Interim covers a gap. Fractional fills a need that is smaller than a full-time job. Both put a senior person in a leadership seat, and companies mix them up all the time.
What is an interim executive?
An interim executive holds an empty leadership seat for a defined stretch, usually most of the week, until a permanent hire starts. Your design lead quits in March, the search will take until summer, and somebody has to choose the work, run the team, and keep the vendors honest until then.
The interim person's job has two halves:
- Keep the work moving. Run the team, make the calls that cannot wait, and keep the projects pointed at the right problems.
- Get the seat ready for the next person. Write down what is going on, fix what is broken, and often help write the job description and interview the finalists.
When the permanent hire starts, the interim leaves.
What is a fractional executive?
A fractional executive holds a seat part time, a few days a month up to two days a week, with no permanent hire waiting behind them. The company needs senior judgment in marketing, technology, or AI, and does not need forty hours a week of it. What a fractional executive is covers the full definition.
How do I know which one I need?
Ask two questions: is the seat empty, and will you need it full time once it is filled?
- The seat is empty and you will hire for it. Interim. Get someone in now, run the search, hand over.
- There is no seat yet, and you need the judgment part time. Fractional.
- You are not sure the role should be full time. Start fractional. If after six months the work clearly needs a full-time person, you will know what to hire for.
- A new initiative, with nobody who has run one. Fractional for the first stretch, and hire the permanent owner from what you learn.
The common mistake is hiring an interim for a seat that never needed to be full time. You pay for five days and use two.
What do they cost?
With me:
- Fractional seats (CMO, CTO, Chief AI Officer): $3,500 a month for about two days a month, $6,500 for about a day a week, $11,000 for about two days a week. Three months minimum, two years maximum.
- Interim team leadership (a design, UX, or research team between leads): priced by the month, set by how many days a week the team needs. Short, bounded pieces of it are $150 an hour or a fixed scope.
Anything over $3,000 can be paid by the month while the work runs, no interest. The interim leadership page and the fractional CTO page have the details.
Can one person do both?
Yes, and sometimes the same engagement moves from one to the other. A company brings someone in as interim while it hires, the search shows that the role is smaller than they thought, and the interim becomes a standing fractional seat at fewer days.
I do both. Interim, I hold a design or research team between leads. Fractional, I hold CTO seats at Quartz Importers MN and U.S. Asset Appraisals and the Chief AI Officer seat at Appraisal Dream.
What should I have in writing for either?
The start date, the days per week or month, which decisions belong to the seat and which stay with you, and how it ends. For interim, the end is the permanent hire's start date plus a short overlap. For fractional, it is a minimum, a maximum, and a notice period.
Tell me which seat is open on the start form.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.