Bagnell Advisory · Needham, MA

Product and AI leadership for technology companies.

I’ve spent 20 years building and running software products in healthcare, where software is judged by clinicians, regulators and auditors. That standard is applicable to any market. I help leadership teams find what’s standing between their product and market success, and remove it. Depending on what you need, that’s a short diagnostic, a go-to-market sprint, help bringing AI into how your teams build, or fractional product leadership.

Early in my career as a product leader, I sat in on a talk by a nurse case manager who used one of our products. When she described what she and her team could now do because of it, the hairs on my neck stood up. I’ve pursued that “nailed it” moment ever since, and I help other teams get there.

Needham, MA · [email protected] · +1 (781) 467-9972 · Schedule a call · LinkedIn

How I approach it

When a product isn’t landing, people usually call it a strategy problem or an execution problem. Often the cause sits further upstream, in how teams are organized and rewarded, so that’s where I look first.

It isn’t always the answer. Sometimes the market is smaller than the plan assumed, or the pricing is wrong. Sometimes the tech base can’t carry the roadmap, or the team is missing a skill. My job is to find out which it is and tell you plainly.

I have felt the pain of a great solution to the wrong problem. Building the best solution for a problem that is number 19 on the customer’s priority list will rarely result in commercial success. The goal is to find every barrier between your product and market success, understand it and remove it.

1. Product & AI Diagnostic

About 3 weeks · fixed scope · written plan

For CEOs and operators who know something is off but can’t tell whether the cause is strategy, capability, the market, or how the company is set up.

What I look at

Strategy and roadmap, compared with what customers are buying
Org structure, decision rights and incentives
Product and engineering capability, including readiness for AI
Market position and pricing

What you get A written plan. It covers what your current setup is likely to produce, where it will get stuck, and the three to five changes that matter most, in priority order.

2. GTM Acceleration

About 6 weeks · fixed scope · I do the work with your team

For teams with a defined product that need to find and win customers within a real window where a full-blown market research project is not on the table.

Weeks 1–2: validate the need Before building a launch plan, I check that the market need holds up. That means customer and prospect conversations, a competitive scan, segmentation and a rough size of the opportunity. This phase ends in a go/no-go. If the need is weaker than assumed, we spend the remaining weeks repositioning instead of pushing a launch.

Weeks 3–6: build the motion Target accounts, positioning, packaging and pricing, the launch plan, and proof points buyers will believe. You also get pipeline math and a scorecard your team can keep running after I leave.

3. AI in the Product Lifecycle

About 6–8 weeks · fixed scope · optional follow-on

For product and engineering leaders who want AI working across how they plan, build and ship, not only inside the product.

What we cover

Where AI helps in your lifecycle today: discovery, requirements, design, coding, testing, release and support
Tools and guardrails: data access, review steps, quality checks and compliance
Pilots on two or three real workflows, measured against your current baseline
Changes to roles, team routines and metrics so the gains last

What you get A working playbook, pilot results with numbers, and a rollout plan.

I build with these tools every week, from AI coding assistants to models running on my own hardware. What I recommend is what I’ve used, including where it fell over and what to avoid.

4. Fractional CPO / Chief AI Officer

Initial 3-month term · about 2 days a week

For leadership teams that need a senior product or AI leader now, while they decide on or search for a permanent hire.

Months 1–3 Set up the product operating rhythm, reset the roadmap with the team, put AI governance in place for anything in production, and write the spec for the permanent role.

Months 4+ Run it alongside you, help with the hire, and hand over.

If things are urgent, the first month can be heavier.

Background

20 years leading product and engineering in regulated healthcare software.

A decade of new and adjacent product lines that became a meaningful share of new revenue, including AI that read the clinical record before the LLM era.
Ran a business unit with full P&L. Reoriented the team and culture to focus on accountability, operating discipline and solution delivery.
Put AI into production for both internal operations and for labor-intensive and regulated workflows for clients.

Start a conversation

If you want to clear the path to product/market fit, the easiest next step is a 30-minute call. Pricing depends on scope, and I’ll give you a number once we’ve talked.

Email · +1 (781) 467-9972 · Schedule a call