When the problem is unusual enough
that you’re not sure who to call.
Short, high-intensity engagements for leaders facing consequential problems that don’t fit the usual categories.
Something strange is happening. It might be technical, organisational, regulatory, or some uncomfortable combination of all three. Your normal channels are either too narrow, too slow, or too political to help. You need someone who can sit with the problem honestly, think it through with you, and leave you with a clearer set of options than you started with.
Most of that work settles into a standing relationship — a day a month, a second brain on call — and the paid engagements quietly underwrite open research the whole field can use. That’s what Proper Tools is for.
What the work looks like
Most engagements begin with a short conversation about what’s actually going on. If there’s a genuine fit, work is scoped narrowly and moves quickly — decision-ready artefacts in days or weeks, not months.
A standing day each month
The work most leaders come back for isn’t a deliverable — it’s a standing relationship. One focused day a month, yours to spend on whatever the month makes urgent: a thorny decision, a board paper, a briefing, a problem you can’t yet name — or to bank when things are quiet. A second brain outside your reporting chain, on call, holding no stake in the answer. Most senior people have no one they can think out loud with who isn’t somehow invested in what they conclude.
And because retained work underwrites the open, CC-BY research and tools I publish into the commons, a standing engagement does double duty — it buys you a trusted thinking partner, and it keeps alive work the whole field draws on, the 2038 coordination effort chief among it.
A defined, limited engagement. I hold no more than four of these at once, so the attention behind each is real, and retainer clients have first call on my time between sessions. Each begins with an initial quarter — long enough for me to learn your world and become genuinely useful — then rolls month-to-month, for as long as it earns its place.
One focused day a month, with reasonable availability between. MNDA-covered. You are the client — not your organisation.
A short engagement on an unusual problem
When the question is sharper and self-contained: a half-day to a week of focused attention, scoped narrowly and moving quickly. This is where the one-off work lives — an executive or board briefing that turns rollover timelines, cyber-physical dependencies, or the standards landscape into something leaders can act on; a defensible read on where NIS2, DORA, or the CRA actually bite; a memo, a decision framework, or a set of options.
Deliverable: a clear memo, a decision framework, or defensible options — whatever shape the problem actually needs.
Fractional advisory
Part-time embedded advisory for a leadership team navigating continuity risk, technical translation, and governance clarity — without adding headcount. Typically two to four days a month.
Deliverables: prioritisation frameworks, defensible communication, decision-ready documentation for governance and regulators.
From time to time
I’m also engaged, occasionally, as a neutral expert witness in proceedings involving systemic infrastructure or timing-related failures; as a facilitator (trained in ICA’s Technologies of Participation methods) for rooms where capable people disagree and something has to move; and as a research collaborator. If your need is one of these, say so and we’ll find the right shape.
How this works
Engagements are intentionally small and focused. The goal is not analysis that sits on a shelf — it’s clarity that leaders can act on.
Rates. A standing day each month begins at =€5,000; shorter engagements from €3,000 for a half-day, scoped to the work. Tell me the problem and the decision riding on it, and I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s a fit and what it would take — no need to perform a negotiation.
Retained and project work funds the CC-BY research, frameworks, and tools I publish into the commons, so a commercial engagement quietly underwrites work the whole field uses.
Standard MSA and NDA available on request.
For the problem alone. Now and then a problem is singular enough — genuinely novel, or consequential well beyond the person bringing it — that I’ll take it on for a reduced fee, or none. Not a discount to be argued for, but the occasional case that earns its place on merit; I keep a little room each year for it. If you suspect yours is one, describe it plainly and let me be the judge. The usual understanding is simply that the result can be published into the commons, so the work serves more than the one who asked.
When a problem requires broader expertise, Proper Tools coordinates with trusted specialists across cybersecurity, infrastructure operations, governance, and standards communities. The network is real; we help one another.
A short conversation first.
Some of the best engagements begin with someone saying: “Something strange is happening here, and we need a second brain to think it through.”
If you’re facing a problem that feels unusual, consequential, or difficult to explain, reach out. Describe what’s going on in your own words — no NDA needed for a preliminary conversation. If it’s not a fit, I’ll say so directly and point you somewhere better if I can.
Open project: assembling a small vetted reviewer group for a CC-BY 30-minute executive briefing workshop on 2038-class time risk. If you routinely brief leadership audiences and want to help pressure-test the framing before release, get in touch.
Someone handed you a card with a code word?
Then the hour is real: no charge, no pitch, exactly as the card says. Get in touch, quote the code word, and tell me two things — the problem, and the decision riding on it. That’s all I need to come ready.
If there’s more in it afterwards, we’ll talk. If not, the hour stands on its own — which is rather the point of it.