Work together
Hire a fractional design lead
I take on a small number of engagements where design direction is the constraint — teams that can build, and increasingly can generate, but need someone to decide what should exist and what good means here. Fifteen years of product design, most recently directing AI-driven design across a portfolio of more than fifty vertical SaaS products.
Is a fractional lead the right call?
Often it isn’t. There are three real options — an agency, a marketplace contractor, or a fractional lead — and they fail in different ways. A fractional lead is the right instrument when judgment is the constraint rather than capacity. If you want the full argument, including when to pick the other two, I wrote it up: Hiring for AI product design: agency, fractional, or in-house.
How engagements work
Owns the design direction and the system everyone builds against. A standing weekly working session, async availability for decisions, and hands-on work where it matters most.
Standing access without delivery ownership — a weekly session, design review, and help with hiring and org design.
A UX audit, a strategy sprint, or a design-system assessment. Fixed scope, fixed price, a written result.
For one-off reviews and questions that don't warrant a retainer. No minimum.
Equity considered alongside a reduced retainer for early-stage teams.
The retainer doesn’t name days. You’re buying ownership of the design direction, not a timesheet — which also means a system that makes me faster works in your favour rather than against your invoice.
When not to hire me
- You need a team on the ground next quarter. That's an agency — a fractional lead is one person and can't be scaled by asking nicely.
- You have a large backlog of well-specified screens. That's a volume problem, and you'd be paying senior rates for work a contractor should do.
- Design is already core, permanent, and load-bearing for you. Hire someone full-time and accept the two-quarter search.
Get in touch
Tell me what you’re building and where design is stuck. If it’s not a fit I’ll say so, and usually point you at what is.