Alexandra Lung, product leader and executive coach, shares her journey into fractional leadership, discussing challenges, impact, and how this model is redefining business success.
Alexandra Lung is a product leader, business advisor, executive coach, and conference speaker. She has over 17 years of experience in creating and scaling digital products across various sectors, with a strong focus on revenue growth and user experience.
In her previous roles, she led product and design teams at Aircall, guiding them through a period of accelerated growth—from Series B to unicorn and centaur status—and defined the group strategy at Signaturit as Global CPO, in a context of multiple mergers and acquisitions.
Fractional Insider: How was your transition from a classic career to fractional leadership/consulting?
Alexandra Lung: My transition was made easier by the fact that I had been doing public speaking for many years and was already well known in product communities. I was already teaching product courses and working as a coach before moving into consulting, which made the transition smoother and helped me secure my first contracts.
Fractional Insider: What attracted you most to this model, and what challenges did it bring?
Alexandra Lung: My goal was to continue doing what I love (product leadership and coaching) while working four days a week and earning the same as before. The challenges varied over time. At first, it was the sales part: it’s very different to sell a product versus selling yourself. Later, the challenge was timing—at some point, I ended up working five days a week, sometimes more, because I had several clients in parallel. It’s not easy to plan when clients come in or for how long.
Fractional Insider: How do you choose the projects and clients you work with?
Alexandra Lung: Based on the product and business challenge. I choose clients whose products I see potential in and whose business ambitions present an interesting intellectual challenge. And not least, the “human fit” is very important to me—I choose to work with people who share similar values or collaboration styles.
Fractional Insider: Tell us about a moment when you had a major impact as a fractional leader.
Alexandra Lung: For every client, the impact was significant, because usually when companies bring in a fractional leader, there’s a “fire” burning everywhere, and they need quick solutions.
For example, I worked with a client who had a product rewrite that affected all their customers and had been ongoing for four years without any idea when or how it would end. They had no vision of what they needed to create or how to do it, despite working on it for years. They also lacked specialized product or design professionals. In just two months, we achieved:
- A clear roadmap
- Features with well-defined scopes
- Designs tested with clients—implemented a continuous discovery process, with three research rounds in two months
- Much better predictability of development timelines
- Three people trained in the new working methods who could continue what we implemented
Fractional Insider: What are the main differences between being a full-time executive and a fractional one?
Alexandra Lung: The main difference is that a full-time CPO builds and scales teams and processes for the long term, while a fractional CPO quickly brings in accumulated experience to resolve strategic bottlenecks, set direction, and accelerate growth.
In terms of involvement and availability, a full-time CPO is present daily, deeply engaged in execution, people management, and internal culture, whereas a fractional CPO steps in for a limited period with a focus on critical areas.
A full-time CPO will know the company and culture in greater depth and continue long-term initiatives, whereas a fractional CPO brings high-level expertise at a more flexible cost for rapid transformation and knowledge transfer.
Fractional Insider: How do you explain the value of a fractional to a skeptical CEO?
Alexandra Lung: Usually, I work with CEOs who understand what they’re missing and come to me for help.
In any case, the value lies in having a leader with deep experience (across different industries, company sizes, situations, processes…) who knows how to quickly assess the situation and implement change rapidly. As a fractional leader, I’m used to switching topics and industries, asking the right questions, and moving fast with the decisions and plans required to achieve the impact the company expects. Often, we start with an audit because companies can tell something isn’t working but don’t know why or what to do about it. Sometimes a company can’t afford a full-time CPO with extensive experience, so they hire a fractional CPO for a shorter period. Other times, they don’t know how to choose a full-time CPO and bring me in to help with product leadership and the recruitment of a full-time CPO.
Fractional Insider: What are the most common mistakes companies make when working with fractionals?
Alexandra Lung: Not being clear about their objectives or expecting a fractional to “miraculously” fix in a few weeks problems that stem from years of lacking structure. It’s a matter of framing and expectations, which we, as fractionals, learn to discuss before taking on a mission.
Another mistake is the lack of internal ownership—expecting the fractional to solve everything alone, without an internal counterpart to take over and carry the work forward.
Fractional Insider: How do you see the evolution of this career model in the coming years?
Alexandra Lung: Careers won’t be linear in the future, and I believe this model will continue to grow because it’s already maturing. Companies will need both fractional and full-time leaders at different moments in time, and professionals will continue to move from one model to another depending on their personal and professional stages.
Fractional Insider: What advice would you give a senior professional considering becoming a fractional?
To work on networking beforehand, talk to as many people as possible who are already doing this, and also to as many potential clients as possible.
Through her pragmatic, people-centered, and results-driven approach, Alexandra demonstrates how modern leaders can deliver immediate value while building solid foundations for long-term growth.
