Product & delivery
PM or PO need, without full-time
You need a PM or PO, without a 40-hour hire. The team ships code; what's missing is quarterly prioritization, clear prerequisites, dev rituals, and hypotheses tested before build. It's not « too early for a PM », it's too heavy or too rigid full-time.
I work as a technical PM/PO: development, business logic, technical trade-offs, and product sense (background in design, then engineering, then product leadership). In the AI era, that combination is a real edge to frame, prototype, and decide without losing your team.
That fits as fractional support: half-days first, aligned to your rituals (stand-up, backlog, prerequisites), about four half-days per week or fewer depending on phase, plus a full day when needed (in practice, at most once a week) to prototype or validate before the dev team commits.
Clarify your product need Book a callLinkedInhello@lucrousseau.com
Product context
The team ships code; what's often missing is a clear product line between the roadmap and the sprint. Two useful reads before rhythm and responsibilities.
When developers wait on product decisions
- The founder arbitrates between customer fires, tech debt, and « the next big feature »
- Devs move tickets without an explicit why or order
- Each quarter, the roadmap looks like a wish list, not a plan the team can hold
Technical PM/PO: product, design, and code
- Designer → developer → product path, not a generalist PM far from the codebase
- Credible with devs, clear for the business each quarter
- AI to test hypotheses in days, not months of fuzzy specs
The rhythm
Covering a PM without full-time
Not a « four full days per week » rhythm: half-days as the default, and a full day when you need to go deeper, without a fixed 40-hour role.
Regular half-days (~4 per week, or fewer)
Stand-up in the morning, backlog review in the afternoon, prerequisite workshops, quarter sync: the calendar fits your team. In practice, about four half-days per week, sometimes fewer when the phase allows.
Full day when needed, not by default
When several hypotheses or features must be evaluated, prototyped, or tested before build: AI prototypes, clickable flows, light POCs. In practice, at most one full day per week, not four full days every week.
Senior technical PM/PO, not an employee
Same person for prioritization, prerequisites, UX, and technical judgment, without a handoff between « the PM » and « someone who gets the code ». Scope and rhythm adjustable without hiring or layoffs.
What you need
Four responsibilities a strong PM/PO owns
Quarterly prioritization
Quarter goals, explicit trade-offs, what you won't do as much as what you will. A review rhythm (monthly or quarterly) the team understands and the business can defend.
Prerequisites and ready-to-build
User stories, acceptance criteria, dependencies, open questions, before devs spend days on ambiguity. Fewer loops, fewer « we misunderstood » at sprint end.
AI prototypes before full build
Technical PM/PO and comfortable with AI: clickable flows, interactive mocks, light POCs, with design eye and business rigor to validate hypotheses before committing weeks of development.
Daily ceremonies with developers
Stand-up, unblocking, sprint alignment: someone who facilitates and keeps rituals on track, follows impediments, and connects product priority to what's happening in code.
Compare
Full-time PM/PO vs fractional support
Ballpark, exact calendar (half-days vs full days) is set on a call. For AI in the product or launch framing, see also AI in your product and Launch a SaaS or MVP.
| Dimension | Full-time PM or PO | Technical PM/PO, senior product engineer (~4 half-days / week, 1 full day max when needed) |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly presence | 5 days; fixed role even in quieter weeks. | ~4 half-days per week as the default (or fewer); occasional full day (in practice, at most once a week) for prototyping or validation. |
| Technical fluency | Varies; frequent handoffs with the dev team. | Technical PM/PO: business logic, code, debt, APIs; same language as your devs. |
| Product, design & AI | Often slides or Figma; weak link to build reality. | Design + dev background; AI prototypes and user validation before build. |
| Cost & flexibility | Salary + benefits; costly to reposition if the product pivots. | Fractional budget; intensity scaled up or down without layoffs. |
| Ceremonies & delivery | Present every business day. | Half-days aligned to stand-up and key rituals; async follow-up between sessions. |
How I build
Technical foundations
Technical PM/PO: product, design, business logic, and stack aligned with your developers, AI prototypes before build.
Objections
Common questions
Common, and draining. My role is to structure what the founder already carries: backlog, quarter, prerequisites, rituals, so you keep vision without being the bottleneck every morning.
To match real rhythm: stand-up and unblocking in the morning, prerequisite or prioritization workshops in the afternoon, without paying a full day when a half-day is enough. A full day lands when needed, in practice at most once a week, not as a routine.
No: it's not four full days every week, that rhythm I turn down. Roughly two days of presence, split into focused half-days. Versus an employee: no employer costs, adjustable calendar, and a full day only when prototyping or validation warrants it.
I speak development, business logic, and product in one conversation. Your devs don't translate fuzzy specs; the business doesn't pick between « pretty slides » and « buildable ». With AI, I can ship credible prototypes fast because I understand both sides.
Exactly: the goal is to reduce risk before code. A clickable flow or minimal POC lets you say no early, yes with confidence, not replace production delivery.
Even better if you arrive with roadmap, rituals, and ready-to-build standards already proven. I can help define the role and hand off to the internal hire.
The agreed rhythm (e.g. half-days aligned to your rituals) structures deep work, not whether you can reach me.
Ongoing, I make time to reply on Slack or your preferred channel. If an emergency lands outside scheduled slots, I stay reachable and step in under a shared urgency frame we define up front (scope, priority, response time), not a vague 24/7 on-call promise.
Next step
Need a technical PM/PO without full-time? A 30-minute call is enough to see if regular half-days, full day when needed, product + code + AI prototypes, fits your team.
LinkedInhello@lucrousseau.comNext step
Let's talk about your context
A 30-minute call to see if fractional support (product, technical, or both) fits your situation in Quebec.
- EmailReply within 24–48 hourshello@lucrousseau.com
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