Do you test AI before recommending it?

Yes. We pilot AI against your real data and workflows before recommending it. If it doesn't move a metric you care about, it doesn't go in. We refuse to ship demoware.

Do you build standalone AI tools or integrate with existing systems?

We integrate, we don't install. AI only works when it's wired into the systems your team already uses — your CRM, your data, your ticketing, your billing. We do the wiring, then we own it long-term.

What is a fractional CTO and how is Human Lens different?

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader embedded in your organization without the full-time hire — setting roadmap, vetting hires, and translating executive intent into build plans. Human Lens differs because we're not just the strategist: we're also the team that builds and operates the systems. Strategy plus execution from the same partner.

Technology and Design through a human lens

Your fractional CTO and Design team ... and new best friend ;)

Q: How does Human Lens approach AI?

Most AI is hype — endless tools, slick demos, and no business outcome. We've watched organizations burn budgets chasing features that never shipped value, so we approach AI differently: pragmatic, integrated, and tied to a metric you actually care about.

Most organizations can get the strategy or the pretty deck. What they can't get is a partner that designs it, builds it, and sticks around. We do all three.

What partners say

“Working with Human Lens as a technology partner has been exceptional. They quickly understand our issues and create clean, scalable solutions.”

MRMark RowlandCEO · ROCeteer

The problem

Sound familiar?

You hired a consultant. They gave you a deck. Then they left.

The deck looked like it was made in 2011.

You need a one pager for tomorrow's board meeting.

Nobody knows where the logo files live.

You have four versions of the logo. All slightly different.

Your brand colors are whatever the last person picked.

You hired a developer from Upwork. They built something. Then they disappeared.

The one person who understood the codebase quit.

Your CRM doesn't talk to your email tool.

Your website was last updated during the Obama administration.

The product works. It just looks like a tax form.

Your last campaign was three emails and a hope.

Your social accounts have been quiet since spring.

Someone suggested you "just use AI."

So you tried ChatGPT. Now you have 300 tabs open and a migraine.

You hired a designer for the logo. A dev for the site. An agency for the video.

None of them talked to each other.

Your intern is running your tech stack.

Your tech stack is running your intern.

You Googled "fractional CTO" at 1am.

Then you Googled "design partner" at 1:20am.

You thought about hiring a full team. Then you saw the salaries.

$180k for a developer. $150k for DevOps. $130k for a designer.

Plus benefits. Plus tools. Plus the chance they all leave in 18 months.

And there's not even 40 hours a week of work for them.

So you're stuck. Great strategy. Zero execution.

Anyway, that's where we come in.

↑ This scrolls forever because the problems never end

What we do

One team for the technology and the design.

Logos, mascots, brand kits, one pagers, decks, product screens, campaigns, social, video. Then the apps, integrations, and infrastructure underneath it all.

We also do the cleanup nobody volunteers for. Tech stacks, SaaS sprawl, shared drives, brand files, and the accounts no one remembers owning. Vendors and developers included, so you get one point of contact instead of twelve.

Designed properly. Built to last.

9 capabilities

What each Human Lens service includes

Fractional CTO (Leadership)

A senior tech leader on your team, without the full-time hire. We sit at the table when the big technical decisions get made.

What Fractional CTO usually looks like:

Set tech roadmaps tied to business goals
Sit in board and leadership meetings as the technical voice
Vet engineering and design hires and contractors
Translate executive intent into build plans

Brand & Identity (Design)

Logos, marks, mascots, and the rules that keep them consistent. One identity your whole team can actually use.

What Brand & Identity usually looks like:

Logo design, wordmarks, and icon systems
Mascot and character creation
Color, type, and brand guideline docs
Asset libraries so nobody hunts for files again

Product & UX/UI (Design)

Interfaces people can use without a tutorial. We design the screens, then we build them.

What Product & UX/UI usually looks like:

UX flows, wireframes, and clickable prototypes
UI design systems in Figma, shipped in code
Redesigns of existing apps and dashboards
Accessibility and mobile pass on every screen

Decks & Documents (Collateral)

One pagers, pitch decks, board slides, and reports that look like someone cared. Built to be reused, not rebuilt.

