Services

Every engagement is different — and that's by design.

Some teams need a few focused hours. Others need months of embedded product leadership. Here's what Ballast typically helps with, and what each looks like in practice.

01

Embedded Fractional PM

Part of your team for a defined period. In your tools, your standups, your Slack — not just checking in from the outside.

This is the core Ballast engagement. It works best when you need senior product thinking applied to real, ongoing work — not a one-time strategy document. I join your team, learn your context fast, and do the work.

  • Own product strategy and roadmap for a specific product or initiative
  • Lead discovery and define requirements with engineering
  • Facilitate cross-functional alignment across design, engineering, and stakeholders
  • Represent the product function in leadership conversations
  • Build the processes and artifacts your team keeps after the engagement ends
Right for

Teams between product hires, companies scaling faster than their PM bandwidth, or organizations that need senior product judgment without the full-time cost and commitment.

02

Product Strategy & Roadmaps

From ambiguous problems and competing priorities to a clear plan teams can actually execute against.

Many teams know they need a roadmap but don't have the time or process to build one that holds. This engagement produces something durable: a strategy grounded in customer and business reality, not wishful thinking.

  • Audit the existing product landscape and identify gaps and opportunities
  • Facilitate prioritization workshops with leadership and cross-functional teams
  • Define a North Star and translate it into near-term, actionable roadmap
  • Build stakeholder alignment around the plan before execution begins
  • Establish a framework for ongoing prioritization decisions
Right for

Teams with a backlog but no clear direction, companies entering a new phase of growth, or leadership teams that keep revisiting the same priority debates.

03

Customer Discovery

Structured research that gets past what customers say to what they actually need.

Good discovery is harder than it sounds. It requires the right questions, the right participants, and the discipline to separate signal from noise. This engagement builds that foundation so that what you build is grounded in reality.

  • Design a discovery framework tailored to your product and market
  • Recruit and conduct interviews with the right customer segments
  • Synthesize findings into clear insights and actionable implications
  • Translate research into product requirements and opportunity areas
  • Establish a repeatable discovery practice your team can continue
Right for

Teams making product bets without talking to customers, companies entering a new market or segment, or products that aren't getting the adoption results you expected.

04

Advisory & Coaching

A senior sounding board for product leaders navigating hard calls, growing scope, or building their practice.

Sometimes you don't need someone embedded in the work. You need someone who's seen this before. Advisory engagements are lighter-touch: a few hours a month to pressure-test thinking, sense-check strategy, or work through what's getting in the way.

  • Regular sessions structured around your most pressing decisions
  • On-call availability between sessions for time-sensitive input
  • Roadmap review and challenge before key stakeholder moments
  • Hiring support and PM mentorship
  • Workshops and facilitation on specific challenges
Right for

Product leaders who need a thought partner rather than execution support, founders who own product without a PM background, or teams preparing for a critical decision or milestone.

How engagements start

01

A conversation

We talk about what's going on, what you've tried, and what good looks like. No pitch deck. No pressure.

02

A scoped proposal

If there's a fit, I'll outline how I'd approach the work, what it includes, and how long it would take.

03

The work begins

Engagements are structured to move fast. Most clients see meaningful progress in the first two weeks.

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