Senior services for
Fractional CXO Chief Experience Officer, Embedded CX Leadership, Sustained Cadence
A fractional CXO Chief Experience Officer for B2B SaaS, services, fintech, manufacturing, and PE-backed operators. A senior operator embedded 1 to 3 days per week, owning journey orchestration, friction reduction, voice-of-customer instrumentation, and cross-channel experience consistency on an ongoing cadence. Engaged in 2-3 weeks.
Engage a Fractional CXO
A fractional CXO Chief Experience Officer for B2B SaaS, services, fintech, manufacturing, and PE-backed operators
Why teams hire a fractional Chief Experience Officer
Ongoing CXO presence, not full-time seat
When the team needs sustained senior CX leadership but the business case for a full-time Chief Experience Officer is not yet there, a fractional CXO (Chief Experience Officer) embeds 1 to 3 days per week. Real ownership of the experience surface, journey design, friction reduction, voice-of-customer programs, at a sustainable spend.
Operators who held the seat at scale
Our fractional CXOs have run experience organizations at $100M+ revenue companies, owned NPS and CSAT against board commitments, and led cross-functional partnership between Marketing, Product, CS, and Sales. Embedded cadence with the same judgment that operated the seat full-time elsewhere.
Scope-based, multi-quarter cadence
Fractional engagements run on quarterly commitments with multi-quarter rollover, scoped to the operating outcomes the team owns (NPS lift, journey-friction inventory, voice-of-customer cadence). The cadence flexes from 1 day/week (governance-only) to 3 days/week (active hands-on rollout) as the work demands.
When teams need a fractional Chief Experience Officer
Fractional CXO (Chief Experience Officer) engagements show up at predictable inflection points. A Series B or C company has hit enough scale that experience design needs ownership but cannot yet justify a full-time CXO salary. A PE sponsor wants senior CX governance across portfolio companies without 50 hires. A team has internal CX talent but needs an outside operator at the leadership layer to set direction and govern cross-functional rollouts. A previous CXO transition leaves the team without senior CX presence and the team prefers ongoing fractional cadence to a full-time replacement. Each scenario benefits from embedded ongoing leadership rather than project-shaped engagement or full-seat interim cover.
What the fractional CXO actually owns
The fractional leader holds CXO-tier accountability during the engagement: journey orchestration governance, friction-reduction program oversight, voice-of-customer instrumentation (NPS, CSAT, journey analytics), cross-channel experience consistency review, CX governance cadence (experience-design review, journey-ownership maps, escalation paths), experience-led input on Product and Marketing roadmaps, and the operating cadence that ties experience metrics to revenue and retention. Embedded presence varies from 1 day per week (governance-only) to 3 days per week (active hands-on rollout) depending on the operating need.
Cadence designed for the operating need
Most fractional CXO (Chief Experience Officer) engagements run quarter-by-quarter with multi-quarter rollover. The cadence flexes, 1 day per week is sufficient for governance and team coaching when the in-house experience team is operationally strong; 2 to 3 days per week is right when active rollout (journey redesign, friction-reduction program standup, voice-of-customer instrumentation build) is in flight. The fractional CXO adjusts with the team rather than forcing a uniform cadence.
What a fractional Chief Experience Officer engagement covers
- Embedded CXO presence, 1 to 3 days per week with the team, sustained over multi-quarter commitment, real ownership of experience outcomes.
- Journey orchestration governance, end-to-end journey mapping oversight, journey-ownership clarity across functions, handoff redesign at the seams.
- Friction reduction, pain-point inventory, friction prioritization, cross-functional remediation program leadership.
- Voice-of-customer instrumentation, NPS, CSAT, journey analytics, qualitative research cadence, closed-loop feedback systems.
- Cross-channel experience consistency, brand and tone consistency across digital, human, and self-service channels.
- CX governance cadence, experience-design review cadence, journey-ownership maps, cross-functional escalation paths, experience signoff on rollouts.
- Experience-led Product + Marketing input, partnership on roadmap prioritization based on experience-data signal.
- In-house team coaching, leveling the existing experience team through embedded mentorship, design-review cadence, and capability building.
How We Compare
| Feature | Fractional CXO | Permanent CXO hire | Interim CXO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engagement start. | 2-3 weeks | 4-7 months search | 2-4 weeks |
| Cadence. | 1-3 days/week embedded | Full-time in seat | Full-time in seat |
| Tenure model. | Quarter-by-quarter rolling | Permanent | 3-9 month bounded |
| Right when. | Ongoing CX presence needed, no full-seat business case | Permanent role and budget defined | Permanent search underway, seat empty |
Frequently asked questions
Common questions from teams considering a fractional Chief Experience Officer.
Chief Experience Officer owns end-to-end experience design across the buyer journey, pre-sale brand-customer surface AND post-sale customer journey. Chief Customer Officer focuses on post-sale ownership: customer success, account expansion, retention, post-sale journey. Chief Operating Officer owns operations across the business, including but not limited to experience. CXO is the right framing when journey orchestration, friction reduction, and cross-channel experience consistency are the operating priority. If post-sale customer ownership is the priority, see the sister page on fractional Chief Customer Officer.
Fractional is embedded 1-3 days per week on multi-quarter commitment. Real ownership of experience outcomes at a sustainable spend. Right for teams that need sustained senior CX leadership but cannot yet justify (or do not want) a full-time CXO salary. Permanent hire is right when the business case is mature enough to budget the full-time role and the operating cadence demands full-time presence.
Fractional is ongoing 1-3 days per week embedded cadence; interim is full-seat full-time during a bounded 3-9 month tenure. Fractional is right when the team needs sustained CX governance without a full-time seat; interim is right when the permanent seat is empty and the work cannot wait for the search. The two engagements can transition into each other, a fractional engagement can flex up to interim during a transition; an interim engagement can downshift to fractional once the permanent hire lands.
Two to three weeks for most engagements. We screen the bench against the specific situation (industry, customer-base segmentation, current journey instrumentation maturity, scope of cross-functional rollout in flight), match a senior operator who has held the seat before, and run a short calibration with the CEO or hiring sponsor.
Most fractional engagements run 1 to 3 days per week. The cadence flexes, 1 day per week (governance-only) when the in-house experience team is operationally strong; 2 to 3 days per week when active rollout (journey redesign, friction-reduction program standup, voice-of-customer instrumentation build) is in flight. Rolling quarterly commitment with multi-quarter rollover.
Most fractional CXO engagements run $11K-$22K per month at the typical 1-2 days per week cadence, scaling up to $25K-$30K per month at 3 days per week. Annual spend lands $130K-$250K, roughly a third to half the loaded cost of a full-time CXO hire.
It happens. Most fractional engagements are paid on a monthly retainer with no conversion penalty. If the team and the operator both want it, the role can shift to permanent.
Related Services
Need a permanent CXO hire?
Our Recruit practice places permanent Chief Experience Officer, SVP Customer Experience, and VP CX, frequently paired with a fractional engagement so the operating system the team is hired into is the system the team will actually run.
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Engage a fractional Chief Experience Officer
Embedded CXO leadership 1-3 days per week. Multi-quarter commitment, sustainable cadence, real ownership of experience outcomes. Senior CXO operator from day one.
