Before You Book:
What You Need to Know

The 30 minute assessment is specifically designed to answer that question for both of us.

You will get clarity on:

• What is actually holding your technology team back right now
• Whether the problem is fixable or requires bigger changes like hiring
• What the path forward looks like if you work with us
• Whether the timing makes sense given everything else happening

We will get clarity on:

• Whether your team is genuinely ready for transformation
• If the leadership dynamics support real change
• Whether we have availability to give you the focus this needs

No. Book the call even if you are not sure you are ready.

The assessment is specifically designed to help you figure that out. Most people who book are dealing with some version of:

• "I know something needs to change but I am not sure what"
• "I think we need this but the timing might not be right"
• "This investment is significant and I need to know it makes sense"
• "I am worried our CTO might not be open to this"

Those are exactly the questions the assessment helps answer.

We are not looking for people who have it all figured out. We are looking for people who are honest about where they are and serious about doing something different.

During the 30 minute assessment, we look at whether there is genuine readiness on both sides.

We are looking for:

• A CEO or leadership team that knows something needs to change
• Willingness to commit weekly time to transformation
• Realistic expectations about what six months can achieve
• Alignment that the investment is strategic, not just an expense

You are looking for:

• Clarity on what is actually broken in your technology team
• Confidence that we understand your specific situation
• Evidence that this approach makes sense for where you are
• Honest assessment of whether now is the right time

The assessment is where we BOTH decide if moving forward makes sense. After the call, we will tell you honestly whether we think Transform is right for your situation and whether we have availability.

Perfect. Book the assessment anyway.

Here is what most people do not realize: nobody is ever 100% sure before the assessment. The people we work with all had doubts before the call:

• "Can we really commit to this right now?"
• "What if the CTO pushes back?"
• "Is $60K the right use of budget?"
• "What if we try this and it does not work?"

Those doubts do not mean you should not book the call. They mean you should absolutely book it.

The assessment exists specifically to answer those questions. We will tell you honestly if now is the right time or if you should wait. We will tell you if we think it will work or if there are red flags that suggest a different approach.

We follow a clear path: Assess, Diagnose, Transform, Ascend.

Assess: A 30 minute call to align on direction, surface delivery friction, and note accountability gaps. This gives both of us clarity on whether moving forward makes sense.

Diagnose: An embedded review of structure, cadence, and delivery. We map the plan to move forward. This shows you exactly what needs to change and how we will do it.

Transform: Six months of embedded work to rebuild delivery systems, leadership rhythm, and decision clarity. This is where the real transformation happens.

Ascend: After transformation, we help you maintain alignment at the executive level and keep momentum steady over time.

Not everyone who books an assessment moves to Diagnose. Not everyone who goes through Diagnose moves to Transform. At each stage, we decide together if the next step makes sense.

Transform is 6 months of embedded work at $60,000 AUD (plus GST where applicable).

This includes weekly embedded sessions to rebuild your team's delivery systems, leadership rhythm, and decision clarity. You get a high performing technology team or complete clarity on what needs to change, including whether it is time for a new CTO.

We publish this price because you deserve to know what you are considering before we ever have a conversation.

Because most firms want you emotionally invested before you know what it costs. They hope that by the time you hear the price, you are already sold.

We do the opposite. Our pricing is transparent because you should know what you are considering upfront.

This filters out teams who are genuinely not in a position to invest at this level. It also means when you book an assessment call, we can focus on whether the work is right for your situation, not on negotiating price.

Only you can answer that. It depends entirely on what an underperforming technology team is costing your business right now.

Run the numbers honestly. What are you losing per quarter because:

• Projects take twice as long as they should and miss market windows.
• Your CTO is stressed and might quit, forcing an expensive rehire and restart.
• The business cannot trust technology to deliver, so opportunities get passed over.
• You are spending money on the wrong things because there is no clear strategy.
• The CEO wastes hours every week managing technology problems.

For some businesses, that cumulative cost is 10x what transformation costs. For others, the pain is not quite there yet. That is fine. Just be honest about where you are.

You absolutely can. And if budget is your main constraint right now, you probably should.

