How We Engage
Senior operators inside your business, not a layered account team.
Two engagement models, three engagement sizes, one principle: the people building the work are the people on the call.
Two engagement models.
Model 1
Operating-model subscription
A senior IG operator (or operating pair) embedded inside a function — growth, marketing ops, AI, revenue, customer experience — for a recurring monthly engagement.
Predictable rhythm. Senior decision-makers on every call. Pivots without contract renegotiation.
Fits: companies between Series A and post-PMF scale where the function is operating without a permanent senior leader.
Model 2
Outcomes-based engagement
Defined business outcome, fixed scope, milestone-based compensation. Ship the system that produces the outcome, then hand off the operating manual.
Typical engagements: AI Adoption Sprint, marketing-system rebuilds, revenue-ops audits + rebuilds, growth-tech migrations.
Fits: companies with a specific bottleneck and a clear definition of what "solved" looks like.
Three engagement sizes.
Compact
A focused intervention.
Single workstream, 4 to 8 weeks, one IG operator. Often the AI Adoption Sprint or a marketing-system audit and rebuild.
Standard
Embedded operating partner.
Recurring engagement, IG operator embedded inside a function, monthly cadence with quarterly outcomes. Most common engagement shape.
Strategic
Cross-function partnership.
Multi-workstream engagement spanning growth, technology, AI, and capital. Two or more IG operators paired with executive sponsorship inside the client.
What's included in every engagement.
- A senior IG operator as the primary point of contact (not an account manager).
- Direct access to the IG partner group when the work needs it.
- Weekly working sessions with the client team, not a status report on Friday.
- Pivots without contract renegotiation when the scope needs to flex.
- An operating manual at handoff, so the engagement compounds even after we step out.
- Clear outcome definitions agreed upfront, revisited quarterly.
What you get at each engagement size.
| What’s included | Compact | Standard | Strategic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior IG operator as primary contact | ✓ | ✓ | 2+ operators |
| Direct access to IG partner group | As needed | Quarterly | Embedded |
| Working sessions cadence | Weekly | Weekly | Multiple per week |
| Engagement duration | 4–8 weeks | Recurring monthly | Recurring, multi-quarter |
| Scope flexibility | Fixed scope | Pivots without renegotiation | Pivots without renegotiation |
| Operating manual at handoff | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Beat dashboard for the client (Local Business engagements) | Limited | Full | Full + custom views |
| Cross-function spanning (growth + tech + AI + capital) | Single function | Up to two | All four |
| Pricing | By scope | By scope | By scope |
How an IG engagement actually runs.
Same shape across engagement sizes. The depth and pace scale with the model.
01
Kickoff
Week one is the operator meeting the team and the data. No deck-back-and-forth. We surface what we see, agree what success looks like.
02
Strategy
Weeks two and three: the operating thesis. What the bottleneck actually is, the smallest test that proves the fix, the operating model for the team to run after we step out.
03
Ship
Build the system. Wire the integrations. Train the team. The operator is the one writing the prompts, drafting the playbook, and running the first cycle.
04
Measure
Outcomes review against the agreed metrics. What worked, what didn’t, what the next quarter looks like. For subscription engagements this loop runs continuously.
What makes an IG engagement different.
Versus agency hour-billing
No timesheet theater.
Traditional agencies bill against fractional time tracked in 15-minute increments. The incentive runs the wrong direction: efficiency punishes the agency. We sell scope and outcomes, not hours. When we deliver faster, we both win.
Versus Big Four consulting
No deck handoff.
Strategy decks are step zero, not the deliverable. IG operators implement what they recommend. The handoff isn’t a slide deck and a goodbye dinner. It’s an operating manual the team can run without us.
Versus fractional hire
A team behind every operator.
A single fractional CMO is one person’s opinion. The IG operator on your engagement has the full partner group behind them. When the work needs a designer, an AI engineer, or a capital strategist, we already have them. You’re hiring a team, not a contractor.
Want to talk about scope and fit?
The fastest way to understand whether an IG engagement is right is a 30-minute conversation about what's actually broken on your side.
Start a conversation →