What Decks & Documents usually looks like:

One pagers and leave-behind sheets
Pitch and board decks in PowerPoint or Google Slides
Editable templates your team can fill in
Annual reports, case studies, and data layouts

Campaigns & Social (Marketing)

Marketing campaigns, social content, and video. Same team, so the message matches the product.

What Campaigns & Social usually looks like:

Campaign concepts, landing pages, and email sequences
Social templates and content calendars
Short-form video, motion graphics, and animation
Photo and asset direction for launches

Build & Integrate (Engineering)

CRMs, websites, AI tools, custom platforms. We connect them so your stack actually works as one.

What Build & Integrate usually looks like:

Custom web apps and internal tools
HubSpot, Salesforce, and Bloomerang integrations
AI assistants wired into your existing stack
Data pipelines between CRM, billing, and analytics

Organize & Clean Up (Tech Hygiene)

The unglamorous work that makes everything else faster. We tame the SaaS sprawl, the shared drives, and the accounts no one remembers owning.

What Organize & Clean Up usually looks like:

Audit and reorganize tech stacks across teams
Clean up SaaS sprawl, consolidate overlapping tools
Restructure Google Drive, SharePoint, and shared folders
Centralize accounts, access, and ownership

Vendor Wrangling (Operations)

We manage developers, designers, SaaS contracts, and infrastructure. You get one point of contact, not twelve.

What Vendor Wrangling usually looks like:

Manage outside dev shops, designers, and freelancers
Audit and renegotiate SaaS contracts
Consolidate overlapping tools and licenses
Run weekly status across all your vendors

Always-On Support (Reliability)

We monitor, maintain, and improve every month. When something breaks at 2am, we're the ones fixing it.

What Always-On Support usually looks like:

24/7 uptime monitoring and incident response
Security patching and dependency upgrades
Backups, restores, and disaster recovery
Monthly product improvements, not just firefighting

human_lens · ai_chat

live

So… how do you actually use AI?

Most AI is hype.

Endless tools, slick demos, no business outcome. We've watched orgs burn budgets chasing features that never shipped value.

We test before we recommend.

We pilot AI against your real data and workflows. If it doesn't move a metric you care about, it doesn't go in.

We integrate, not install.

AI only works when it's wired into the systems your team already uses. We do that wiring, then we own it.

Want specifics? Here's what we actually build.

We're not AI-first. We're you-first.

Human Lens AI capabilities — full details

Custom Data RAG Agents (01 · Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

Ask your own documents questions and get sourced answers your team can trust.

Production-grade agents built on LangGraph that reason over your private corpus — SOPs, contracts, ticket history, product docs — with deterministic retrieval and grounded citations.

Reference stack: LangGraph, LangChain, pgvector / Pinecone, OpenAI / Anthropic, LlamaIndex, Redis (cache).

Architecture notes:

Stateful graph orchestration with conditional edges for multi-hop reasoning and self-correction loops
Hybrid retrieval (BM25 + dense vectors) with cross-encoder reranking and metadata filtering per tenant
Citation-enforced generation: responses fail closed when source confidence drops below threshold
Incremental ingestion pipeline with chunk-level diffing to keep embeddings fresh without full re-indexing

Outcome: Stakeholders query internal knowledge in natural language and get answers with verifiable sources, replacing PDF archaeology and Slack-search loops.

Website Concierge Agents (02 · Embedded Web Agents)

A smart guide on your site that answers questions and routes visitors to the right place.

Conversational agents embedded directly into the site that handle navigation, qualify leads, answer FAQs from your live content, and route deep links — all without leaving the page.

Reference stack: Vercel AI SDK, React + WebSockets, Edge Functions, Supabase Realtime, Sitemap-aware indexing.

Architecture notes:

Streaming responses over server-sent events with sub-300ms first-token latency at the edge
Tool definitions for site navigation (router.push), form prefill, and deep-link handoff to specific sections
Session-scoped memory in browser storage with server-side conversation persistence for analytics
Guardrails layer that constrains scope to your domain and escalates out-of-band requests to human handoff

Outcome: Visitors find the right page, the right case study, or the right human in one exchange — and you get structured intent data on every conversation.

