Fractional Digital Leadership

  • 1–4 days per month
  • Vendor-neutral
  • Defined handover

What you get: senior digital leadership at management and board level, without a permanent hire. Every mandate has one explicit objective: to become unnecessary through a structured handover.

When does a fractional digital lead make sense?

A platform decision is pending

An ERP, CMS or core platform decision is due, and nobody in-house can challenge the vendors on equal terms.

Several partners, no owner

Agencies and integrators each deliver their part, but nobody is accountable for the whole.

The board asks about AI

The board wants a position on AI, including risk and regulation, and nobody can answer it with evidence.

The role is vacant or part-time

The digital lead role is vacant, or the work does not justify a full-time executive yet.

When it does not make sense: if you need hands-on implementation capacity, or a permanent full-time digital executive is already justified. In that case I will say so.

How does a fractional digital mandate start?

Step 1

Strategic Baseline

Fixed price, two to three weeks. You get a decision basis for management and the board: where you stand, what to decide first, and what to stop.

Credited against a mandate that starts within 60 days.

Step 2

Fractional mandate

One to four days a month, in the phases your situation needs. Targets are fixed as indicators with a starting value before the work begins.

Six-month minimum, then cancellable monthly.

What are the typical phases of a fractional mandate?

Not every mandate covers all six. Where a phase applies, it runs in this ordered sequence, culminating in a structured exit.

  1. Strategic baseline and architecture review

    Diagnosis

    Scope

    Digital maturity assessment, review of the IT and platform landscape, and prioritisation of open initiatives for management and the board.

    Deliverable

    Decision memoranda you can act on. Typical outcome: a long list of initiatives reduced to a sequenced plan the board can decide on, including what to stop.

  2. Procurement and RFP steering

    Sourcing

    Scope

    RFP structure for platforms and core software, vendor-neutral evaluation, and commercial negotiation on your side of the table.

    Deliverable

    A documented evaluation and commercial terms that keep an exit path open.

  3. Delivery oversight and quality control

    Execution control

    Scope

    Independent client-side representation, quality assurance across partners, technical risk management, and formal milestone acceptance.

    Deliverable

    Delivery against specification, budget and timeline, verified rather than assumed.

  4. Impact and operational efficiency

    Performance

    Scope

    Toolchain consolidation, reduction of technical debt, and pragmatic low-code and AI workflow automation.

    Deliverable

    A leaner operating model, with gains tracked against a baseline agreed before the work starts.

  5. Board assurance and compliance readiness

    Risk and assurance

    Scope

    Readiness review against the Swiss FADP and the EU GDPR, the EU AI Act where you have EU exposure, information security hygiene, and risk reporting to the board.

    Deliverable

    A prioritised remediation roadmap and audit-ready documentation. Legal sign-off stays with your counsel.

  6. Handover and mandate closure

    Client autonomy

    Scope

    Structured knowledge transfer, operational documentation, and onboarding and coaching of internal successors.

    Deliverable

    Full operational ownership by your team, and formal closure of the mandate.

What is strictly out of scope?

Clear boundaries protect focus and set expectations from day one.

No implementation resource

I steer external partners and hold them accountable. I do not replace your developers, designers or system administrators.

No content production or ongoing SEO

Where AI search matters, I set the strategy and the measurement. Producing and optimising content stays with your team or agency.

No legal, tax or audit advice

On contracts, data protection and liability, I prepare the technical basis for your decision and work alongside your advisers. The advice itself stays with them.

No operations or on-call duty

Day-to-day maintenance, operational support and incident management stay with your team or your hosting provider.

Facing a platform or AI decision?

Bring the decision that is actually in front of you. I will tell you candidly whether it calls for a baseline, a mandate, a second opinion, or nothing at all.

Arrange an initial conversation

Mandates are held and delivered personally by Kevin Lancashire.