Blog
Tokenmaxxing Is Not Efficiency: How to Measure AI Productivity
Token counts and lines of code are easy to count and easy to game. Goodhart's law explains why AI productivity metrics fail and what to track instead.
By James WinegarRead
Every vendor says their tool is the answer. Someone needs to ask the right question.
Fractional CIO services for organizations that need senior technology leadership without the full-time hire. We set direction, evaluate vendors, and make sure your technology investments pay off.
Technology Strategy
Not every organization needs a full-time CIO, but every organization needs a clear technology strategy. CorrDyn provides Virtual CIO services that give you honest, experienced guidance on the decisions that shape your technology future. We tell you what you need to know, not what you want to hear.
$15M+
In technology investments guided by our advisory
5+ yrs
Average advisory relationship with long-term clients
150+
Vendor and platform evaluations conducted across engagements
Use Cases
Engagements where this is the right work.
Virtual CIO / fractional technology leadership
Senior technology guidance on a schedule that fits your organization. We attend leadership meetings, set direction, and own the decisions a CTO would — without the full-time cost.
Technology roadmap and architecture planning
A clear, prioritized plan for your infrastructure, data, and software investments over the next 12-36 months — grounded in what your business actually needs.
Vendor evaluation and selection
Independent analysis of the tools and platforms competing for your budget. We have no reseller agreements and no referral fees. Our only incentive is getting it right.
Compliance and security strategy
Practical guidance for HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, PCI DSS, and other frameworks. We assess your current posture, identify gaps, and build a plan to close them without overbuilding.
Annual tech-stack review
Your stack is a year older. We benchmark it against where the business needs it to be — and produce the prioritized list of what to fix, replace, or leave alone.
Our Process
A structured approach that delivers results at every stage.
01
Understand Your Business Objectives
We embed with your leadership team to understand your business objectives, competitive position, and operational constraints. From there, we develop a technology roadmap that aligns your infrastructure, data, and software investments with your strategic goals. We attend your leadership meetings, advise on vendor evaluations, and work through the tradeoffs that come with every technology decision.
Output: Technology objectives memo aligned to leadership priorities
02
Set Direction and Evaluate Options
Our technology strategy practice covers data security and privacy, regulatory compliance across frameworks like HIPAA, FERPA, PCI, NIST, GDPR, CCPA, SOX, and SOC 2, enterprise data strategy, software selection and vendor evaluation, and technology talent strategy. We help you build the right team, choose the right tools, and protect the data your business depends on.
From our podcasts: Building Data Foundations with Jacob Oppenheim, 8 Ways to Survive the SaaSpocalypse, and Power Before Code: Energy Constraints Reshaping AI.
Output: Vendor evaluation, build-vs-buy analysis, and RFP packets
03
Ongoing Advisory and Accountability
We stay in the room after the roadmap is delivered. That means weekly or biweekly sessions with your leadership team, quarterly roadmap reviews to adjust for what changed, and ad-hoc availability when a vendor contract lands on your desk or a security incident needs a decision in hours. We own the recommendations we make and track outcomes against them. When a recommendation is not working, we say so and adjust. The engagement scales with your needs: heavier during major initiatives, lighter once the strategy is stable, and designed to hand off cleanly when you hire a full-time technology leader.
Output: Quarterly review cadence and a named technology advisor
Insights
Perspectives from our team on technology strategy.
Blog
The Context Layer: What to Build, What to Skip, and Where to Start
A staged framework for deciding which data architecture components AI agents need, when to build them, and why, based on the value you are creating.
By Ross KatzRead
Blog
A Map of Where AI Creates Value in Your Business
Use case lists are not strategy. A mechanism-based framework for identifying where AI creates value, organized by what the AI is doing.
By Ross KatzRead
Blog
The Maintenance Trap: Why AI-Accelerated Data Teams Feel Slower
AI accelerates the 21% of data work that is code generation. The other 79% is maintenance, and every new asset makes it worse.
By Ross KatzRead
Frequently Asked
Questions
What is a Virtual CIO?
A Virtual CIO provides the strategic technology leadership of a Chief Information Officer without the cost of a full-time executive hire. We work with your leadership team to set technology direction, evaluate vendors, manage risk, and ensure your technology investments align with your business goals.
What compliance frameworks do you support?
We advise on a wide range of compliance and regulatory frameworks including HIPAA, FERPA, PCI DSS, NIST, GDPR, CCPA, SOX, and SOC 2. We help you understand your obligations, assess your current posture, and implement the controls necessary to achieve and maintain compliance.
How is this different from hiring a full-time CTO or CIO?
A full-time technology executive is a significant investment that may not be justified at every stage of growth. Our Virtual CIO engagement gives you access to senior technology leadership on a fractional basis, with the breadth of experience that comes from advising multiple organizations across industries.
How often do you meet with our leadership team?
Most engagements include weekly or biweekly sessions with your leadership team, plus ad-hoc availability for urgent decisions. Early in an engagement or during a major initiative, we meet more frequently. Once a roadmap is stable, we shift to a lighter rhythm.
Can you help us hire our first full-time CTO or CIO?
Yes. We help define the role, write the job description, screen candidates, and conduct technical interviews. We stay involved through the transition to make sure the handoff is clean and the new hire has the context they need to succeed.
What does a technology assessment look like?
We review your current architecture, tooling, vendor contracts, security posture, and team capabilities. You get a written report with specific findings and prioritized recommendations, not a slide deck full of quadrants. Most assessments typically take 2-12 weeks depending on the size of the organization, the complexity of the technology stack, the number of stakeholders involved, and the scope of priorities to be addressed.
How does your engagement model work?
We work on a time-and-materials basis with no long-term contracts required. Engagements scale up during major initiatives and scale back down as your needs stabilize. Many of our advisory relationships start intensive and settle into a lighter ongoing rhythm. If you hire a full-time technology leader, we transition our involvement to zero. You pay for the hours you use and nothing more.
Need a technology leader, not a vendor pitch?
We’ll give you an honest assessment of where you stand and a clear plan for where to go. No sales deck required.
Book an Intro CallOur Other Services
Or, see what else we do.
Managed Data Team
Get a full data team without the hiring timeline. CorrDyn embeds the specific skill sets you need and owns outcomes, not just hours.
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Data Cost Optimization
Optimize data platform performance to reduce Snowflake, Fivetran, and Databricks spend by 40-80%. Faster queries, right-sized compute, lower bills.
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AI Strategy & Readiness
Find out which AI projects will deliver ROI. CorrDyn assesses your data, infrastructure, and use cases before you spend on models.
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Data Engineering
Build reliable, cost-effective data pipelines on AWS, GCP, and Azure. CorrDyn designs and implements data infrastructure that scales.
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