary.
Non-disclosure - You will naturally need to have an NDA, and you will have an obligation to destroy records after the contract ends.
Intellectual property - It’s fair enough for any IP that you work on with the company to be their property, but you want to avoid any of your general approach being sucked into this. Just because you got them using a framework you designed doesn’t mean they own the framework.
Obligation for future work - There should be no contractual obligation on either side to provide or receive services after the contract term. The contract describes the complete obligation; you can renew it, but that’s a separate contract.

Underneath the pro forma, I provide a matching schedule that covers

Start date and length of engagement
Key deliverables/success metrics
Availability
Invoice terms (30 days from receipt) and bank details
Insurance details

Most of the time, clients will be perfectly happy to use e-signatures via DocuSign or equivalent. Many of these companies have free tiers, or you can also use the client’s e-signature provider if they are happy to do this. Once you’re signed, you're good to go.

7. Doing the Job

“The beginning is the most important part of the work” - Plato

Congratulations! You’re a fractional CPO! Now what?

Well, first of all, you need to get access to your client’s systems. This could go one of two ways:

You manage everything through your own email and calendar and people share docs with you
You get various logins set up or onto their SSO, and you get a shiny Google Workspace or (heaven forbid) Office 365 account.

I far prefer the latter. It means that you have access to everything you need, and it means they can revoke your access easily at the end of the contract. Just make sure that any emails that you need to keep (around your own business admin, contract renewals, disputes etc) are sent from your own email.

Generally speaking, you’ll be responsible for providing your own equipment (e.g. using your own laptop). In some situations, you may be asked to use equipment that they provide. This might be because they have particular compliance or security policies. I’m generally OK with this, provided that it doesn’t get in the way of my job, and it stops me from having to install weird device management software on my personal computer.

Meeting the team

If you’re lucky, you will have met some of the team ahead of time, but it’s unlikely that you’ve met them all. An important rule of fractional leadership is that a lot of people have no idea what a fractional leader does. They also may not have been given much context as to why you were hired in the first place. If you’re coming in as part of a transformation or scaling effort, there may even be some suspicion. Time to turn on the charm!

I like to meet as many people as I can within the organisation in as short a time as possible. I’ll set up calls or face-to-face meetings with all of the key stakeholders across the business, and make sure they know who I am, why I’m here, and the broad terms of my engagement. Of course, the largest part of the conversation concentrates on who they are and what’s on their mind, but I like to start by being very explicit about my purpose and what I’ll be working on with them.

I’ll also do my best to reassure these people that, whilst I may “only” be working a couple of days a week, I’m here for them and they should never feel afraid to reach out on an “off” day. This may be controversial to some harder-nosed fractional leaders, but I don’t want to watch the clock. I guarantee availability for X amount of time, but people can always contact me for urgent advice outside of that. I don’t guarantee turnaround time on replies, but I’ll get back to them as soon as I can.

Working day to day

People aren’t always experienced with working with part-time leaders, and one thing that I’ve reflected on is that you often get involved in stuff you shouldn’t, and not involved in stuff you should. It is quite common for people to expect you to get involved in every single operational issue as if you were a full-time leader. And, to be honest, I get it. You’re a super-senior, incredibly experienced and competent product leader who almost certainly has a lot of the answers. But, it’s generally not the best use of your time to get dragged into things like pay or performance reviews, tactical meetings around product delivery, routine staffing meetings, chasing down support issues or anything that’s urgent but not important.

Now, I’m never going to recommend that people be jobsworths ("Sorry, mate, not in my contract!”), especially at the day rates that fractional leaders can charge. It’s totally OK to be consulted on day-to-day operational issues, asked for advice or asked to pitch in. The key issue here isn’t whether you should be involved, but how much you should be involved. Your goal is to provide direction, but you need someone else to handle the execution. If there’s a systemic problem that needs solving, solve the problem and fix the system. Then, let people have at it themselves.

For me, this is a core principle of fractional work in general. Your goal as a fractional leader is to use your experience to guide and enhance the team and help them make good decisions. You need to concentrate on high-leverage activities, things that can force-multiply through the organisation and make it worth spending money on you. And, ultimately, the success of your engagement will be judged on how you deliver to the goals that were set upfront. Always treat those goals as your ultimate North Star (coincidentally, so much of this advice applies in some form to full-time product leaders, as well as product teams in general!)

Are you people’s boss?

