Consulting
I work best with teams who already run product the way I do. Below is how I work and what I care about. If it reads like your team, we should talk. If it doesn't, I'm probably not the right person, and that's fine.
Start with an emailhello@kylegani.comHow I work
If these read like your team, we'll get on.
Capability
Fix the decision before adding people
More people speed up the plan you already have. When something is off, I look for the decision the team keeps getting wrong before anyone hires to go faster.
Sight
Know what each feature costs
When the product is infrastructure, a platform or an API, a change customers love can lose you money. I want cost, usage and revenue in view before we decide what to build.
Conviction
Hold the destination, change the route
We agree where we're going and hold it through the quarter where the numbers argue against it. When the evidence changes, we change the route and keep the destination.
Writing
Decisions in writing
Every decision gets written down with its reason, so the team keeps moving when I am not in the room and nobody has to remember why.
Visibility
Everything in the open
Scope, time and invoices sit in one place we both see. You never have to ask what I've spent or what is waiting on you.
Hands on
Close to the code and the customer
I still ship production code and talk to customers directly. I would rather prototype an answer than describe one.
Where it usually starts
If we align, the work usually starts in one of these places.
Days each month
Ongoing: a set number of days every month.
Fractional head of product
Founders and teams without a product lead
Product decisions made on purpose and written down: a strategy, a quarterly plan and a roadmap your engineers trust, without hiring a full-time head of product before you're ready.
Fixed projects
One problem, an agreed scope and an end date.
Platform engineering
Teams whose own platform slows them down
Shipping becomes routine. Your engineers spend their time on the product instead of on builds, environments, deploys and alerts.
Infrastructure architecture and scalability
Systems that have to grow: cloud, Kubernetes, many regions
You know where your system will break before your users do, and you have a plan to grow it, in the order that pays back first, without rebuilding everything.
AI in production
Teams putting models in front of users
Models that answer at the speed users expect, at a cost that still leaves a margin, and voice products and agents that hold up under real traffic.
Software delivery and engineering productivity
Engineering teams that feel slower than they should
Your team ships more of what matters with the people you already have: fewer blocked days, and releases and incidents that are calmer.
Pricing and margin review
Usage-priced products: APIs, cloud, AI
You see what each customer costs you, and your pricing keeps its margin as usage grows.
Security and compliance, from the product side
Teams facing SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA
You pass the audit without it taking over the roadmap, and you know what each control means for the product.
Blocks of hours
Hours to use as you need them.
Advice and system reviews
Teams that want an experienced second opinion
The right setup before you build, and the gaps in your systems found before they cost you.
Prototypes and proofs of concept
Engineering teams that need another builder
Ideas tested in working code before the team commits to them, on the web, mobile, an API or a model, so the roadmap is built on what you've seen work.
How it works
Tell me about the company, the product and what you want to change.
Call
We talk about how you work, to see whether we are aligned before anything else.
Proposal
You get the scope, the time and the terms in one document, and sign it online.
The work
You see every day I spend, every approval and every invoice in your own client console.
Are we a fit?
| A good fit | Probably not a fit |
|---|---|
| The plan is still open, and you want help shaping it. | You need more hands on a plan that is already decided. |
| You want decisions made and shipped. | You want a report rather than decisions. |
| You want cost, usage and margin on the table early. | You would rather not look at the numbers. |
Questions
Do you work remotely?
Yes. I am in Cape Town, two hours ahead of UTC, and work with teams around the world.
Which companies do you work with?
Companies building software: platforms and infrastructure, AI products, and the web and mobile products a business runs on, wherever they are based.
Do you also write code?
Yes. I trained as a software engineer and still ship production code, so I can prototype, review and work directly with your engineers.
Can we start small?
Yes. A block of hours or one fixed project is a good first step before anything ongoing.
Sounds like your team?
Email me about the company, the product and what you want to change.
hello@kylegani.comOr find me on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab), and read the resume.