Voice-Enabled Assistants (03 · Voice Interfaces)

Voice agents that talk to customers in real time, hands-free, no typing.

Hands-free, low-latency voice agents for field operations, accessibility, and ambient interfaces — built on real-time speech pipelines with sub-second turn-taking.

Reference stack: ElevenLabs Agents, OpenAI Realtime API, Deepgram (STT), WebRTC, Twilio Voice.

Architecture notes:

WebRTC transport for full-duplex audio with VAD-based interruption handling and barge-in support
Streaming STT → LLM → TTS pipeline with token-by-token TTS to minimize end-of-turn latency
Client-side tool calls bridged to the same agent runtime as the chat surface — one brain, multiple modalities
Telephony bridge via Twilio for inbound/outbound voice with call recording, transcription, and CRM logging

Outcome: Users talk to your system the way they talk to a teammate — driving, walking, on the warehouse floor — with the same business logic backing every interaction.

Action-Taking Agents (04 · Business Logic Automation)

AI that actually does the work, billing, deals, tickets, calendars, not just suggests it.

Agents that don't just answer — they execute. Charges processed in Stripe, deals updated in HubSpot, tickets opened in Linear, calendars booked, refunds issued. Real work, with audit trails.

Reference stack: Stripe API, HubSpot CRM, n8n / Temporal, Zapier MCP, Slack & Linear APIs, OAuth 2.0.

Architecture notes:

Tool-calling schemas defined as typed JSON Schema with runtime validation before any external API hits
Idempotency keys and two-phase confirmation for destructive actions (charges, deletes, sends)
Durable workflow execution via Temporal so long-running automations survive crashes and retries cleanly
Per-action audit log with full prompt, tool input, tool output, and human-readable trace for compliance

Outcome: Routine ops — quote-to-cash, lead enrichment, refund handling, ticket triage — happen autonomously, with humans reviewing exceptions instead of running the line.

ops_console — live

Whatwe'reactuallydoing.

Not a day-in-the-life. The handful of moves a senior design and technology partner is actually making on your behalf, week in and week out.

session.idle — awaiting partner

See how we operate

Senior designers. Senior engineers. Quietly making your brand and your tech work.

Stack

Toolsweuse

Design and prototyping, brand and video, CRM and data, web and apps, automation and AI, infra and reliability. We're tool-agnostic, we can work within your stack.

Figma

Illustrator

Photoshop

InDesign

After Effects

Premiere Pro

Canva

Framer

HubSpot

Salesforce

Airtable

Supabase

PostgreSQL

Notion

WordPress

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Tailwind

Webflow

n8n

Zapier

Make

OpenAI

Anthropic

Google Gemini

Cloudflare

Vercel

AWS

GitHub

Docker

Stripe

Figma

Illustrator

Photoshop

InDesign

After Effects

Premiere Pro

Canva

Framer

HubSpot

Salesforce

Airtable

Supabase

PostgreSQL

Notion

WordPress

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Tailwind

Webflow

n8n

Zapier

Make

OpenAI

Anthropic

Google Gemini

Cloudflare

Vercel

AWS

GitHub

Docker

Stripe

Figma

Illustrator

Photoshop

InDesign

After Effects

Premiere Pro

Canva

Framer

HubSpot

Salesforce

Airtable

Supabase

PostgreSQL

Notion

WordPress

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Tailwind

Webflow

n8n

Zapier

Make

OpenAI

Anthropic

Google Gemini

Cloudflare

Vercel

AWS

GitHub

Docker

Stripe

Portfolio

Afewsystemswe'veshipped

Sample projects across nonprofits, services, and operations. Click any project to see the stack, the purpose, and why it mattered.

Human Lens portfolio — full case studies

Discover Simi

Industry: Travel & Tourism. Year: 2024.

A faster destination site built to rank, convert, and rebook.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, WooCommerce, SEO, CRM Integration.