Another important distinction, certainly in the UK, and presumably elsewhere too, is not to be considered a disguised employee. This is generally something people think about in the context of IR35 (the UK law about off-payroll working which, in simple terms, was set up to stop people abusing limited company status to get paid lots of money for doing effectively a full-time job). But, it’s still something that HMRC could hold against you as a sole trader (Again, advice offered as-is. Please make sure you speak to a lawyer).

You’re a service provider with the right of substitution, not a part-time employee of the organisation. Whilst it might be considered acceptable to have you put into the HR system so that you can access data or org charts, and you’ll almost certainly be involved in team meetings and 1:1s, you’re not anyone’s line manager and should not be expected to be so. You’re there in an advisory capacity and can participate in various types of internal management processes but as an advisor. A full-time employee of the company is still responsible from a company perspective.

This will confuse, and potentially annoy, some people, but the alternative is a potential tax audit (both for you and your client) and a big bill. Just make sure that you check the legislation wherever you are.

Travelling and expenses

You should have something in your contract about expenses. Generally, these will be agreed in writing with the client in advance, and either claimed back from their expenses system or added onto your next invoice. You should check with your accountant about the tax implications of expenses.

Travelling can blow up your weekly availability quota, depending on the destination. Personally, I like to be flexible around these matters, provided that there is a valid reason for travelling or incurring expenses, and potentially just take the time off in a subsequent week. On rare occasions, I’ll just eat the extra time.

When things go wrong

Whether or not your contract has an end date or is rolling, you’ll probably have some kind of break clause. For example, either of you might be able to serve notice to terminate the agreement in 30 days at any point. There’ll most likely be some additional terms in the contract about inability to provide services, refusal of substitutes etc. Check with your lawyer if you’re not sure.

Whether either side of the relationship takes advantage of this depends on how the relationship pans out. It may be that the company leadership team realises that the problems they contracted the fractional leader to solve are not as important as they thought, or that the solution isn’t what they expected. For example, transformation is really tough and it may be that they aren’t as ready for it as they thought. You’d like to think that a skilled fractional leader would be able to overcome this, but we’ve all met at least one CEO in our lives that seemingly can’t be reasoned with. You don’t magically avoid those CEOs just because you’re a fractional leader.

And, sometimes, it might simply be a clash of personalities, a culture clash, or a toxic environment. I speak to a lot of fractionals, and many have that one client that they gave up on. I’ve heard of one fractional leader who agreed to a dramatically early exit, waiving their fees entirely providing that the client never mentions they worked together!

Ultimately, try to make it work, to the best of your abilities, but you didn’t get into this game to put up with a bad situation. You should have the contractual ability to provide a substitute, or just serve notice and move on. It’s worth trying to keep the relationship intact rather than storming out in a fit of pique, but do what you have to do.

Continuous Prospecting

One thing that can make fractional work, and consulting in general, a little more tricky is the fact that, whichever way you slice it, you’re still your own business and you still need to make time for a couple of things: business admin and pipeline generation. If you have a fixed end date on your engagement then you ideally want to have another gig lined up. These may not line up perfectly (you might have a couple of simultaneous clients that cross over) and you might even be planning to take a gap in between jobs.

Both of these options are fine, but you do want to make sure you have warm leads. I still find it important to network with people who might make good future clients. This could be through content work, having “office hours” sessions for free, or simply meeting people at product or startup events. As mentioned before, one great thing about flying solo is that you don’t need too many clients at once. A great thing about networking and building a reputation is that it compounds, and you start to be seen as a person who does that kind of thing (and therefore people will start reaching out to you).

The flip side of this is that the initial wave of goodwill you get when announcing a change on LinkedIn (“Hey, everyone, I’m going freelance!!!”) doesn’t last forever. I see it in a similar light to learning a language. If you can speak 19 words of Spanish, everyone will be impressed. If you can speak Spanish pretty well then, hey, you’re just that person who speaks Spanish. People expect it.

8. How Many Simultaneous Clients?

“Life is about balance, too much excess is chaos.” - Bill Vaughan

I remember speaking to a fractional CTO once who told me a story about how he had two simultaneous gigs. One day, he was in a leadership meeting at one of the companies. As the meeting wore on, I guess his focus drifted slightly, and he started talking about initiatives that were going on in the other company! Needless to say, there was some ferocious backpedalling. Context-switching can be hard. The more companies you work with, the more contexts you have to switch.

