Your product org isn't slow. It has broken decisions.
Product orgs run on 8 decision systems. I find which of yours are broken — and install what's missing. Fractional Chief Product Officer for SaaS scale-ups (€1M–€10M ARR), diagnosed in 2 weeks for €1,500.
Catalin Adam
Fractional CPO
13+ years across 5 SaaS verticals
- ▸ Acting as your CPO — embedded, not advising from outside
- ▸ Outcomes you can show your board — not slides you'd have to defend
- ▸ Transparent hours · no retainer minimums · pay for what moves
Where you might be right now.
Most founders I work with are stuck in one of these patterns. None of them are unusual, and none require a full-time CPO to fix.
"Our roadmap is a debate club."
Every prioritization meeting reopens last quarter's decisions. Nobody can defend the backlog with anything other than opinion.
Outcome: prioritization stops being argued
Proven: 7 engineering teams on one sequenced roadmap at a top-3 payments platform.
How I fix this →"Discovery takes forever."
From idea to spec is measured in months. By the time you ship, the assumption it was built on is stale.
Outcome: ideas reach spec in weeks, not quarters
Proven: discovery cycles cut from 7 months to 6 weeks at a global payments platform.
How I fix this →"We don't trust our analytics."
Three dashboards say three things. Decisions get made on gut anyway because nobody has time to audit which one is right.
Outcome: every number defensible to your board
Proven: one metrics formula became the basis for all OKRs at a 14M MAU network.
How I fix this →"We ship, but we don't learn."
Every launch is "a success." There's no test against a hypothesis, so nothing gets disconfirmed and product knowledge doesn't compound.
Outcome: every launch produces a real signal
Proven: +9% MoM revenue lift, sustained, from a programmatic A/B pipeline.
How I fix this →"We need a CPO. We can't afford one."
The role is real, the budget isn't — yet. You need senior product judgment now, not in 12 months when the runway permits a full-time hire.
Outcome: senior product judgment without the full-time cost
Proven: embedded 2 days/week as acting CPO — +30% MRR within one quarter.
How I fix this →"Our pricing just… happened."
A number got picked at launch. Tiers got added when big customers asked. Nobody can defend the price points, and expansion revenue is flat.
Outcome: pricing designed, validated, defensible
Proven: +19% MRR per customer at a ~€3M ARR SaaS — validated before rollout.
How I fix this →Previous engagements
MRR within one quarter
via pricing redesign and funnel rework
Revenue lift, sustained
from a programmatic A/B test pipeline
MRR per customer
tiered pricing redesign, A/B-validated before rollout
Discovery cycles
down from multi-quarter
What "measurable" actually looks like.
Three charts from a ~€3M ARR SaaS engagement, anonymized. Not projections — outcomes.
MRR through ARPU expansion
Existing customers, no new logos. Pricing redesign + funnel rework.
Conversion up while traffic fell
Growth from the funnel, not the ad budget. Signup flow rebuilt give-value-first.
One churn number, two problems
Diagnosis that changed the retention strategy: count and value tell opposite stories.
→ Two retention motions installed, not one.
Want these numbers modelled on your business?
Try the Pricing Impact ModelerWhat you'll hold in your hands.
Every engagement ships documents and systems your team keeps. Samples below — sanitized, real structure.
Audit Report
8-decision scorecard, sized impact per gap, 90-day sequence.
See the sample →
Pricing Model
Tier structure, gating table, revenue impact model — A/B-validated.
How it works →
Metrics Tree
Revenue decomposed into owned, measurable levers. The spine of OKRs.
How it works →
Test Verdict
Pre-registered hypothesis, sample-size gates, signal vs. noise called honestly.
How it works →
The 8 Decisions
Product orgs run on 8 decision systems: what to optimize · what data to trust · what to charge · what to work on next · whether it's worth doing · whether it worked · who to hire next · how vague ideas become shippable specs.
Most companies have 2 or 3 in working order. The companies that ship and learn every month have 7 or 8.
I find which of yours are broken — and install what's missing.
- 01 →
Metrics Tree
Decides what to optimize
- 02 →
Tracking Plan
Decides what data to trust
- 03 →
Pricing Architecture
Decides what to charge
- 04 →
Discovery Framework
Decides how vague ideas become shippable specs
- 05 →
PRD Template
Decides whether it's worth doing
- 06 →
A/B Framework
Decides whether it worked
- 07 →
ICE Scoring
Decides what to work on next
- 08 →
Product Roles
Decides who to hire next
Diagnose. Install. Run.
