Chief of Field: Resourcing Traction

Context

History

In 2024, Suzanne Rabicoff created the Chief of Field role to address a persistent and costly capacity constraint. As leaders focus on product development, operations, and internal alignment, external work that drives traction is often deprioritized or fragmented. Without a clear owner in the field, market intelligence, stakeholder relationships, and strategic insight are captured inconsistently, if at all.

This gap is accelerating the need for a new class of roles Suzanne calls “connective tissue roles”. These roles do not sit cleanly within traditional org charts. Instead, they link strategy to execution, internal teams to external markets, and plans to outcomes. As organizations run leaner and markets move faster, connective tissue roles are becoming foundational to how competitive companies operate.

The Chief of Field does not replace executives or core hires. It extends their capacity by adding senior, judgment-driven presence where it matters most: in the conversations, events, and relationships that determine whether strategy translates into traction.

Traction

Traction is measurable evidence that the market cares enough to engage, adopt, or pay. It reduces uncertainty and guides where to invest next.

The Chief of Field is most valuable in early, ambiguous, and pre-scale situations, including:

  • New Companies: Converting initial persona and problem mapping into qualified MQLs and pilot interest to prove the pain point is actionable and repeatable.

  • New Verticals: Adapting core positioning for untapped markets to generate net-new pipeline and confirm commercial viability before scaling.

  • New Products: Driving top-of-funnel momentum by translating launch features into high-intent MQLs that validate real-world demand.

Purpose

Organizations struggle to gain traction when they build the wrong product, target the wrong audience, or rely on disconnected teams to execute externally. The fractional Chief of Field exists to reduce that risk.

By owning in-person market presence and feedback loops, the role delivers clearer signals, stronger relationships, and faster learning than traditional full-time hires or siloed consultants. The result is higher-impact decision-making with lower organizational and financial risk.

Several market realities are driving the need for this role:

  • In-person effectiveness: Intimate, real-world interactions remain critical for trust, differentiation, and momentum in digitally saturated environments.

  • Executive-led market presence: Vision, product, and strategy must be communicated consistently and credibly by leadership, not delegated entirely to junior teams or automation.

  • AI-driven transformation: As automation commoditizes baseline execution, the value of human judgment, market expertise, and trusted relationships increases.

Without a Chief of Field or an equivalent connective tissue role, organizations miss signals, misallocate resources, and underutilize the relationships that drive revenue and adoption.

Modus Operandi

The Chief of Field functions as connective tissue across the organization:

Fractional by design: Provides executive-level field capacity without the cost or rigidity of a full-time hire, reducing hiring risk while extending reach.

Field-tested expertise: Draws on experience across product marketing, go-to-market execution, and market development, paired with networks that accelerate access to customers, partners, and advisors.

Cross-portfolio intelligence: Works across multiple organizations, bringing pattern recognition and tested approaches from adjacent markets.

Outcome-first orientation: Operates without equity, title inflation, or internal politics, staying focused on traction, learning, and results.

Impact

Unlike traditional consultants or narrow specialists, the Chief of Field is an adaptable, AI-augmented generalist who learns quickly, recalibrates in real time, and executes directly against market-facing priorities.

The work is hands-on and accountable, tied to tangible progress rather than decks or recommendations.

Expectations

  • Field product marketing: Capturing live market intelligence and translating it into positioning, messaging, and go-to-market decisions that accelerate adoption and pipeline.

  • In-person events and field presence: Designing and owning high-leverage meetings, conferences, and ecosystem activity that build trust and advance outcomes.

  • Strategic relationship activation: Turning dormant or underutilized relationships with customers, partners, investors, and advisors into momentum.

  • Go-to-market problem solving: Identifying what is blocking traction and aligning product, sales, and marketing around real market needs.

  • Executive capacity extension: Taking ownership of external work that drives revenue and learning, freeing leadership to focus on internal priorities.