The product is ready.
Marketing is not.
Your team can explain the technology, but customers cannot quickly see why it matters.
For founders and CEOs of hard-technology companies
Your product is ready.
Is your marketing?
When customers struggle to understand your value, growth stalls. Find where they are getting stuck—and what to fix first.
Start with a conversation if you need help now. Start with the score if you need clarity first.
01
Does this sound familiar?
A great product cannot outrun a confusing customer journey.
Hard-technology companies often reach the same inflection point: the innovation is real, but the market is no longer moving with it.
The product is ready.
Sales have stalled.
Interest exists, yet uncertainty and friction keep qualified buyers from moving forward.
You have outgrown your brand.
The company has matured, but its identity and perception still reflect an earlier stage.
Customers get stuck.
Messaging, proof, sales, onboarding, and experience do not work as one connected journey.
Left unresolved, these gaps suppress demand, lengthen sales cycles, weaken pricing power, and waste the value already built into your product.
02
A biologically informed framework
The D.O.S.E. Framework
Find where customers are getting stuck. Know what to improve first.
The Framework organizes the customer journey as Seek → Choose → Use → Fix, with the desired human states of Desire → Trust → Satisfaction → Relief.
Thesis is what Tony proposes. Framework is how leaders understand it. Method is how practitioners apply it.
SEEK · Desire
Is the better future clear and compelling enough to pursue?
CHOOSE · Trust
Does the customer have enough credible evidence to choose?
USE · Satisfaction
Does the experience consistently keep the promise?
FIX · Relief
When friction occurs, does the experience restore progress and confidence?
D.O.S.E. is biologically informed, but it does not claim that a journey stage measures or exclusively corresponds to a neurochemical. The free beta reviews visible homepage text; it does not measure a person's biology, complete psychology, entire customer experience, total brand health, or company performance.
03
Choose your level of support
You do not need more marketing activity. You need the right next intervention.
Start where you are. Move deeper only when the problem requires it.
DIY · Learn
Learn the D.O.S.E. Framework
Understand Seek, Choose, Use, and Fix, then apply Diagnose, Prescribe, Predict, and Prove.
Open the free one-page guideDWY · Apply
Work through it with Tony
Join a guided coaching program to diagnose the journey and implement priorities with your team.
Ask about coachingDFY · Implement
Have CRISPx build it
Bring in the agency for brand, website, launch, campaign, and customer-experience implementation.
Explore CRISPxExecutive · Lead
Engage a Fractional CMO
Align brand, marketing, sales, and customer experience when the growth problem crosses teams and the company needs accountable leadership.
Explore Fractional CMO leadershipOrange County executive buyer’s guide
04
Aligned incentives
Engagement and investment
You keep 90% of the profitable growth above the baseline.
Tony's preferred Aligned Growth engagement begins at a $15,000 monthly base plus 10% of incremental contribution profit above a mutually agreed baseline, calculated quarterly. The company keeps the other 90%.
A selective Growth Partner structure offers a lower $10,000–$12,500 monthly base with an 80/20 split when Tony receives broader authority, financial visibility, and a twelve-month commitment. A traditional fixed-fee engagement is typically $20,000–$25,000 per month with no performance participation.
The baseline, eligible growth, costs, exclusions, measurement period, and payment terms are documented before work begins. Results are not guaranteed.
Review the complete engagement model05
When the whole funnel needs leadership
Fractional CMO
Find where your customer journey is losing growth—then align the company around what matters most.
Diagnose the full funnel
Audit customer touchpoints, establish baselines, and locate the constraints.
Prioritize the work
Focus marketing, sales, brand, and experience teams on the highest-value improvements.
Measure and amplify
Lead execution, test progress, and strengthen what produces meaningful lift.
06
Evidence, not theater
Experience across difficult products, demanding markets, and consequential launches.
Tony’s role is to guide the customer’s transformation. His experience is here to reduce your uncertainty.
Robotics · Fractional leadership + launch
Robosen
Supported U.S. marketing leadership and CRISPx launch work for complex consumer robotics.
Gaming hardware · Fractional CMO
EVGA
Former fractional marketing leadership across brand, product, packaging, launch, and channel experience.
Gaming systems · Brand + product
SYBER
Co-founded the brand and provided long-running fractional marketing leadership within hard technology.
PC hardware · Brand + product design
XFX
Multi-year work spanning brand, customer community, product design, and market expression.
Cybersecurity · Brand engagement
SecureCircle
Helped a complex cybersecurity company communicate value before its acquisition by CrowdStrike.
Mobile computing · Founder experience
AViiQ
Co-founder experience across product, design, brand, launch, and commercialization.
Space + defense · Brand platform
Element U.S. Space & Defense
A current example of translating sophisticated technology for a demanding market.
These case-study relationships and scope descriptions are approved for public use. Detailed outcomes will be added only when the supporting evidence is ready for publication. Review the case-study library.
Your guide
A technical product deserves marketing leadership that understands the product.
Tony Crisp is a technology-brand strategist, CRISPx co-founder and Chief Strategist, fractional CMO, D.O.S.E. creator, and TEDx speaker. For more than three decades, he has helped technical teams turn complexity into brands, launches, and customer experiences people can understand and trust.
07
Direct answers
Questions founders ask before moving forward.
What is D.O.S.E.?
D.O.S.E. has three parts: the D.O.S.E. Thesis is what Tony proposes; the D.O.S.E. Framework is how leaders understand the customer journey through Seek, Choose, Use, and Fix; and the D.O.S.E. Method is how practitioners apply the Framework through Diagnose, Prescribe, Predict, and Prove.
When should a hard-technology company hire a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO can help when a strong product is ready but marketing is not, sales have stalled, the company has outgrown its brand, or customer-journey problems span multiple teams.
How does Tony Crisp structure Fractional CMO fees?
Tony's preferred Aligned Growth engagement begins at a $15,000 monthly base plus 10% of incremental contribution profit above an agreed baseline, calculated quarterly. The company keeps 90% of the incremental contribution profit. Selective Growth Partner and fixed-fee structures are also available when appropriate. Terms, measurement, exclusions, and authority are agreed before work begins; results are not guaranteed.
What does the free D.O.S.E. Brand Health Score analyze?
The free beta analyzes visible text on a submitted public homepage. It identifies message and journey friction; it does not measure a person's biology, complete psychology, entire customer experience, total brand health, or company performance.
Is D.O.S.E. the same as StoryBrand?
No. StoryBrand is a messaging framework centered on narrative clarity. The D.O.S.E. Framework organizes the broader customer journey as Seek, Choose, Use, and Fix; the D.O.S.E. Method applies that Framework through Diagnose, Prescribe, Predict, and Prove. This website uses StoryBrand principles to communicate the D.O.S.E. offer clearly.
Your product has already done the hard part.