Three steps, each with fixed scope and a measurable outcome agreed up front. Start at step 1 — the Audit fee is credited in full against any Install. No retainer minimums.
Diagnose
Product Org Audit · €1,500 · 1–2 wks
A written assessment of all 8 decision systems: which work, which are broken, what each gap costs, and the 90-day sequence to fix them.
See a sample report →
Install
Fix one decision · €4–7k fixed
Pick the broken decision system — pricing, prioritization, discovery, testing — and I install the fix. Your team runs it without me when we're done.
Learn more →
Run
Embedded CPO · 2 days/week · 4–9 months
Acting CPO in your leadership meetings, owning the roadmap. Each month the roadmap moves, the right hires get made, and decisions stop circling back to the founder.
Learn more →
Why founders bring me in
I install. I don't advise.
When I leave, your team is running systems I built — not reading a deck I wrote. Discovery framework, metrics tree, A/B framework, PRD template: all delivered as working operating layers, not slides.
Instrumental in enhancing our processes — significantly improved our estimation and delivery.
Outcomes, not retainers.
Every engagement is scoped to a measurable outcome agreed up front. No retainer minimums. No "let's see how it goes." The Audit alone is €1,500 fixed-scope and ships a written assessment in 1–2 weeks.
Discovery cycles dropped from 7 months to 6 weeks. +30% MRR within one quarter. +9% MoM revenue lift sustained.
Embedded, not advisory.
2 days/week as your acting CPO. In your leadership meetings. Owning the roadmap. Making the call. Not "available for a monthly check-in."
"I was able to offload completely unto Catalin and focus on other areas of the business. He started delivering results straight away."
13+ years across 5 verticals — not one playbook on repeat.
Fintech, payments, productivity, hospitality, ad-supported SaaS. The frameworks adapt to your motion. What works for a 14M MAU calculator network is not what works for a €10M ARR hospitality SaaS — and I've run both.
Verifone · Wrike · Ready2Order · Omnicalculator · Touch Stay
Built the system, then handed it back.
The engagement ends when your team is shipping without me. Documentation, training, ownership — built in from day one. If you need me forever, I built it wrong.
"One of the best PMs I have worked with. He will be a huge asset to any companies or clients."
I also work the other side of the table.
My current engagement came through the fund that owns the company — not the founder. Portfolio diagnostics, KPI systems that match your portfolio-wide standard, pre-investment product due diligence, and reporting that lifts cleanly into IC materials.
What changed for the founders I worked with.
Three engagements, three measurable shifts. All companies anonymized in the case studies — named only in the trusted-by line above.
01 · 2024–2025
Ad-supported calculator network, ~14M MAU
Rebuilt the product department from scratch. Discovery cycles dropped from 7 months to 6 weeks.
Read case →
02 · 2019–2021
Top-3 global payments company, B2B division
0→1 build of B2B ecommerce + CPQ + payments. $30M USD processing volume in 7 months.
Read case →
03 · 2026
Hospitality SaaS, ~€3M ARR
Pricing redesign, funnel rework, and an AI-first roadmap — +30% MRR through ARPU expansion, with conversion up at every funnel step.
Read case →
I don't advise on AI. I operate on it.
My practice runs on an AI operating system I built: a second brain that never loses context, 25+ custom agent skills, meeting-to-documentation pipelines, and idea-to-deployed-prototype velocity measured in days. Every engagement ships with that leverage — including this website, which was built with it.
See the AI stack25+
custom agent skills in production use
14
PRDs shipped in one quarter
days
idea → deployed prototype, not sprints
0
context lost between sessions — the brain remembers
Common questions
How is this different from a strategy consultant? +
What if you don't find anything wrong in the Audit? +
Will my team actually own this when you leave? +
How fast can we start? +
What's the typical engagement cost? +
Will you replace my product hires? +
I was able to offload completely unto Catalin and focus on other areas of the business.
Markel Palmstierna
COO · Omni Calculator
Want to see if there's something to fix in your product org?
A 30-minute call to scope. No charge, no pressure — we'll know quickly if it's a fit.
Last engagement: +30% MRR in one quarter — via the fund that owns the company.