Purpose: Redesigned the destination site on WordPress with Elementor, tuned Core Web Vitals, locked in on-page SEO, and wired contact forms into a third-party CRM so audience engagement tied directly to bookings.

Why it mattered: Their old site was slow and invisible to search. The rebuild ranks, loads fast, and turns visitor traffic into actual reservations and repeat visits.

Home Buy Cash

Industry: Real Estate. Year: 2024.

A performance WordPress site wired to a real lead pipeline.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, SEO, CRM Integration, Marketing Automation.

Purpose: Shipped a fast, conversion-focused WordPress build with Elementor, full on-page SEO, speed optimization, and contact forms piped into the CRM so every inquiry is captured, scored, and routed.

Why it mattered: Leads were getting lost between forms, inboxes, and spreadsheets. Now every inquiry lands in one place and follow-up actually happens.

Mavisto

Industry: Brand & Marketing. Year: 2024.

Responsive redesign with SEO, CRM, and analytics finally talking.

Stack: WordPress, Divi, SEO, CRM Integration, Analytics.

Purpose: Rebuilt the site in WordPress with Divi, layered in real on-page SEO and speed optimization, and connected contact forms to the CRM and analytics so engagement and lead capture are measurable end-to-end.

Why it mattered: They couldn't tell which channels were working. The new stack closes the loop from first click to qualified lead, so spend decisions stop being guesses.

UX-UI Digital

Industry: Design Studio. Year: 2024.

A studio site tuned for SEO, speed, and the right kind of inquiry.

Stack: WordPress, Beaver Builder, SEO, CRM Integration, Speed Optimization.

Purpose: Ran a WordPress + Beaver Builder rebuild with serious SEO, Core Web Vitals work, and CRM-connected contact forms so the studio's best work actually gets discovered and inquired on.

Why it mattered: Their work was world-class and the site wasn't pulling its weight. Faster load, better rankings, and a clean inquiry path put the right case study in front of the right buyer.

Rehoboth Properties

Industry: Real Estate. Year: 2024.

A property site built for listings, leads, and same-day follow-up.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, SEO, CRM Integration, Marketing Automation.

Purpose: Built a performance-driven property site in WordPress with Elementor, full SEO and speed optimization, and CRM-connected contact forms so listings, inquiries, and follow-up live in one workflow.

Why it mattered: Agents were juggling listings in one tool and leads in another. The integrated setup means follow-up happens the same day, not the same week.

DAF DTO

Industry: Government / Defense. Year: 2024.

A secure WordPress platform with a RAG chatbot stakeholders use.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, SEO, RAG Chatbot, CRM Integration.

Purpose: Modernized the digital transformation ecosystem on WordPress with Elementor, layered in SEO and speed optimization, integrated forms with the CRM, and shipped a RAG chatbot that surfaces real-time insights with citations.

Hack-A-Sat

Industry: Aerospace / Cyber. Year: 2024.

Supported the build of the marketing site for a major Air Force cyber competition.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, SEO, Speed Optimization, CRM Integration.

Purpose: Supported the build of the public marketing site for a high-stakes Air Force cyber competition. Helped communicate the competition's value to participants and sponsors with clear messaging, fast load times, and CRM-connected forms for inquiries and registration interest.

Why it mattered: A public-facing marketing site was needed to communicate the competition's value to participants and sponsors.

AI Cyber Challenge

Industry: Cyber / Competition. Year: 2024.

Custom platform architecture for an AI-focused cyber competition.

Stack: WordPress, Custom Applications, Data Visualization, CRM Integration, Speed Optimization.

Purpose: Supported the build of the digital platform for a national AI cyber competition. Delivered a marketing site, custom competition application, and integrated registration systems.

Why it mattered: A simple marketing site with a plethora of educational content was needed as the event was public. The website did not run the event.

Green Our Planet

Industry: Nonprofit / Education. Year: 2024.

Accelerated nonprofit growth through clearer story, UX, and conversion optimization.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, Custom Plugins, SEO, CRM Integration.

Purpose: Rebuilt the nonprofit site with a focus on telling their story clearly. Many visitors couldn't understand what the organization actually did. We redesigned the UX/UI, optimized for search visibility, and built conversion-focused donor workflows that actually close.

