How We Partner With Clients: A Deep Dive Into Our Product Consulting Process

Product development isn't a one-size-fits-all journey. Every company we work with at Product Craft brings unique challenges, opportunities, and constraints that shape how we approach fractional CPO services and product consulting. After over 15 years of specializing in consumer products, I've learned that success comes from combining proven frameworks with deep customization for each client's specific needs.

Our approach to fractional product leadership centers on one core belief: leveraging data and research to identify the most impactful areas for growth. This philosophy shapes everything we do, from initial discovery to long-term execution, and it's what sets our product strategy work apart from traditional consulting approaches.

What Makes Our Fractional CPO and Product Consulting Approaches Different

When companies bring me in as their fractional CPO or product consultant, they're not just getting another consultant who follows a rigid playbook. Instead, they're partnering with someone that prioritizes understanding over assumptions. I invest heavily upfront in building the right "world view" and strategy because we know that without this foundation, even the best execution will fall short.

This means my process might look different from other product consultants. While others might jump straight into tactics, I will spend enough time in the discovery and research phases. It's an investment that pays dividends throughout the entire engagement because it ensures every decision we make is grounded in real data and genuine customer insights.

Another crucial aspect of my fractional product leadership is complete customization. Even though I have a robust framework that's been refined over 15 years of product work, I adapt it to fit your specific situation. A startup with limited resources will have different needs than an established company looking to break into new markets. My framework provides structure, but flexibility ensures relevance.

My 10-Step Product Consulting Framework

Here's how your journey with me typically unfolds, though remember that we'll customize this process based on your unique needs and circumstances:

1. Discovery: Understanding Your Reality

Every successful Product Consulting engagement starts with deep understanding. We'll have one or more sessions to understand your company, team, leadership structure, current needs, and existing opportunities. This isn't just about what you think you need—it's about uncovering what's really happening beneath the surface.

During discovery, we're looking for what you truly need to succeed and grow your product. Maybe your team thinks users want feature X, but the data suggests they're actually struggling with workflow Y. Maybe leadership believes the product is ready to scale, but technical debt is creating unseen bottlenecks. These insights shape everything that follows.

2. Planning: Creating Aligned Direction

Once we understand your situation, I'll build a plan for moving forward. As a believer in agile methodology (especially for startups), I don't create year-long plans that become obsolete within months. Instead, I focus on creating a plan that everyone can align behind, with concrete KPIs that measure success.

This planning phase is crucial for product strategy development because it ensures we're all working toward the same goals. We define what success looks like, establish metrics for measuring progress, and create accountability structures that keep everyone focused on outcomes rather than outputs.

3. Data: Building Trust in Your Foundation

You'd be surprised how many startups and established teams don't trust their own data. This lack of confidence creates decision paralysis and leads to gut-based choices that often miss the mark. My data-driven consulting approach includes a deep dive into your data ecosystem to ensure it's robust, accurate, and actually useful.

Sometimes this means creating new dashboards that surface the metrics that matter most. Other times, we need to improve your instrumentation to capture data you're currently missing. Occasionally, we discover that the data exists but isn't being interpreted correctly. Whatever the situation, we ensure we have reliable data before making strategic decisions.

As someone who lives and breathes data, I will make sure you've got it all right.

4. User Research: Uncovering Real Opportunities

Data tells you what happened, but research tells you why it happened and what might happen next. To understand real opportunities, we conduct comprehensive research into your company, competition, customers, partners, and market dynamics. The specific research depends on our plan from step two, but it always aims to validate or challenge assumptions.

This research phase often reveals surprising insights that reshape product strategy. Maybe your biggest competitor isn't who you thought it was. Maybe your customers are using your product in ways you never intended. Maybe there's an adjacent market opportunity that's been hiding in plain sight. These discoveries become the foundation for strategic decision-making.

5. Strategy and Hypothesis: Creating Your Path Forward

With solid data and thorough research in hand, we can build a set of hypotheses we want to prove or disprove. This is where product consulting becomes truly strategic—we're not just identifying what to do, but why to do it and how to measure whether it's working.

My approach emphasizes hypothesis-driven development because it creates accountability and learning opportunities. Instead of implementing features and hoping they work, we're testing specific beliefs about user behavior, market dynamics, or technical capabilities. This approach reduces risk and accelerates learning.

When opting for the Fractional CPO route, not only will I build the strategy, we'll partner together for the long term to improve and iterate on the strategy and hypothesis as we release and learn.

