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  →
AI9 Jul 2026

Cheap to send, expensive to receive: what email taught me about AI coding agents

My AI-assisted throughput went up several-fold. My colleagues' capacity to absorb what I produce didn't. Does this remind you of anything?

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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 →
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