Have you wondered “What does a Fractional COO do”? The work he does will fall into one of the following categories.
- Day-to-day management of operations
- Building and improving processes and systems
- Strategy design and execution
- Founder support and sparring
These four areas are interdependent and connected. So even when delegating only some of them, the Fractional COO will still touch all four.
Day-to-day management of operations
Most CEOs start thinking about bringing on a Fractional COO to manage their day-to-day operations. There’s a huge opportunity cost in the CEO being too involved in their day-to-day ops.
They can’t focus on strategy or growth, so the company is stalling. As you grow, complexity and managerial attention needed increases. So naturally, the company will reach a point where the CEO will spend all their time in day-to-day management. Unless they bring in someone to help.
Team management
A Fractional COO will manage your teams, including all async communication and calls. Meeting regularly with your different teams will ensure alignment and accountability.
Troubleshooting
If your team runs into roadblocks or other issues in their work, the Fractional COO will remove those roadblocks. If he can, alone. If needed, he’ll consult you.
Recruiting and other staff decisions
If you want to, the Fractional COO can also help with recruiting and other staffing related tasks. Performance evaluations can also fall under his scope of work.
Building and improving processes and systems
You don’t only want to have your day-to-day managed, but you want to build a better business. That’s the second big stream of work a Fractional COO will cover.
Process design and improvement
Your Fractional COO will work with your team to improve existing processes, or design new processes. In most cases, the goal for process improvement is to simplify the work. This will help make your operations scalable.
Technology
A good Fractional COO will not stop at the process level, but will also look into the best tech solutions to support and augment your business processes. From selection to implementation, he will take care of everything that’s necessary to bring your company up to date technologically.
For many service businesses, AI adoption is top of mind. A Fractional COO will help identify use cases for AI, evaluate them realistically and help implement the winners.
Organization & people
With process and technology covered, the most important part of most service businesses are its people. A Fractional COO will help design the right target org structure, and execute the transition into that structure.
He’ll also oversee things like onboarding, training and building a knowledge base for your team. With all that, he’ll make sure your team is set up to deliver strong results.
Reporting and decision-making systems
A Fractional COO will work with you to establish the right KPIs on a company and team level. He’ll also drive the setup of reporting infrastructure that allows you to make the right decisions.
Strategy design and execution
Lastly, and potentially most impactful, a Fractional COO will help design and execute your strategy.
Strategy Design
With a Fractional COO, you hire a seasoned C-Level executive and/or entrepreneur. Use this experience to validate, refine or fully redesign your strategy.
A Fractional COO will typically push you to simplify your strategy. Focus on fewer but highly relevant goals. This can include offers, markets you serve or your pricing structure.
At the design stage, a good Fractional COO can also create financial models so you know exactly how your strategy will translate into numbers.
Strategy Execution
We all know that defining a strategy is 5% of the work. Following through with executing it is the other 95%. That’s where most smaller companies fail: It’s not choosing the wrong strategy, it’s not executing the right strategy well or at all.
A Fractional COO will help you execute strategy in two ways:
Firstly, he’ll help choose the right strategy execution frameworks. Popular models include OKRs, roadmaps as well as project- or sprint-based methodologies.
A Fractional COO will quickly develop an understanding of your business model and team, so they can select the right framework for you.
Secondly, the Fractional COO will work with your team to actually deliver on the strategy. This will include assigning work packages to team members, and then holding the team accountable for their deliverables. While this sounds like a small task, this is 90% of the success of your strategy: Seeing it through, constantly holding the team accountable, and staying on course in times of little rewards.
Founder support and sparring
An often overlooked aspect of hiring a Fractional COO is that they serve as a sparring partner to the CEO. It’s lonely at the top, so having someone to discuss difficult decisions with can be a game changer.