Why it mattered: The site didn't explain their mission and donations were leaking. Post-launch, they've seen measurable increases in conversions and organic search traffic. The new UX makes their impact obvious and donor flows keep gifts from getting lost.

Green Our Planet School

Industry: Education / LMS. Year: 2024.

A WordPress-based LMS the client can update themselves.

Stack: WordPress, Elementor, LMS, Community Portal, Chat, SEO, CRM Integration.

Purpose: Built a WordPress-based LMS the client can fully manage on their own. Includes chat, a community portal, curriculum delivery, downloadable resources, progress tracking, and more, all within a portal educators and families can navigate without training.

Why it mattered: Their existing LMS was not meeting their needs, so they wanted a custom option built around how their educators actually teach.

Proof

Whatpartnerssay

Working with Human Lens as a technology partner has been exceptional. They quickly understand our issues and create clean, scalable solutions.

Their advice is thoughtful and practical, their execution is both fast and accurate, they have a clear focus on long-term growth, their attitude is positive and solution-focused, and they are always available.

Stronger systemsClearer directionReal confidence

Mark Rowland

CEO · ROCeteer

Human Lens helped us untangle a pretty complex website setup. They got outdated plugins cleaned up, implemented important security updates, and created a simple system we could maintain internally.

WordPress cleanupSecurity updatesMaintainable systems

Chrystina Balmer

Collaboration.Ai

The Human Lens team and owner Josh Kaplan are the kind of people who don't let a problem sit if they can help it. The fractional label undersells what you actually get, which is a real partner — someone who's in it with you, not just checking boxes on a scope of work.

Once you find a partner like this, you keep them around.

Real partnerIn it with youNo hesitation

Kim

CEO · Victory Project

Josh, founder of Human Lens, is one of the most effective and unflappable collaborators I've worked with. He moves stealthily between worlds — technical, strategic, and design — while keeping stakeholders aligned and projects moving forward.

If you're looking for a fractional CTO who brings clarity to complex projects, values stakeholder relationships, and is relentlessly solution-oriented — while maintaining what appears to be a superhuman level of responsiveness (seriously, I'm not convinced Josh sleeps) — look no further.

Fractional CTOCross-disciplineAlways on

Marti Walker

Founder & CEO · Luminate Design Studio

The math

Whymostorganizationsdon'tneedafull-timeteam

Hiring in-house

$0/year

Developer: $120k–$180k
Product / UX designer: $95k–$140k
Brand / marketing designer: $75k–$115k
Product / project manager: $90k–$130k
Benefits, tools, overhead: $30k–$50k+

Plus recruiting, onboarding, and the risk they leave.

Working with us

A fraction of the cost

Strategy, design, development, and ops in one team
You pay for what you need, not 40 hrs of seat-warming
No recruiting, no benefits, no turnover risk
We already know your brand and your systems from day one

Most organizations do not have 40 hours a week of technical or design work. But they still need someone who knows their brand and their systems inside and out. That is us.

Let's talk

Needadesignandtechteamthatstays?

One conversation and you'll know if we're the right partner.

A logo, a one pager, a board deck, a product redesign, a campaign, a new app, or a system that needs fixing. Start anywhere.

We reply within 1 business day · or email josh@humanlens.io

Your fractional CTO and Design team ... and new best friend ;)

Customer testimonial

Sound familiar?

One team for the technology and the design.

Fractional CTO

Product & UX/UI

Vendor Wrangling

Brand & Identity

Decks & Documents

Campaigns & Social

Build & Integrate

Organize & Clean Up

Always-On Support

Whatwe'reactuallydoing.

See how we operate

Toolsweuse

Afewsystemswe'veshipped

Discover Simi

Home Buy Cash

Mavisto

UX-UI Digital

Rehoboth Properties

DAF DTO

Hack-A-Sat

AI Cyber Challenge

Green Our Planet

Green Our Planet School

Whatpartnerssay

Whymostorganizationsdon'tneedafull-timeteam

$0/year

A fraction of the cost

Needadesignandtechteamthatstays?