Organization services
Get the product leadership you need. Strengthen your team. Put AI to work.
I provide product leadership and hands-on AI capability at the depth your situation calls for. The work ranges from leading the product organization to helping a team build something useful this month.
The work happens inside real priorities. We start with the smallest useful engagement and leave your team with practices and capabilities it can continue using.
When to call Dave
You may not need another strategy. You may need a better way to move.
- Product decisions are being made by people whose main job is something else.
- Your product teams have processes, but decisions still take too long.
- AI experiments are multiplying without becoming repeatable ways of working.
- Product, design, engineering, analytics, and business leaders are working from different assumptions.
- You need senior product support, from coaching your existing leaders to stepping in to lead product.
- Internal teams see opportunities to build with AI but lack the tools, guardrails, or confidence to begin.
Context for the work
The method comes from doing the job.
I have spent 15 years doing product work inside organizations. That includes the past five years at Shipwell and Cargill, where I was directly accountable for outcomes. I still work as a player-coach who builds. I am a Senior Lecturer at the Carlson School of Management, co-founder of ProductCamp Twin Cities, co-host of ProductCamp Conversations, and author of Data Storytelling and Translation.
Services
Four ways to work together, sized to how much you need.
The through-line is product leadership and hands-on AI capability from the same person, at whatever depth the situation calls for. Some organizations need an experienced product leader now. Some need their existing teams to get better. Some need a way of working installed. Some need to build something useful this month.
Fractional CPO
Lead the Work
Lead the product organization while you build toward the permanent hire.
Best for: A small company or startup that has never had a product leader, or that needs interim leadership while a permanent leader is hired. Product decisions are currently being made by the CEO, the head of engineering, or a committee.
Typical pace Typically 10 to 20 hours per week, with a minimum three-month commitment, reviewed quarterly. Most engagements either transition to a permanent hire or step down to a lighter advisory cadence.View engagement details Hide engagement details
What happens
- Take accountability for product strategy, prioritization, and the decisions that have been stuck
- Establish a product operating rhythm the company can run without me
- Set direction with engineering, design, sales, and the executive team from a shared set of assumptions
- Build AI into how product work happens rather than treating it as a separate initiative
- Develop the product people who are already there
- Prepare the company to hire and onboard a permanent product leader
What you receive
- A named, accountable product leader in the leadership team and in front of the board when needed
- A product strategy and roadmap with explicit reasoning, not just sequence
- A functioning decision and prioritization rhythm
- Coaching and development for existing product staff
- A hiring profile and onboarding plan for the permanent role
- Documented decisions and context so the next leader does not start from zero
Who participates
The CEO or general manager, the executive team, the product and engineering organization, and the board or sponsor where relevant.
Your commitment
An executive sponsor who treats this as a leadership seat rather than a vendor relationship, inclusion in leadership meetings and planning, and the authority to make product decisions within agreed boundaries.
By the end
The company has product direction, a working decision rhythm, and either a permanent leader in place or a clear plan to hire one. Nothing critical leaves when the engagement does.
Most fractional leadership creates dependency. This engagement is designed to leave the reasoning behind, not just the decisions.
Embedded Product Coaching
Strengthen Your Teams
Improve the team while the roadmap keeps moving.
Best for: A mid-sized or larger organization with multiple product teams and existing product leaders who want those teams and leaders to get better.
Typical pace An initial three-month engagement, with the option to continue based on the team’s needs.View engagement details Hide engagement details
What happens
- Observe how work and decisions currently happen
- Identify the few practices creating the most friction
- Coach product leaders and managers through live situations
- Facilitate targeted working sessions where needed
- Introduce practical AI-enabled workflows
- Build reusable habits into the team’s operating rhythm
What you receive
- A focused assessment of current operating practices
- Coaching tied to current priorities and decisions
- Targeted working sessions and direct feedback on work in progress
- Practical templates, decision practices, and AI workflows
- Periodic progress summaries and a plan for sustaining the practices
Who participates
Product leaders, product managers, and the design, engineering, analytics, and business partners involved in their current work.
