Our fractional Chief Technology Officer has a high Fact-Finder score but is only available ten hours a week, and our full-time developers are constantly waiting on his technical blueprints to proceed. How do we adjust this fractional seat on our Accountability Chart to keep our development pipeline moving without paying for a full-time executive?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A fractional leader with a high Fact-Finder score will naturally want to research every detail before making a decision, but with only ten hours a week, this conative drive creates a severe operational bottleneck. Your development team cannot wait on a part-time executive to write exhaustive specifications.

You must adjust the accountabilities of the fractional CTO seat on your Accountability Chart. A fractional executive should not be in the critical daily execution path. Their seat must be redesigned to focus on high-level strategy, systems architecture design, and mentoring.

To keep your development pipeline moving, you need to create a full-time seat underneath the fractional CTO, such as a Lead Developer or Scrum Master. This full-time seat must have the accountability for daily tactical decisions, sprint planning, and unblocking the development team.

This Lead Developer seat should be filled by someone with a high Follow Thru score who excels at execution and maintaining momentum. They take the strategic direction from the fractional CTO and translate it into daily tasks for the team.

By restructuring the Accountability Chart this way, your fractional CTO is only accountable for the overall technology roadmap and major architectural decisions, which can easily be done in ten hours a week. The daily execution is owned by a full-time resource on the ground, eliminating the bottleneck and keeping your developers productive.