There are only a certain number of days in a week, so there is an upper limit on how many fractional gigs you’ll want to take at once. What that upper limit is depends on your goals, and what other things you have going on in your life. If you’re effectively working a full-time job, but just split across 3 companies, then you’ll be making plenty of money but your life will be more complex and you won’t have any of the flexibility that you were craving. You’ll also hit scheduling conflicts more often.

That said, it is perfectly possible to successfully engage multiple fractional clients at the same time. My general rule is: Give the client of the day ultimate focus. When you’re with them, you’re with them. When you’re with someone else, you’re with someone else. If there’s an unexpected emergency, all bets are off and you need to decide how to respond but, for the most part, just set your availability in each work calendar and try to enforce it as best as possible.

There is an art to keeping different business contexts and mental models in your mind all at once. You need good compartmentalization skills. Keep good notes and reminders. The more clients you have, the more organised you have to be. It is possible, but there is a certain simplicity to just taking one client at a time. I would definitely advise starting with just one.

9. Extending or Ending the Relationship

“Should I stay, or should I go?'“ - The Clash

Depending on the terms of your contract, you’ll either have a set of deliverables to deliver, or you’ll have a time-bound contract, or maybe it’s rolling. In any case, there are natural break points where both parties to the contract can evaluate whether this is still worth continuing.

It’s important to realise that there’s no right or wrong here and, generally, no blame needs to be sought. Sometimes, the gig is up because the gig is up; you’ve delivered the thing or you’ve hired the permanent replacement and there’s simply no need for you anymore. Sometimes, it can become clear that the initial requirement wasn’t really what they needed, and they need someone with a different set of skills. Maybe the company just can’t afford to pay you anymore.

On the other hand, you don’t have to renew a contract if you don’t feel positive about the opportunity. It’s very easy to feel obligated, since you’re already there and already know the team. It’s easy to prioritise the company’s needs over your own. Whether you renew or not, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, that you are the right person to deliver the impact that the client needs, and that you’re still going to enjoy the work that you’ll be doing.

From a practical perspective, you can either sign an extension on the same terms (change the dates, sign and move on) or you can go back to the negotiating table. You could guarantee a different level of availability, tighten up the list of activities you’ll be involved in, or even revisit your fee. You have the incredible advantage now of knowing a lot more about the state of the company, and its challenges, than when you began. Use this data to inform your renewal terms.

10. Moving On

“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest thing in the world.” – John Green

In some ways, it’s weird to finish up a contract. You’ve spent a few months building relationships, understanding a company, chopping down trees and setting the company up for success, and then… you’re out. Often, that will be planned and is the result of a successful engagement. Sometimes, maybe it didn’t work out the way either of you wanted, and it was just better to move on. In either case, it’s important to treat your client with respect and leave everything tidy.

Make sure to tie up any loose ends. If the end of your contract coincides with a full-time leader coming in (or maybe even a new contractor), make sure to have a comprehensive handover. Say goodbye to your (now former) coworkers and let them know where to reach you. If everything went well, make sure to get a LinkedIn recommendation from the most senior person who’ll take the time. Referrals, recommendations and social proof mean everything in this game. Oh, and make sure you comply with your contractual terms around data retention.

You’ve finished your contract, congratulations! I’m sure you’ve learned a lot and survived a few challenging moments. Now, you need to work out what to do next. If you had multiple, simultaneous contracts then you probably still have work to do. If you’re going back to find more work, you’ve now got more experience on your CV, and hopefully some recommendations in your back pocket. Get out there and ramp up your prospecting if it wasn’t ramped already.

11. Wrap Up

“That’s all I had to say…. it’s been emotional” - Big Chris, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

I’ve found fractional product leadership to be very rewarding, albeit often challenging. It’s not an automatic free pass to a better life, and it’s not just the same as full-time product leadership but just less so. It can be invigorating to work with so many people and help solve so many problems. You’re free! But, it can come at the expense of feeling like a real part of a team or having a long-term stake in the decisions you’re making.

One of the best ways to survive and thrive is to connect with like-minded people. You can connect with me, but there are also other communities:

Fractionals United - the biggest I’m aware of, with a thriving Slack community, weekly Fika meetups etc. Skews American, but there are some great people there.

Fractional Consultants Community - UK-based, and smaller than FU, but they do regular meetups and have a Slack channel.

Inverted by Introed - UK-based again. They have a small Slack channel and are focused on fractional recruitment.

I wish you the best of luck in your fractional product leadership journey!

This post was a labour of love, but I genuinely hope it helps people who are considering going into the crazy world of fractional product leadership. Please don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you have any questions - we can connect on LinkedIn or you can send me an email.

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