6. Roadmapping: Translating Strategy Into Action

Strategy without execution is just planning. We build working roadmaps that align strategic thinking into plans your team can execute. Whether I'm driving execution directly (Fractional CPO route) or serving as a consultant, I ensure the roadmap aligns with strategy, is feasible given your resources, and provides clear guidance for your team.

Sometimes roadmapping reveals execution challenges that require process improvements. Maybe your development team needs better project management tools. Maybe your design process creates bottlenecks. Maybe communication between departments needs strengthening. My fractional product leadership addresses these foundational issues alongside strategic planning.

7. Design and Technical Planning: Making It Real

Great product strategy requires great execution, which means working closely with UX & UI designers, as well as engineering teams. I collaborate with your existing designers or bring in our own to ensure deliverables align with our high standards.

As someone who was a software engineer and CTO for over a decade, I know what it REALLY takes to build a product and know how to work with technical teams.

Technical planning is equally important because even the best product ideas can fail if they're not technically feasible or scalable. I'll work with you engineering teams to create robust plans that are both feasible and are built on velocity.

8. Test Planning: Measuring What Matters

If we decide to run A/B tests (and we often do), I plan them meticulously. This includes defining the tests themselves, identifying the right metrics to track, creating analysis plans, and establishing success criteria. Poor test planning leads to inconclusive results, so we invest significant effort upfront.

Even when we're not running formal A/B tests, I plan launches with measurement in mind. What metrics will tell us if the product is succeeding? How will we identify potential problems early? What feedback mechanisms will help us iterate quickly? These questions shape how we approach every product launch.

9. Execution and Going Live: Maintaining High Standards

During execution, I work alongside your team and any external partners to maintain the highest standards. My fractional CPO role often involves removing blockers, facilitating communication, and ensuring quality doesn't suffer under deadline pressure.

Going live is just the beginning, not the end. I help teams prepare for launch day challenges, monitor early performance indicators, and respond quickly to unexpected issues. Experience has taught me that even well-planned launches can surprise you, so I stay actively involved through the critical early days.

10. Measuring and Iterating: Achieving Full Success

First releases rarely achieve their full potential, even with thorough research and preparation. That's why measurement and iteration are built into our product consulting process from the beginning.

After going live, we measure impact against our original hypotheses, analyze what worked and what didn't, and iterate toward full success.

This phase often reveals new opportunities or challenges that weren't visible during planning. Maybe users love the core feature but struggle with onboarding. Maybe adoption is strong in one segment but weak in another. Maybe technical performance is creating user experience issues. My approach treats these discoveries as learning opportunities that inform the next iteration.

Why Experience Matters in Product Consulting

Having worked with numerous companies over 15 years, I've seen most challenges before. This experience allows me to anticipate potential problems, prepare solutions ahead of time, and help clients avoid common pitfalls. It doesn't mean we have all the answers—every product situation is unique—but it does mean we can recognize patterns and apply proven solutions to new contexts.

My fractional CPO service benefit from this accumulated wisdom. When a client describes their challenge, I can often predict the secondary issues they'll face and the resources they'll need to overcome them. This foresight helps me create more realistic timelines, more accurate budgets, and more effective strategies.

The Value of Agile Customization

While my framework provides structure, agility keeps us relevant. Market conditions change, user preferences evolve, and technical capabilities advance. A rigid approach to product strategy becomes obsolete quickly. Instead, I maintain core principles while adapting my methods to fit changing circumstances.

This agility extends to how I work with your team. Some clients need hands-on fractional product leadership where I'm deeply embedded in daily operations. Others prefer strategic guidance with more independent execution. Some situations require rapid iteration and frequent pivots. Others benefit from steady, methodical progress. I adjust my involvement level and working style to match your needs and preferences.

Getting Started: Your Next Steps

Ready to explore how a fractional CPO and product consulting services can accelerate your product's success and grow your business? The best place to start is with a conversation about your specific situation, challenges, and goals.

We offer a free 30-minute discovery call where we can discuss your needs and determine if my approach aligns with your objectives. During this call, we'll explore your current product challenges, discuss your growth goals, and discover how I can help you accelerate growth.

This initial conversation is valuable regardless of whether we end up working together. I've found that simply talking through product challenges with an experienced product leader often provides immediate insights and clarity.

Ready to start the conversation? Schedule your free discovery call now >