CTO of Pipedrive with expertise in scaling technology and organizations. Experienced as an innovator, founder and C-level manager.
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A CTO is not a CTO. The CTO experience in a startup is vastly different from the scale-up role—which is different again from the enterprise CTO. Growing through the enterprise journey can be a challenging odyssey, but there's nothing like it if you are to grow into a fully-rounded tech leader.
Here are four short lessons for the evolving tech leader based on experience, research and experimentation.
Think First, Plan Second, Act Third
Everything is always an emergency, but there's no problem so bad that hastily applied tech can't make it worse. The more complicated and integrated the tech stack, the more caution should be observed.
This is not to say that slowness is a virtue. Thinking and planning are crucial and, if done in advance, can speed up correct action when the moment strikes. Take the quiet times to plan and put contingencies in place.
I advise taking Charlie Munger's sensible working practices. Schedule time to think. The more senior you are, the more important it is that your thinking is clear and precise. Take the time to research, trial and plan before the moment of crisis begins.
This becomes more relevant the moment you scale, and your customers believe that your service is better than beta—that it's core to their operations. For the enterprise CTO with resources to match ambitions, it's a crime to be caught without a backup to your backup. Not everything can be managed seamlessly, but enterprise teams should have plans B and C available to manage through disaster.
Build Bridges, Not Products Or Services
Every internal technology service or externally provided product is a conversation between you and that user or customer. The language only rarely uses words, so tech leaders must become adept at using other methods to bridge the understanding gap between them and their users.
Internally, there are support tickets, surveys and Slack channels—or the comms tool of your choice. Externally, NPS, surveys, support requests and reviews will soon tell you how your extended conversation is going. The objective is to ensure the cycle of release-feedback is rapid and clear. Customers who feel they are heard are much more loyal, and that loyalty translates to long-term partnerships and profitability.
Setting a regular review cycle cuts the risk that dissatisfaction will lead to crisis, and using metrics that tell a story of product use and success can tend to give more useful insight than questionnaires and self-report data.
When you see your role as facilitating a conversation mediated by technology development and engineering processes, you can make a more powerful impact with every activity delivered with purpose.
CTOs Make Friends And Influence People
Only non-technical people would think technology is something totally separate from the colleagues and culture around it. There is a gulf in understanding that CTOs must learn to speak multiple "languages"—business, sales, people management and even marketing. To get the business of business done, the CTO must be the consummate operator, managing expectations and requirements from multiple parties.
It's particularly important for a well-rounded business that the CTO and chief people officer talk regularly about how tech is used to collaborate, foster inclusion and support diversity and equity. This is how the business sets the right culture for better tech use and further innovation. Given the centrality that solutions like AI and automation will soon take, issues of ethics, fair use and usability are critical to understand from multiple perspectives.
I've found that a great way to make this happen is to always hire people smarter than myself. My role as CTO is to lead and enable my team to deliver. My team members bring in the results, and I support them in getting what they need to do in line with what the business needs and is able to offer them in their execution. Identifying great people and supporting them are the skills and mindsets that grow great teams. I think it's vital to take this acknowledgment that everyone holds a piece of the puzzle and apply it to conversations with other stakeholders.
Talent Isn't Easy To Come By
CTOs must find, nurture and help the talent they want to see in their business. My business has a Summer School of Code program, which is an internship and mentoring course with a curriculum based on our tech stack. This helps us both take on new junior talent and give back experience to a wider community. Programs that encourage more talent in the industry help all companies.
Tech leaders should also nurture the skills of colleagues at all levels. Don't scrimp on training and development if there are resources available. Employees willing to stay current are employees planning for a long and productive career. It's part of your job to both support them and encourage them to stay with your business.
Likewise, mentoring can support tech talent growth and wider effectiveness within the business, which is vital for a mature digital operations experience. Mentoring should grow practical experience and allow mentees to make safe mistakes in a sandbox before trialing their skills in vivo.
Conclusion
The role of a CTO is one for the curious—one who is able to take in new information, technology, practices and business needs and then create a stable foundation for growth and innovation. It may be the executive role requiring the most amount of openness and lifelong education, and it never gets old.
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