Two-week operating diagnostics · Fractional CTO/COO · Growth-stage companies

Esa-Petri Tirkkonen

Your operation is bleeding somewhere. In two weeks you'll know exactly where — and have the first fix ready to start. A fixed-price, two-week diagnostic of your entire operation — workflows, systems, people, numbers. You receive a ranked map of what's actually blocking you, what can be automated or eliminated, and a fully scoped first fix. Then, if you want, I fix it: two-week sprints, priced one at a time, a concrete result in your hands at every step. Stop whenever you want.

Book the Diagnostic How it works ↓

The problem

Large fixed scopes fail.
Small ones learn.

"The expensive problem is almost never where the org chart says it is."

Large fixed-scope projects fail the same way every time: scoped and priced at month zero, when nobody yet understands the real problem, then delivered against assumptions reality has already invalidated. The misunderstanding gets paid for in months and six figures, by you.

I don't work that way. The diagnostic is fixed at two weeks and €7,500. Each sprint after that is scoped to one specific deliverable, priced before you commit to it. You sign up for one iteration at a time, so you know exactly what you are buying, what it costs, and what you get. If a sprint's output changes what to build next, I adjust. That is the point.

Method

§ II

How it works

Two weeks to the map.
Two weeks per fix.

Fixed price. Fixed two weeks. You own everything produced, with no obligation to continue.

§ 01

A conversation

We talk. You describe your operation; I ask questions. By the end you'll know whether the diagnostic makes sense — and so will I. I decline engagements where I can't see clear value.

Free · 30–45 minutes

§ 02

The Diagnostic

Two weeks inside your entire operation. I interview the operators — the people doing the work, not just management. I trace the workflows, read the systems and the numbers. You receive three artifacts: a Ranked Constraint Map of what's actually blocking you, an Automation & Elimination Register with effort estimates, and a fully scoped Sprint One Specification — ready to start or ready to ignore. If the problems are bigger, the findings list gets longer. Not the invoice.

€7,500 fixed · 10 working days · You own everything

§ 03

The Sprints

Two-week deliveries, scoped by me from the diagnostic, priced one at a time. Every sprint has its deliverable named in writing at the start — working software, a validated prototype, a specification, or a kill-decision. Named honestly, never vague. You commit to one sprint at a time. Stop after any of them.

From €8,000 per sprint · Scoped before you commit · Stop anytime

Operations

When sprints have proven value, some clients move to a rolling operations arrangement. This is offered only after delivery — never sold up front.

Optional · Earned, not sold

Engagements

§ III

Beyond the diagnostic

The diagnostic is the front door.
These are the rooms behind it.

Every engagement starts with the read. What happens after depends on what the read finds.

Company Auditing & Technical Due Diligence

For owners, leadership teams, boards, and investors who need an honest outside view before committing to a hire, acquisition, funding round, or technical direction. I assess the engineering reality, the operating structure, and whether the company is what it says it is.

Audit

Fractional CTO / COO

When the diagnostic shows the constraint is leadership-shaped, I can take the seat: technical direction, architecture, team structure, hiring, and operational execution. Interim or ongoing. I have held every one of these seats simultaneously; I speak every room in your company, not just the technical ones.

Executive

Founder & Operator Mentoring

For founders, owners, and operators who need the real constraint named before they spend another quarter building around it. We separate symptoms from causes, make the next decision concrete, and move to a full diagnostic only when the company needs one.

Mentoring

Where

§ IV

Where the work fits

I can walk in and
tell you what's real.

Twelve years of executive and technical leadership build a specific kind of pattern recognition. A sales problem, a technical problem, and a cash problem are usually the same problem wearing three costumes. I stopped seeing departments a long time ago — that is why the diagnostic takes two weeks and not three months. I'm not learning how companies work on your invoice.

Legal & Professional Services

Law firms and professional practices where senior time is being consumed by work a system should handle. Current primary focus, with the strongest documented delivery record, including an operation where one person now runs what previously required a team.

Primary

Finance & Family Offices

Reporting cycles, onboarding, compliance documentation, and multi-entity administration. Recurring operational work that grows with the portfolio and should not require senior attention to execute.

Secondary

Technology & Digital Businesses

Technology-led companies that need technical leadership, an audit, or operational architecture. I work here when the problem is genuinely interesting and the team is serious about solving it.

Selective

Why this

§ V

Why senior-touch

The operator who can build
what he recommends.

I have been the person responsible, not the person advising the person responsible. CTO, COO, Head of Sales, Customer Success, Finance, and hands-on technical delivery, simultaneously, inside an operating AI company. 3.5 years. That density of experience is not a credential to display. It is why the engagements produce deployed systems rather than decks, and why I do not outsource judgment on the things that matter.

I run every diagnostic personally

The read is the product. It is never delegated. That hard-caps capacity at a handful of diagnostics per month: true scarcity, not manufactured urgency. You speak to me on day one, and I am the one inside your operation.

Honest about uncertainty — structurally

Nobody — including me — fully understands your real constraint until something concrete hits reality. Most vendors hide that fact inside a six-month fixed contract, and you pay for the misunderstanding. I build it into the structure instead: being wrong costs days, not quarters.

The deliverables are artifacts, not insights

A ranked map, a register, a scoped specification. Tangible, ownable, reusable — even if you never continue. Your own team can execute from a correct map; I am not replacing anyone.

I decline work, explicitly

Fixed-total-price projects, speculative strategy decks, comparison shopping on price, companies without real operational complexity — declined, with an honest explanation of what I'd do instead. Sometimes the finding is "don't spend on this at all." I deliver that finding anyway.

Start with
a conversation.

Free, 30–45 minutes. You describe your operation; I ask questions. By the end you'll know whether the diagnostic makes sense — and so will I. If I can't see clear value, I'll say so and tell you what I'd do instead.

Diagnostic: €7,500 · two weeks · fixed — Sprints: from €8,000 · scoped per sprint · one at a time Book the conversation → Connect on LinkedIn ↗

Two-week operating diagnostics · Fractional CTO/COO · Growth-stage companies

Large fixed scopes fail. Small ones learn.

Two weeks to the map. Two weeks per fix.

A conversation

The Diagnostic

The Sprints

Operations

The diagnostic is the front door. These are the rooms behind it.

Built. Delivered. Running.

I can walk in and tell you what's real.

The operator who can build what he recommends.