Your commitment
Most coaching happens through existing work and meetings. Primary participants should expect biweekly coaching sessions, with a short sponsor check-in every three to four weeks.
By the end
The teams make stronger decisions, use AI more effectively, and rely less on outside support to sustain better product practices.
What happens after
Teams that want continued support can move to an optional, lighter ongoing advisory cadence after the initial three months. The goal remains to reduce reliance on outside support, not create it.
Product AI Operating System Install
Install a Way of Working
Move from individual AI experiments to a shared way of working.
Best for: A mid-sized or larger organization with multiple product teams where a shared, governed way of using AI can improve work across the product organization.
Typical pace An initial operating system is usually established in 8–12 weeks. When an approved AI platform is provisioned and accessible, the first working AI-enabled workflow should be in use within two weeks.View engagement details Hide engagement details
Preconditions
- An AI tooling platform is approved and provisioned, or approval is actively in progress. If access is not available at kickoff, the delivery timeline starts when access exists.
- A named internal owner will maintain the agents, skills, and workflows after the engagement ends.
What happens
- Map the existing product operating model and current AI usage
- Identify the highest-value workflows to improve first
- Establish appropriate tools, boundaries, and governance
- Build and test repeatable agents, skills, memory, and workflows
- Apply the system to current product work and coach teams through adoption
- Measure what is helping, what is not, and what should scale
What you receive
- A current-state assessment and prioritized AI opportunity map
- A tailored AI-enabled product operating model
- Working agents, skills, and reusable workflows
- Shared decision and organizational memory practices
- Practical usage and governance guidance
- Team coaching and an adoption and expansion roadmap
Who participates
Product leaders, product managers, and selected partners from design, engineering, analytics, technology, security, or governance.
Your commitment
An accountable executive sponsor, a core working group, access to current workflows, and approximately two to four hours per week from primary participants during the build.
By the end
The organization has a shared, governed, and repeatable way to use AI across product work, supported by working examples rather than only recommendations.
AI Building Jumpstart
Building Something This Month
Go from talking about AI-enabled building to making something useful.
Best for: A team that wants to begin vibe coding safely, practically, and with a real business problem.
Typical pace Usually completed within 5–10 business days, including preparation, the working session, and follow-up.View engagement details Hide engagement details
What happens
- Identify and prioritize suitable problems
- Select the appropriate tools and working environment
- Establish practical security and governance boundaries
- Prepare data, workflows, and examples
- Build two or three prototypes during a facilitated working session
- Evaluate what should be used, improved, rebuilt, or stopped
What you receive
- A prioritized set of use cases
- Tool and environment recommendations
- Practical building guardrails
- A facilitated hands-on workshop
- Two or three working prototypes and a prototype evaluation
- A prioritized 30-day action plan and reusable building guidance
Who participates
A small group of product, operations, analytics, finance, or other business professionals. Technology, security, or governance partners may participate depending on the work.
Your commitment
A planning session, one focused workshop, access to representative workflows or data, and participation from the people who will continue the work.
By the end
The team has working examples, a safer way to build, and a clear understanding of where vibe coding can create meaningful value. Prototypes built in the session are disposable by default. Anything that moves into real use goes through an agreed review gate.
What happens after
Focused custom work
Start with the problem, not the package.
Not every useful engagement fits a predefined service. I design focused work around the problem, including:
- Decision sprints for a consequential decision that is stuck
- Investment validation before funding an expensive build
- Internal tools enablement for teams doing too much manual work
- Analytics translation, organizational memory practices, workshops, and talks
We will use the first conversation to understand what you are trying to change and identify the smallest useful engagement. If there is a fit, I will recommend a starting point. If there is not, I will tell you.
Scope is fixed before work begins.
Book a 25-minute intro call