For businesses
Stalled Project Rescue
You're months into a project. You've spent significant budget. And you're not sure what you've actually got.
The timeline has slipped twice. Communication has gone quiet. Scope keeps shifting and you can't tell whether that's reasonable or a warning sign. The stakeholder meetings have become about process rather than progress.
You're not sure whether to push on, restart, or cut your losses. And you're not sure who to call.
Why this exists
Why this service exists
Stalled projects follow a pattern. It's almost never one catastrophic failure. It's a compounding series of small things: a brief gap that nobody caught in kick-off, a scope creep nobody pushed back on, a key contact who left the agency mid-project, technical debt that accumulated quietly while features were built on top of it. Six months in, the project is off track and nobody can point cleanly at why.
The situation feels unique when you're inside it. From the outside, it's recognisable. That's what I bring.
What I bring
Receipts and credentials
Most of my career was agency-side. I know what agencies are thinking when they read a brief, where they add margin, where they cut corners, how they communicate bad news (or don't), and what "we're nearly done" actually means when said at week 18.
Then I went client-side as Head of Digital at a large residential homebuilder. I know what clients actually need versus what they ask for. I know the board pressure, the stakeholder politics, the budget cycles, the cost of another missed launch window.
A generalist project manager can read a Gantt chart. They can't decode what's happening in the background on both sides of the engagement. That decoding is the difference between a salvageable project and a write-off. Plus the breadth to act on what you decode: technical, commercial, stakeholder. One operator, not a rescue team to assemble.
What the engagement covers
- Project Rescue Assessment An honest, independent read on where the project stands, what's salvageable, what isn't, and the path forward. Typically one week.
- Active oversight (if you proceed) I step in as the client-side lead. Agency relationship, delivery timeline, stakeholder communication, quality gates. Day rate or short retainer.
- Post-engagement cleanup Half-finished builds, undocumented codebases, technical debt left behind by the previous team. Same lens applies.
What this looks like in practice
The agency-side background came from three years at Bright Labs and earlier work at Annix. That's the reason I can read an agency's project notes and tell you what they actually mean.
The other side: at a large residential homebuilder, the existing platform wasn't salvageable by incremental improvement. I recommended a full re-platform, ran the $250K+ tender, appointed the agency, and owned delivery from brief to launch. The right call, not the easy one. Sometimes the rescue is 'fix what's there'. Sometimes it's 'stop, regroup, and rebuild on the right foundation'.
Pricing
Pricing
Project Rescue Assessment: $1,500 to $2,500. Scoped by project size.
Ongoing oversight: day rate or short retainer, scoped once the assessment is complete.
Next
What happens next
A 20-minute call to understand the situation. If a Project Rescue Assessment is the right move, we scope it on the call. Most assessments are delivered within 5 to 7 business days of kick-off.
No blame. No drama. Just a clear read on where you stand and what to do next.