Ian Smith/craftscale Ltd/Yorkshire, UK

Fractional CTO with a hands‑on AI practice.

I help clients move from AI ambition to working products. As a fractional CTO and product‑development partner, I combine strategic technology leadership with hands‑on building — so the advice you get is grounded in what actually ships.

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Current Engagements

What I'm working on.

Both engagements are hands-on across strategy and code. That's the shape of work I do best.

Fractional CTO

Squadify

I’m Squadify’s CTO. I lead the technical direction — architecture, vendor relationships, security — and stay hands-on, particularly with AI. I built the AI Insights engine that turns team diagnostics into something a leader can actually act on, and designed and led implementation on SquadBot, the team-coaching chatbot on top. I’m also hands-on with full-stack engineering when that’s the fastest route. Right now I’m defining the architecture for a major re-platform of Squadify’s core application.

Technical leadershipArchitectureHands-on full-stackCoding with AI agents
Vision to shipping

Ilkley Live

I built and maintain the Ilkley Live web presence for the Yorkshire performing-arts charity — performer signups, venue management, programme scheduling, donations with Stripe and Gift Aid, an interactive festival map, transactional email. v1 shipped for the 2022 festival; v2 is being rebuilt with AI agents alongside me, currently shipping near-daily updates ahead of the 2026 festival. The design process draws on the Design Thinking practice that runs through all my client work.

Hands-on engineeringArchitecture & buildContinuous deliveryCoding with AI agents
Engagement Modes

How I can help.

Three flavours, depending on what shape your problem is. Most engagements blend the first two.

— 01 —

Fractional CTO

Senior technology leadership for product-led teams who need it embedded — but don't need it full-time. Strategy, hiring, architecture, the awkward decisions in between.

See an outline →
— 02 —

AI product development

Hands-on building with LLMs, agents, and the tooling around them — from prototype through MVP to production, anchored in Design Thinking practice. The advice is grounded because I'm shipping the same things.

What that looks like →
— 03 —

Talks, workshops, advice

One-day AI and Design Thinking workshops, conference talks, and ad-hoc advisory hours when a team just needs an experienced second opinion on a decision.

See sessions →
From The Blog

Recent thinking.

Notes on AI, design thinking, and what it actually takes to ship.

All posts  →
AI5 May 2026

The Third Reader: Making your site agent-ready

Four small changes that made craftscale.uk easier for AI agents to read: a site summary at /llms.txt, serving plain markdown to agents that ask for it, advertising the site's other resources in HTTP headers, and a robots.txt that explicitly welcomes the AI crawlers.

Read →
DESIGN THINKING21 Mar 2025

Think first, AI second: Using AI in Design Thinking

AI has a role in creative work — but only if we use it with intent. Here's how to bring AI into each stage of Enterprise Design Thinking without letting it do the thinking for you.

Read →
PODCASTING10 Dec 2024

Lightning Talk: Press Record and Hope

My talk on what it's like to be a podcaster, delivered at the Ilkley Arts lightning talks event in December 2024.

Read →
Get In Touch

Drop me a line.

If you’re trying to get from AI ambition to product, that’s the conversation I want to have.

Book a discovery callian@craftscale.uk