Questions we answerOutsourcing and external support
Should I use a fractional executive?
Fractional works where you need senior judgement rather than senior capacity, and where someone internal can carry the execution between sessions.
Free · a few minutes · starts from “We have a capability gap”
The short answer
Fractional works when what you need is senior judgement a few days a month — direction, decisions, hiring the eventual permanent person — and when somebody internal can carry the execution in between. It does not work as a discounted full-time executive: if the role needs to be present daily, lead a team and own delivery, a part-time arrangement will disappoint everyone. Be clear which of the two you are buying, because the same person can do both and only one of them fits a few days a month.
Fractional executives are genuinely useful and frequently mis-bought. The useful version supplies judgement you cannot otherwise access at a price a growing company can pay.
The mis-bought version is a full executive role divided by four, which produces a person who is accountable for outcomes they are not present enough to influence.
Is it really this?
Worth checking before you spend anything. These are the signals that tend to tell the two apart.
Signs it is
- You need someone who has done this before, not someone to do the work.
- There is a capable person internally who needs direction rather than replacing.
- The permanent version of the role is not yet justified or affordable.
Signs it's something else
- The role needs to lead a team day to day.
- What is missing is execution capacity, not judgement.
- Nobody internal could act on the advice between sessions.
What's usually behind it
- A functional gap at senior level that is not yet a full-time job.
- A permanent executive hire that is not affordable or not yet justified.
- Decisions being deferred because nobody in the room has done this before.
What people usually get wrong
- Buying a fractional executive as a cheaper full-time one, and getting neither.
- Not naming who executes between sessions, so nothing moves.
- Leaving the arrangement in place for years when it was meant to bridge to a permanent hire.
The options, and when each one fits
In no particular order. Which of these fits depends on your situation, not on the question you typed.
Fractional executive
Senior judgement is the gap and someone internal can execute.
Permanent executive hire
The role needs daily presence, a team and ownership of delivery.
Advisory support
You need a sounding board rather than someone accountable for a function.
When doing nothing is the right call
A defined piece of advisory work — review the current state, recommend a direction, help write the permanent role — is often the whole of what is needed, and it is a great deal cheaper than an open-ended arrangement.
What the diagnostic asks
- Whether the gap is capability, capacity or both.
- How much judgement the work needs.
- How central it is to the business and whether it could be done externally.
- Whether a permanent hire is fundable, and how soon this is needed.
“I don't know” is always an answer. Nothing is assumed on your behalf.
The routes it weighs
Every diagnostic weighs all ten routes. These are the ones that tend to matter for this question — a description of the rules, not a promise about your answer.
Specialist support
Bring in a freelancer, consultant or specialist for a defined piece of work.
Recruit
Recruit a new person for a durable, sizeable need that is central to the team.
Develop
Build the capability in someone already in the team, with time and support.
Outsource
Hand a defined, ongoing scope of work to an external provider.
Do nothing yet
Record the issue, set a revisit date, and decide what would change your mind.
What changes the answer
- A judgement gap with someone internal to execute is the case fractional fits best.
- A capacity gap is not solved by a few days a month.
- Work that is central and continuous eventually needs someone permanent, and fractional can bridge to it.
Get your own read
A handful of short questions, then the strongest route for your situation, what's also credible, what we still don't know and what would change our view. No account, no setup.
Related questions
- Should I use a freelancer or hire?A freelancer or specialist fits a defined piece of work or a temporary need. A hire fits a durable, growing one. The diagnostic asks which you have.
- When should a startup hire a COO?When operational load is genuinely holding the business back and there is a defined remit to own — not when a founder wants to stop doing the parts of the job they dislike.
- Do I need a CTO or a lead developer?One sets technical direction and builds a team; the other builds the product well. Most early companies need the second and advertise for the first.
- Should I hire full-time or contract?Contract buys speed and information; permanent buys accumulation. The right answer depends on how durable the need is and whether you need the knowledge to stay.
- Is it cheaper to hire or outsource?Outsourcing is usually cheaper over months and more expensive over years. The comparison that matters includes management time and what you are left holding at the end.
- Should I hire in-house or use an agency for development?An agency is right for a defined build with a specification and an end. In-house is right when the product is continuous and the context has to stay.