Engagements
Every engagement is outcome-scoped and time-boxed: diagnose, instrument, ship, hand off. Three to six months, then a runbook your team owns. Three or four engagements per year, Series A–B subscription companies. Performance Health is the clearest fit, but the same activation, paywall, and pricing playbook holds across consumer subscription, DTC, and fintech annual subscriptions. The wedge is always the first 90 days, because that's where the LTV ceiling gets set.
The trade
Time to first ship
2–3 weeks
~10× faster
Loaded year-1 cost
Retainer only
No equity, benefits, payroll tax
Exit cost
30-day notice
No hiring-mistake risk
Year-one cost, line by line
| Before · Full-time hire | After · This practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $170–210K | Monthly retainer — quoted in the intake |
| Equity (annualized) | $40–80K | none |
| Benefits + PTO | ~$30–40K | none — 1099 contract |
| Payroll tax + 401k | ~$15–20K | none — 1099 contract |
| Hiring + onboarding | ~$30–60K (one-time) | none — week-1 ramp included |
| Exit / severance | 1–3 mo salary (on departure) | 30-day notice |
| Year-1 total | $285–410K | Retainer only |
Ship in week two. Exit in 30 days. The cost of being wrong is a month, not a year.
Loaded cost ranges reflect Series A/B subscription benchmarks. Retainer is fixed per engagement and quoted in the intake.
The four formats
See past engagements →01
A first-90-days teardown. The four-mechanism read, a written report, and a 60-minute walkthrough.
Best for: “We think churn is the problem, but we're not sure where the leak is.”
02
Embedded part-time PM on one first-90-days surface — activation, paywall, first invoice, or pricing tier. Scoped to a named outcome and a handoff runbook, not an open-ended advisory seat.
Best for: “We have the team. We don't have the operator.”
Terms · 3-month minimum, 30-day notice. Ends on the handoff.
03
Operator in the room. I run the surface end-to-end with your team until the metric moves.
Best for: “We need this rebuilt, not advised on.”
Terms · 3-month minimum, 30-day notice thereafter.
04
Monthly working session plus async review of specs, experiments, and roadmap. The lowest-touch shape.
Best for: “We have a PM. They want a second pair of eyes on the first 90 days.”
Every format ends in a handoff, not a renewal. If a second wedge is worth doing, it gets scoped as its own engagement.
Not a fit if: no data infrastructure · outside product (marketing, ads, upper-funnel) · Shopify work.