But be realistic about what cheaper options deliver. Junior consultants learning on your time. Coaches who focus only on the individual but ignore the broken system around them. Agencies that hand you a report and disappear.

Those approaches rarely create lasting change because the problem is not information. You do not need another report telling you what is broken. You need someone who embeds with your team, fixes the operating system, and builds capability so it holds after they leave.

That level of work costs more because it delivers more. Every week, not just at the start and end. Senior expertise, not junior associates. Transformation that lasts, not quick fixes that fade.

Book the assessment even if you are exploring other options. We will tell you honestly if we think a different approach makes more sense for where you are right now.

Then be honest about that in the assessment call. We will tell you if there is a path forward or if you should wait.

But be brutally honest about whether this is actually an affordability problem or a priorities problem.

Most businesses can afford this. What they are really saying is "we have not decided this is more important than the other things we are spending money on right now". Which is completely fair. You get to decide your priorities.

The assessment call will help you figure out whether the cost of NOT fixing this exceeds the investment required to transform it.

The entire organisation feels it when technology transforms from a bottleneck into a driver.

Your CTO leads with clarity instead of reacting to constant pressure. Your team delivers predictably instead of firefighting. The CEO and CTO speak the same language and trust each other again. The Board has confidence that technology is on solid ground.

But here is what matters most: the change holds. This is not a sugar rush that fades when we step back. We rebuild the operating system of your technology team so it runs at a high level permanently.

You get a team that the business believes in again, a CTO who can lead without constant support, and people who take ownership instead of waiting to be told what to do.

We work virtually in weekly embedded sessions. Each session is structured and outcome focused. Between sessions, your team applies what we have agreed so momentum keeps building.

The CEO needs to be involved at key moments to ensure alignment stays strong. The CTO is involved every week because they are the one we are elevating. The wider team participates as needed to implement changes.

Most teams feel a noticeable shift within the first few weeks as clarity improves and the new rhythm takes hold. Deeper transformation takes the full six months as the CTO grows and the team adjusts to the new way of working.

Maybe. Some teams can.

But if you could fix this on your own, you probably would have already. The fact that you are here reading this suggests something is blocking you from making the changes internally.

Usually it is one of three things. Either you do not have clarity on what is actually broken, or you know what needs to change but do not have the internal capability to execute it, or there is a relationship dynamic between the CEO and CTO that makes it hard to have direct conversations about performance.

We bring external perspective, proven frameworks, and the ability to have conversations that are difficult to have internally. We also bring speed. Figuring this out yourself might work eventually, but how many quarters can you afford to keep operating the way you are now?

Book the assessment and we will tell you honestly if we think you can solve this internally or if external help makes sense.

Sometimes that is the right move. But not usually.

Most underperforming technology teams are not failing because the CTO lacks intelligence or technical skill. They are failing because the CTO was never set up to succeed in the first place.

Unclear expectations from the CEO. No operating system for how the team works. Constant reactive firefighting instead of strategic work. A leadership style that worked at a smaller scale but does not fit what the business needs now.

If you replace the CTO without fixing those underlying problems, the new person will hit the same wall. You will burn another 12 months and another six figure salary just to end up back here asking the same questions.

Traditional consultancies arrive with big teams, charge you for junior people learning on your time, hand you a 100 page report, and disappear. Three months later nothing has actually changed.

Interim CTOs take over the role temporarily, which can stabilise things short term, but they do not build lasting capability in your team. When they leave, you are back where you started, just with a bigger bill.

Executive coaches focus on developing the individual, which is valuable, but they often ignore the broken system around the CTO. You end up with a slightly better leader still operating in a dysfunctional environment.

We do none of those things.

We embed virtually with your team, work alongside your CTO rather than replacing them, and rebuild the entire operating system of the team. The result is a high performing function that can deliver without depending on us forever.

You get transformation, not reports. You get capability, not dependency. You get results that last.

Because real transformation requires dedicated weekly attention, not sporadic check ins whenever we have spare time.

Each team we work with gets a fixed weekly slot that is protected. This ensures your transformation has consistent momentum and we can give you the focus required to actually move the needle.

