FAQ

Questions, answered.

What does "fractional" mean, and how is it different from a consultant or a full-time hire?

A consultant tells you what to do. I join your team, lead it, build with it, and take full responsibility for the results. You get a lot of senior experience for a limited time, usually enough to make a sustainable change, without paying to keep that level of experience on staff permanently. Sometimes I also take interim mandates full-time.

How much of your time do I get?

I work outcome-based, not by the hour. We agree up front on the results I will deliver, and my compensation is tied to them, so your risk stays low. I put in whatever time the work needs to deliver what I promised, and I am the one who judges that. I do not invoice days or hours, I deliver outcomes. We can of course agree on response times, regular meetings, and availability. So the real question is not how many days you buy, it is the value you get, and I make sure it is well worth the investment.

How long is a typical engagement?

From experience, nine months is the sweet spot. I recommend three months for smaller projects focused on quick wins and immediate needs, and six to nine for deeper, longer-term work. Every situation is different, so the length is never set in stone and is always negotiable. I also offer advisory support to former clients, mostly to protect what we built together and keep it from drifting off track.

Do you actually build, or just advise?

I build. I am an engineer at heart, and I also fix the processes around the engineering. I join your team, lead it, and stay very present. I do not build around your people, I work alongside them, teach them, and level them up, so we build it together and they can carry it forward.

What tools and tech stack do you work with?

If I have learned one thing over the years, it is that things usually go wrong not because of tools or technologies, but because of people and processes. So I focus on your real pains and business outcomes, not engineering for its own sake, and I go after the root cause. That said, I bring over two decades of experience across major technologies, clouds, and platforms, and I get up to speed quickly. At the level I work, concrete tools are rarely the blocker. People are far more complicated.

Can you get us ready for audits, certifications, or enterprise customers?

Yes. HIPAA, MDR, GDPR, SOC 2: I bring the data side up to standard across people, processes, and technology, with governance, incident handling, SLAs, and access control. A big enterprise customer expects the same maturity: reliable processes and dependable delivery. I have built for large enterprises and get your data ready to meet their bar.

We're an early-stage startup without a data team yet. Is this for us?

Yes. Kickstart is a lean version of the engagement for early startups building their first data team and platform. You avoid the early mistakes, skip the over-engineering, and save real money by getting to a slim, pragmatic setup from the start.

What happens when you leave?

Whatever I build is meant to last, whether that is process, culture, or technology. The goal is not to make myself irreplaceable, it is the opposite: I measure my success by how autonomous your team is after I leave. Depending on your situation, we might hire or promote someone to take over, upskill an existing person, or build a team that runs without a dedicated head of data and reports into another function. It depends on your scale, your goals, and many other factors we work out together.

Do you work remote or on-site? Where are you based?

I am based in Berlin and prefer a remote-first setup with the team gathering in person from time to time, but it is all negotiable and I am happy to fit a hybrid way of working. My clients are mostly in Europe, the US, and the UK, and I am always curious to open up new geographies.