An experienced eye on your engineering function, and an honest view of what needs to change.

I've joined multiple companies as the peak technology leader, and every time the first thing I've done is get a clear, structured picture of where the engineering function actually stands. That assessment process is something I now offer as a standalone engagement.

Why this matters

Most engineering problems don't announce themselves clearly. What looks like a delivery problem is often a people problem. What looks like a people problem is often a process problem. What looks like a process problem is often a strategy problem.

Getting to the root of what's actually going on requires more than a technical review. It requires someone who knows what good looks like across the full picture of an engineering function, knows how to get honest answers out of people at every level, and can synthesise what they find into something clear and actionable.

That's what I bring to this engagement.

Who this is for

CEOs and founders of scaling companies

If you sense your engineering function is underperforming but you don't have the visibility or language to diagnose exactly why, this engagement gives you that picture. It's particularly useful at inflection points: when a new engineering leader is coming in, when delivery has stalled, when the team is growing fast but the output isn't keeping pace, or when you need to make significant decisions about engineering investment or structure.

The assessment also serves as a natural starting point for a Fractional CTO engagement. Rather than beginning an ongoing engagement with assumptions about what needs to change, we start with evidence. The findings directly inform the priorities we work on together.

Learn more about Fractional CTO

Companies preparing for investor scrutiny or acquisition

If you're heading into a due diligence process, this engagement gives you an honest view of where your engineering function stands before anyone else looks. It surfaces the risks and gaps you'll want to address ahead of time, and gives you a clear, structured picture you can speak to with confidence.

What I look at

Every assessment covers the full picture of what makes an engineering function work, or not work. I look across four dimensions:

Platform

The technology itself: applications, infrastructure, build pipelines, architecture, and the technical decisions that will shape the product's scalability and maintainability going forward.

People

The people and culture: team structure, leadership capability, values, psychological safety, and whether the culture that exists on paper matches the one that exists in practice.

Process

How work gets done: the full delivery lifecycle from discovery through to production, delivery practices, agile maturity, feedback loops, and the predictability and quality of how the team ships.

Product and Strategy

The strategic context: company strategy, product strategy, product-market fit, and how well engineering understands and connects to the direction the business is heading.

No single dimension tells the full story. The value of looking across all four is that it surfaces the real root causes, not just the visible symptoms.

How it works

The engagement takes two to three weeks from first interviews to final deliverable and involves four stages:

  1. Structured interviews

    I conduct formal, structured interviews with a cross-section of people across the engineering organisation, from engineers through to the executive team. The questions are consistent across all levels and designed to surface both the facts and the sentiment: what's working, what isn't, and where the gaps are between how things are supposed to work and how they actually do.

  2. Quantitative data synthesis

    Where data is available, I use it. Delivery metrics, team size and growth, retention, incident rates, security posture. The interviews give me the qualitative picture; the data gives me the quantitative one. Together they produce a more reliable view than either alone.

  3. Raw playback

    Before drawing conclusions, I play back the findings in raw form to the relevant stakeholders. This gives you the unfiltered picture of what I heard and observed before any interpretation is applied, and gives you the opportunity to add context or correct misunderstandings before the final assessment is prepared.

  4. Assessment and recommendations

    The final deliverable is a considered assessment covering the full picture: what is working well, where the significant risks and gaps are, and a prioritised set of recommendations for what to address and in what order. This is the document you use to align your leadership team and set your engineering priorities.

What makes this different

A lot of technology reviews focus on the visible and the measurable: the tech stack, the architecture, the delivery metrics. Those things matter, but they're only part of the picture.

The hardest things to see, and the ones that most determine whether an engineering function is healthy, are the people and culture dimensions. Whether engineers trust their leaders. Whether the team has a clear sense of direction. Whether the practices that exist on paper actually reflect how the team operates day to day.

I know what to look for across all of these dimensions because I've done this work multiple times, in real companies, under real pressure. That experience is what you're engaging when you commission this assessment, not just a framework or a checklist.

Proof points

  • Conducted this assessment process multiple times as the incoming peak technology leader, using it to establish a clear picture of where the engineering function stood and to align the exec team around the right priorities
  • The findings have informed significant engineering transformations including culture rebuilds, delivery uplifts, infrastructure modernisation, and team restructures
  • Used this approach to support the technology review that contributed to the successful sale of Informed Decisions (.id)
  • 20+ years of engineering leadership experience across construction technology, spatial data, energy, enterprise software, and defence means I know what good looks like across a wide range of company types, stages, and technical contexts

Let's talk

If you're interested in this engagement, or you want to talk through whether it's the right fit for your situation, the best starting point is a conversation.

Book a discovery call Send me a message