We could scale this by hiring junior people and putting them in front of clients. We choose not to. You get senior expertise every single week, not a junior associate reading from a playbook.

This model means we turn away teams regularly. If we do not have availability when you complete the assessment, you will need to wait until a slot opens up or look for another option.

You should see and feel the difference, not just hope that things are improving.

Delivery becomes more predictable. You stop having surprise emergencies every week. Communication between the CEO and CTO improves and you actually understand each other. The team starts taking ownership instead of waiting to be told what to do.

We track both the measurable stuff (delivery cadence, alignment between CEO and CTO, clarity of decision making) and the softer signals (confidence levels, leadership quality, team dynamics).

No guesswork. No corporate speak about "alignment" and "synergy". Just visible progress that everyone in the organisation can see.

We do not act as an interim CTO, but we can help you avoid making an expensive hiring mistake.

Most organisations hire the wrong CTO because they are not clear on what the role actually needs to do. They write a job description that sounds good but does not match what the business actually requires. Then they hire someone who looks great on paper but is the wrong fit for the stage you are at.

We help you get clear on what you actually need, stabilise expectations around the technology function so the incoming leader has a fighting chance, support the hiring process, and then coach the new CTO through their first few months so they start strong.

This dramatically reduces the risk of your new CTO flaming out within a year, which is what happens to most technology leaders who walk into unclear situations.

Book the assessment even if you do not have a CTO yet. We will help you figure out whether hiring first or stabilising first makes more sense.

Once the six month Transform is complete, we move into Ascend.

Ascend maintains alignment at the executive level and keeps momentum steady over time. It creates an executive engagement rhythm with the CEO, CTO and Board so everyone stays aligned on direction, risk and delivery.

This is not about micromanaging the technology function. It is about making sure the CTO continues to operate as a peer at the executive table, not just as a delivery owner. It ensures technology leadership stays ahead of where the business is going, not constantly playing catch up.

Many teams stay in Ascend because it gives them confidence that the function will not slide backwards. Others graduate out completely once the capability is fully embedded.

You should not trust us automatically. Trust is earned, not given.

What we can tell you is this: our entire business is built on one narrow focus. We embed alongside technology teams to rebuild how they operate, while coaching CTOs to lead at the next level.

We understand the pressure on CEOs who need technology to deliver but do not know how to fix it. We understand the expectations on CTOs who are drowning in reactive work and never get space to be strategic. We understand the cost of a technology team that cannot keep up with what the business needs.

Everything we do is transparent. You will always know what we are observing, what we recommend changing, why we recommend it, and how we are measuring whether it is working.

The proof is not in what we promise. It is in what happens week by week as the team transforms. You will see it or you will not, and if you do not, we will be the first to say so.

Book the assessment and judge for yourself whether you trust us to do this work.

Book the assessment anyway. We will help you figure out if now is actually the right time or if there is something specific you should handle first.

Timing matters, but perfect timing does not exist. There will always be something else going on. A big project finishing. A board meeting coming up. A key hire you are waiting on. Budget planning. The list never ends.

The real question is whether waiting makes things better or worse. If your technology team is underperforming now, will waiting three months improve that? Or will it just compound the problems and make them harder to fix later?

Most teams who say "the timing is not quite right" end up coming back 6 to 12 months later when things have gotten worse and now it is urgent. The transformation is the same either way, but waiting makes it more stressful and more expensive.

That is a real risk, so let me be direct about when this typically does not work.

It does not work when the CEO is not actually willing to change how they interact with the CTO. It does not work when the CTO is so burned out they have already mentally checked out. It does not work when the team wants results but is not willing to apply the changes we recommend.

Our job is to spot those situations during Assess and Diagnose and tell you honestly if we think Transform is not a good fit. Your job is to be realistic during those stages about whether you are genuinely ready to commit or if you are hoping for a magic fix that requires no real change.

For teams that are genuinely ready and commit properly, the success rate is extremely high. You will see progress week by week. If you are not seeing it, we talk about it openly rather than pretending everything is fine.

The real question is: what is the risk of NOT fixing this? What does another year of your technology team underperforming actually cost you?