Your technology is strong. I help shape it into something the market clearly understands, adopts, and pays for.
When every customer wants something different, it's hard to form a commercial strategy.
Strong technology. Too many directions to go.
Customer requests keep reshaping development, while new technical possibilities continually pull the vision in different directions.
Working out which problems are worth solving at scale
I work with your team and your customers to separate what can scale from what should stay bespoke.
You start building what makes commercial sense
Engineering effort becomes more focused and business becomes easier to explain outside technical conversation.
Typical engagement: 3 to 9 months, 1-2 days per week.
Who I work with
Teams where technical people are also making product decisions.
Not for
Teams looking purely for delivery oversight or backlog management.
If any of that felt familiar, it takes three questions to find out where you're most likely stalling.
Find out where your technology is losing traction commerciallyI'll send you a personal video response within 48 hours, no strings attached.
We were building strong technology and delivering real value for our customer. Working with Chris helped us understand how to take that further - who else could benefit from it, what it would take to reach them, and how to communicate that value beyond the people already using it. He brought enough structure to give the team clarity on what to build and why, without getting in the way of how we worked. We still moved quickly, but with much more confidence that we were building the right things.
Chris Burgess
I work with teams where technical people are also making product decisions. That usually means a strong technology, a growing list of customer requests, and a roadmap that's becoming harder to defend.
I work directly with your team and your customers to separate what's worth building at scale from what should stay bespoke. The result is clearer priorities, a sharper commercial narrative, and engineering effort that compounds rather than scatters.
Frequently asked questions
Why do technically strong products still struggle commercially?
Many technical teams build impressive products but struggle to align product decisions with real customer behaviour and commercial priorities.
Teams often continue investing in features and capabilities without enough clarity around what customers actually value, what drives adoption, or where friction exists in the product experience.
Over time, this can lead to slow adoption, unclear priorities, and engineering effort being spread across too many directions. My role is to help teams work out what's actually worth building and why, before more engineering effort goes in the wrong direction.
What usually causes roadmap chaos in engineering-led teams?
In most engineering-led teams, roadmap chaos starts when customer requests begin to directly drive sprint priorities without a clear product layer in between.
Individual requests feel urgent, one-off builds accumulate, and over time the roadmap becomes reactive rather than intentional. The team is always busy but progress feels scattered.
The underlying issue is rarely poor engineering. It is usually the absence of clear commercial and customer thinking around what to build, for whom, and why. Until there's a clear framework for what gets built, every request feels equally urgent because nothing has been prioritised against anything that actually matters.
How do you introduce product thinking without slowing teams down?
I don't add process. I help teams make better decisions with what they already know.
The focus is usually on helping teams make clearer product decisions by grounding priorities in customer behaviour, adoption signals, and commercial outcomes rather than assumptions alone.
Over time, teams build stronger alignment around what matters most, allowing innovation to continue with greater clarity and focus.
At what point does custom work become a scaling problem?
Custom work rarely feels like a problem until it suddenly is. It happens gradually as customer requests begin shaping engineering priorities. Over time, the roadmap becomes reactive rather than intentional.
The goal is not to stop listening to customers. It is to identify the repeatable problems underneath individual requests, then organise development around those patterns rather than one-off implementations.
That usually starts by separating: • what is genuinely unique to a customer • from what could become reusable product capability
How do you decide which customer problems are worth building around?
I look for patterns across customer behaviour, operational problems, and engineering effort.
The important question is rarely "what features are customers asking for?" It is usually: • which problems keep appearing • which workflows repeat • where engineering keeps solving similar things in slightly different ways • and whether the value extends beyond a single deployment.
Often what's worth turning into something scalable is already hidden inside the customer work. It just has not yet been framed, prioritised, or packaged that way.
How do you work with highly technical teams?
I've spent much of my career working with highly technical products including spatial computing, AI, IoT, and developer-focused platforms.
Technical teams are often very strong at building capabilities, but can struggle to prioritise around customer behaviour, adoption, and commercial outcomes. My role is to help teams bring customer understanding and commercial clarity into product decisions without slowing innovation or adding unnecessary process.
Depending on the situation, that can range from focused strategic guidance through to more embedded collaboration during periods of product or organisational change.
Can I work with you if my company is not based in Ireland?
Absolutely. Most of my clients are based outside Ireland. I have worked with teams across Europe, the US, and the UK, supporting them remotely while integrating seamlessly with their product, engineering, and leadership rhythms. But I'm always open to new regions so wherever you are, please reach out!
What does working on a fractional basis actually look like?
Working with me on a fractional basis means you get senior product leadership on a flexible, part-time basis rather than hiring a full-time executive.
It is similar to hiring a consultant in that sense, however rather than writing you a report and leaving you to implement the recommendations, I embed directly with your team.
I help you clarify product direction, test how your technology resonates with the market, and bring structure and momentum to product decisions.
Because the role is fractional, companies get the impact of experienced product leadership without the cost or commitment of a permanent hire. Most engagements range from a few days per month to a few days per week depending on the stage of the company and the challenges it's facing.