How we work
Three engagement shapes. One measurement method.
Cohort, CoBuild, and the Fractional CAIO agreement all end with automations running in your real work and a ledger of what they returned. They differ in who does the building and who stays on afterward. Pick by that.
01Side by side
What changes between the three, and what does not.
| Compare | 01CohortYour team learns to build. | 02CoBuildWe build it with you. | 03Fractional CAIOAI leadership, month to month. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who builds | Your team, coached | Us, with none to four of your people at the keyboard | Us, as your standing AI lead; new builds run as CoBuild projects |
| People involved | 4 to 12 | 0 to 4 builders, plus the stakeholders who own the process | Leadership and one point person |
| Your time | About 4 hours a week | 2 to 4 hours a week, less when none of your people are building | A monthly session, and a quarterly review with whoever owns the number |
| Duration | 12 weeks | A scoping sprint, then 4 to 8 weeks per project | Month to month, two weeks’ notice |
| Where it runs | Your existing tools | Your existing tools, or a hosted app on accounts you own | Wherever it was built; we keep it running |
| What you own at the end | Live automations, control plans, and a team that can build the next one | The code, the data, the accounts, the documentation, and whoever built alongside us | A roadmap, the policies, and a ledger you can take to the board |
| How savings are measured | Baselined in week 3, reported at demo day | Baselined at scoping, logged per run, reported at handover | Logged per run, reported monthly, reviewed quarterly |
Best when
You want someone accountable for the AI roadmap and the number, without a full-time hire.
02Where engagements start
Two free doors and one fixed fee.
Most engagements begin with one of these. None of them commits you to a lane.
A · Free, one hour
Lunch & Learn
We come to your team, in person or on a call, and work through what AI and automation can do for your specific work. Questions welcome. No pitch.
B · Fixed fee, 4 to 6 weeks
Systems and workflow assessment
An onsite week and four themed check-ins that map your workflows and systems, baseline the hours, and produce a prioritized opportunity map with a roadmap your leadership can act on.
C · Free, ten minutes
Online readiness check
A short self-assessment that scores where your organization stands and suggests which lane fits.
03How we measure
Baseline, build, log, report.
The ledger is the deliverable every lane shares. Hours are valued at your staff rate. Revenue counts when it is collected. You can check the arithmetic.
Step 01: Baseline
Before anything is built, we time the process as it runs today: who does it, how often, how long, and what an hour of that person costs your organization.
Step 02: Build
The automation or app goes live against that baseline. Nothing counts until it runs in real work, on real records.
Step 03: Log
Every run is logged. Hours saved are valued at your staff rate, not a national average. Revenue an app generates counts only when it is collected.
Step 04: Report
A monthly ledger under the Fractional CAIO agreement, a demo-day report for the Cohort, a handover report for CoBuild. The same arithmetic every time, and you can check it.
04 · How the lanes connect
Most clients use more than one.
A CoBuild project is the usual first build. The Fractional CAIO agreement is how it keeps running and how the next one gets scoped. Cohort graduates move to CoBuild for a bigger build, or to the agreement for a pacing partner. Every lane shares the ledger, so switching is a conversation, not a restart.
Nonprofits
If you are a nonprofit, start at 501 Labs.
501 Labs is the 501(c)(3) our founder started to save or generate $1,000,000,000 for nonprofits. Its software is free, funded by donors. Civic Dialog is the paid door for nonprofits that need a build on a deadline.
Not sure where to start?
Book thirty minutes. We will tell you which lane fits, or that none does yet, and what a scoping sprint would cover.
Prefer email? erik@civic-dialog.com