A FREE WORKING SESSION WITH ME
Get 30 recommendations for your project by a CTO at no-cost
In this session I sit inside your project with you. Your build, your tech stack, your systems, your team.
I then hand-write the 30 most critical recommendations for your project; 10 things I'd keep doing, 10 things I'd stop doing and 10 things I'd start doing - with the reasons.
"It was refreshing to see some of the areas we were strong in and we were doing well in. And it was refreshing to have [the areas that were less mature] articulated in such a way that you could create a plan to action going forward."
Tim Buric
CTO, Agilyx Group
Request Your 1:1 Session With Me
No cost. Screened personally. I'll call you directly.
16+ yrs
Leading technology initiatives
253
Organisations I’ve worked with
1,000,000+
Engineering hours under my leadership
26
Engineers on my team today
THE 10/10/10 RECOMMENDATIONS
Specific. Defensible. Hand-written for your project (it's not a template).
The below are real recommendations from past sessions and clients, (anonymised). Yours will be different, that's the point. Notice what they have in common: each one is a problem someone had been avoiding, delaying, or couldn’t see.
What’s working and why you shouldn’t touch it
10 things to keep doing
“Your two-week release cadence. It’s the only thing keeping scope honest.”
“Postgres. You don’t have a database problem — you have a query problem.”
“The senior dev who owns integrations. He’s underpaid, not underperforming.”
What’s quietly costing you money and momentum
10 things to stop doing
“Stop rebuilding the mobile app. The web app is where your revenue is.”
“Letting the vendor run sprint planning. That’s your roadmap, not theirs.”
“Paying for three overlapping monitoring tools nobody reads.”
What changes your trajectory from next week
10 things to start doing
“An owner for every system. Right now, four have none.”
“Weekly ship notes to the exec team — trust is your real backlog.”
“A definition of done. Half your ‘finished’ features aren’t.”
Rarely is this a people problem. Your team is likely quite capable. The problem is structural. And structural problems are almost invisible from a distance yet which is exactly where most leaders are forced to stand. Here's what I'll write up for your specific project at no cost:
A written gap map: current state vs. what your objective requires
Ranked list: of structural constraints with business impact for each
Sequenced first-move recommendation: what to change first and why
Delivery model options: if Halcrow is engaged to fix the gap
STEP 1
Request a session
Tell me what you’re building and where it hurts. I screen every application personally; this only works when there’s something real to look at.
STEP 2
The working session
We open the hood together: your project, your stack, your team structure, your vendor setup. I do the diligence live and think out loud. You see exactly how I reach every recommendation.
STEP 3
You get your recommendations in writing
Thirty specific decisions — keep, stop, start — with the reasoning. Yours to keep and act on, with your team or with mine. No invoice. No obligation.
I screen applications. Here’s the honest criteria.
This is for you if…
You’re actively building something — a product, a platform, an internal system that matters to revenue
Budget and ownership for the work already exist inside your organisation
You’re willing to open the hood — real repos, real roadmap, real team structure
You want thirty honest calls, including the uncomfortable ones
It’s not for you if…
Nothing is in build and nothing is funded — there’d be nothing real to assess
You’re collecting a free roadmap to hand to the cheapest offshore quote
You want validation, not honesty
frequently asked questions
Asked before almost every session
Here's everything people usually want to know before they apply, answered the way I'd answer them on a call.
Why is this free?
Because it’s how I win clients. I’d rather not pretend otherwise. Some of the thirty recommendations will be things you can act on tomorrow, on their own. Take them and run, genuinely! Some will need senior hands: an accountable technical owner, engineers who’ve done it before, or both. That’s what I do for a living. I embed as a fractional CTO, and I bring a 25-strong software and cloud engineering team when one’s needed. If the recommendations shows work worth doing together, we’ll both know it by the end of the session before the recommendations are even sent over. If it doesn’t, you keep the thirty calls and we part as friends. No invoice for the session. No follow-up sequence. No obligation.
Is this a sales pitch in disguise?
The commercial interest is stated above, not disguised. What it isn't: a slideshow about Halcrow, a quote ambush, or a follow-up sequence. One session, thirty written recommendations, one reply from me.
What do we need to share?
Whoever knows the build best, and the real picture — roadmap, team structure, vendor arrangements, ideally a look at the architecture or codebase. The more honest the input, the sharper the recommendations. Sanitised inputs get sanitised outputs.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. Standard practice — most sessions run under one.
How does it actually work?
A session together inside your technology, then I go away, absorb it, and personally write your 10/10/10 — 10 things I'd keep, 10 I'd stop, 10 I'd start, with the reasoning, in plain English. Written by me, not generated from a template.
How long until we get the recommendations?
Within 2 days of the session.
Who should be in the session?
The person accountable for the project and whoever knows the build best — often that's two different people, which is itself informative. Vendors optional; sometimes better without, and I'll say which I'd prefer once I've seen your application.