Building a Data Strategy With a Fractional Team

While fractional data teams are great at solving immediate problems, their real value lies in something bigger - building sustainable data strategies that actually grow with your business. Unlike traditional consulting that drops off a final report and disappears, fractional teams stick around as strategic partners throughout your company's data journey.

Planning for Scale, Not Just Solutions

Most companies think tactically about data - solving the problem in front of them. The real value comes from thinking strategically - building foundations that will serve you at 10x your current size. Sean Wu (SoftBank Robotics' Director of Operations & Systems) learned from previous experiences:

"If I just hire one person to do one part of the job, then I end up having to multiply that cost quite quickly because there's always going be the next part. I needed someone who knew from the top to the bottom, end to end."

This strategic perspective means your data setup isn't just solving today's reporting headaches - it's preparing for whatever comes next.

Building Towards Independence

The ultimate goal of any good fractional data relationship should be preparing your company to eventually not need them. Whether that's hiring your first data person or building an entire internal team.

Understanding Your True Requirements
Working with a fractional team reveals what you actually need versus what you think you need. As Tiney's experience shows, they initially planned to hire someone but realised: "It's not easy to just hire one person to take care of the whole workflow. I would have a massive chunk of cost going from fractional support to a full spectrum of technical skills."

Getting Your Future Hires Right
When you do decide to hire, fractional teams help you get it right. They can define what the role actually looks like based on real workload, help assess technical candidates, and provide transition support. As Sean from SoftBank Robotics puts it: "I would probably even go as far as getting Outlier to help with assessing a technical person if we were to mature the team."

Timing the Transition
You're probably ready to transition when you have:

• Consistent need for 4+ days per week of data work

• Clear understanding of your data requirements

• Budget and career path for senior hires

• Internal people who can actually direct data work and support data hires with mentoring etc

Hybrid Models
Many companies keep fractional relationships even after hiring. The fractional team provides strategic oversight while internal hires handle the day-to-day stuff. Sean from Softbank Robotics explains:

"Going forward, I see Outlier continuing in more of a strategic advisory role - helping us navigate complex data architecture decisions and providing oversight on major initiatives, while we build our internal capacity for routine work."

Regional and Global Strategy

If you're operating across multiple regions, you need data teams that get both global best practices and local quirks. SoftBank Robotics knows this well: "Each region has different needs... We have clients in The UK, clients in The UAE and European mainland. Each client has different requirements on what metrics are meaningful to them."

The Outlier team is spread across Europe, APAC, and Australia, which means we bring diverse experience from different markets and regulatory environments. This global perspective helps companies build solutions that work everywhere while still meeting local needs.

Strategic Collaboration Best Practices

Building effective long-term relationships requires intentional structures:

Multi-Level Integration & Communication
As things get more complex, communication does too. SoftBank Robotics handled this by setting up three clear touchpoints: product management for requirements, project management for deliverables, and executive oversight for strategic decisions. This approach keeps both tactical execution and strategic alignment on track while managing the inevitable communication complexity that comes with growth.

Strategic Meeting Participation
Have fractional teams join key business discussions: "What we can do is have them show up on meetings, able to see through problems quickly. That speeds things up so much because we often had meetings without a clear path forward"

Maintain Lean Operations
Good fractional teams adapt to how you work, not the other way around. This means flexible engagement models that scale with your needs, straightforward communication without unnecessary project management overhead, and the ability to ramp up support during crunch times. "Outlier understood that we're trying to keep things as lean as possible and just keep things simple. They're flexible in terms of supporting us on an occasional basis when we have tight deadlines."

The Strategic Partnership Model

The most successful fractional engagements evolve into true strategic partnerships. Even companies that eventually build internal teams often maintain relationships for:

• Strategic guidance on major decisions

• Complex project oversight

• Specialised expertise that doesn't warrant full-time hires

• Objective perspective on internal initiatives

The goal isn't to create dependency - it's building a strategic relationship that adapts to your changing needs while ensuring your data capabilities always stay ahead of your business requirements.