Three engagement modes, ten productised packages. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline. No months-long money-sucking retainer. Bringing a development team's perception from cost centre to unique competitive edge.
Marian Kamenistak provides fractional CTO, interim VPE, and independent board advisory services to product engineering organisations of 10-499 engineers. Based in Prague, working across Europe and North America. 35+ completed engagements including Mews (Series C), Jablotron, Eurowag, Kosik.cz, Dr Max, Innovatrics, and Pure Storage.
Not sure this fits? For a smaller start, the 3-month productivity audit is the same brain scoped tighter. For leaders (not orgs), 1:1 mentoring covers the same ground for €430/session. To train a whole management team, see the Leadership Academy. Read how mentees describe the work on the testimonials page.
Solve your organisation's specific challenge with top-tier engineering leadership — without a full-time hire.
When: You have a specific problem: delivery, hiring, org design, technical debt. You need a senior brain 1-2 days a week, not a full FTE.
3-9 months leading your engineering team while you optimise operations, boost efficiency, and hire the permanent seat.
When: You lost your engineering leader, or you're preparing to hire one. I run the team, ship the roadmap, and help you find and onboard my replacement.
The bridge between engineering and the board. Technical assessment translated into business language.
When: You're a non-technical board member, CEO, or investor. You need someone who speaks tech to sanity-check what engineering is telling you.
Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed timeline. Discount available for ELC community members and partners.
Teams struggling to meet deadlines. You suspect inefficiencies but don't know where.
Comprehensive audit of team efficiency, tooling, leadership, and teamwork. In-depth team assessments + ticket-data analysis. Report with findings and highest-ROI improvements.
Team efficiency score 4/10 → 7/10 in 6 months, 8/10 in a year. Consistently ship 80%+ of quarterly roadmap.
No visibility into team performance. Every metric feels like surveillance to the team.
Real-time dashboards integrated with Jira. Top 5 metrics visualised in Tableau or PowerBI: sprint completion, roadmap contribution, ad-hoc ratio, epic cycle time, task distribution, change failure rate. Team self-rating 0-5.
~30% team efficiency increase. Consistently ship 80%+ of quarterly roadmap. Team self-rating 4.2/5 average.
Product and engineering misaligned. Missed deadlines, unclear priorities, frustration.
Review of org hierarchy and communication channels. Stakeholder interviews. Analysis of structure + comms + knowledge-sharing. Roadmap for structural + communication enhancements.
Priorities, roles, and processes aligned to value delivery. Product-Engineering gap closed. Development tasks connected to company objectives.
Uncertain about your architecture's ability to support business needs. Worried about technical debt.
Deep dive into scalability, stability, extensibility, incident management, release processes, code quality. Tech-debt calculation with effort estimates. Compare current tech roadmap against findings.
Data-driven decisions on tech investments. Clear picture of tech-debt impact on velocity. Roadmap for a stronger, more scalable ecosystem.
Uncertain about maintainability and scalability of your codebase. Rising tech debt.
Static analysis, readability, modularity, extensibility. Cyclomatic complexity, coupling metrics. Identify largest risks and code smells. Policies to reduce inefficiencies going forward.
Quantified code-quality debt. Risks identified. Learning ceremonies enabled across teams.
Everything is project-based and deadline-driven. No systematic way to prioritise by value.
Define transparent product + technical strategy. Roadmap connected to Jira. Prioritisation by ROI or Cost of Delay. Every team's work traceable to revenue.
Data-driven decisions. Product and tech priorities balanced. Every team sees how their work moves the top line.
No clear career paths. Compensation model unfair or opaque. Talent attrition rising.
Equitable career growth model aligned to company stage, talent, values. Stakeholder interviews. Model selection + implementation + adoption roadmap.
Culture of personal growth. Transparent career paths + fair comp → higher engagement and retention.
Traditional training isn't enough. You need to attract and retain top talent by making learning part of the DNA.
Internal communities. External events: meetups, conferences, podcasts. Career guidance across programming, testing, soft skills, cross-functional exposure. Tied to Individual Development Plans.
Innovation, self-learning, personal growth. Retention up. Top talent attracted. "A's hire A's, B's hire C's."
You need ongoing strategic guidance at the leadership and executive level.
Long-term partnership. Collaborative problem-solving, expertise validation, focus on efficiency and cost savings. Can act as fractional CTO when needed.
Sustainable growth. Optimised operations. Informed decision-making at exec level.
Your growth plan isn't working. You need targeted expertise without trial and error.
Targeted advisory for specific challenges: execution, leadership development, hiring, quality, reliability, remote work, org structure, scaling, delivery, retention, compensation.
Fast insight to overcome specific obstacles. No long engagements when you don't need one.
| Engagement | Duration | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Precise Productivity Boost | 16 man-days · 8 weeks | €32,000 | Teams struggling to meet deadlines. You suspect inefficiencies but don't know where. |
| Real-Time Productivity Metrics | 16 man-days · 8 weeks | €32,000 | No visibility into team performance. Every metric feels like surveillance to the team. |
| Organisational Structure & Alignment | 12 man-days · 6 weeks | €24,000 | Product and engineering misaligned. Missed deadlines, unclear priorities, frustration. |
| Software Architecture Quality Audit | 16 man-days · 8 weeks | €32,000 | Uncertain about your architecture's ability to support business needs. Worried about technical debt. |
| Code Quality Audit | 16 man-days · 8 weeks | €32,000 | Uncertain about maintainability and scalability of your codebase. Rising tech debt. |
| Value-Driven Prioritisation | 16 man-days · 8 weeks | €32,000 | Everything is project-based and deadline-driven. No systematic way to prioritise by value. |
| Career Frameworks for Growth & Motivation | 16 man-days · 8 weeks | €32,000 | No clear career paths. Compensation model unfair or opaque. Talent attrition rising. |
| Strong Learning & Talent Growth | 32 man-days · 16 weeks | €64,000 | Traditional training isn't enough. You need to attract and retain top talent by making learning part of the DNA. |
| Executive Board Consultant | Ongoing partnership | €1,600/MD + 10% value bonus | You need ongoing strategic guidance at the leadership and executive level. |
| On-Demand Advisory | Per engagement | €1,600/MD | Your growth plan isn't working. You need targeted expertise without trial and error. |
Emailmarian@marian.coachwith a paragraph on the current situation and what "success" looks like in the next 12 weeks. I'll come back within 48h with the tightest-fit package and any questions.
What's the purpose of having expensive highly performing teams if they don't work on things that matter the most, having 60% off-roadmap contribution?
· By Marian
Read →
In engineering management, my vision is to create a productive software delivery environment that developers are proud to work in, with a focus on tangible…
· By Marian
Read →
My engineering leadership business hit $537k revenue in 2025, growing from $0 to half a million in 3 years.
· By Marian
Read →