11–20 of 228 posts
I'll offer advice but it comes from someone with no experience:
Take this opportunity and grow from it. So it's not the job you wanted or expected; you can still find a way to be successful. Really get to know the teams, figure out who has the emotional and intellectual capacity to deliver for you, and reward those folks. Good luck!
On the other hand, being that high should indeed get you ownership and control, if you don't have it question your relationship with the CEO/rest of the company. You should own and be responsible for all the technical stuff, that is the upside of eating all the crap you can eat.
On a related note, if you are a good coder, you can and should schedule some time to do pair programming with the team to stay on top of things and actually write some code. But only as long as you are more of a help than a hindrance.
Welcome to management! You're dealing with the crap so your people can do their job. If you get to code a few weeks a year then you're lucky.
If you really don't enjoy it, go find something else. There are a lot of highly technical jobs that should prove a real challenge.
Key question is WHY did you take up this job in the first place? Do you really believe in the mission of this company or just the CTO title and a lucrative pay attracted you here. If you truly believe in the mission of the company, you're doing the right thing by taking all crap and making progress towards end goals. You are probably not coding because your time is better spent doing what you're doing now. Will you m…
Can you re-architect the product from scratch? This should be doable if the raw building blocks (modules etc.) are properly designed and easily incorporated into a new design. If this is not the case, then all the more reason to rewrite the code!
OP not enjoying the CTO role doesn't mean he/she should waste company resources for their own amusement. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html
It can give OP a better feel for how the code is designed, and give them more opportunity to change things in a more structured way in the long term by repeating the process (rather than just fighting fires every time).
Good managers take crap so others don't have to.
Ideally, we get good enough to prevent the crap from happening in the first place. But it is most certainly the job. It's entirely understandable if you find it's not for you.
Can you re-architect the product from scratch? This should be doable if the raw building blocks (modules etc.) are properly designed and easily incorporated into a new design. If this is not the case, then all the more reason to rewrite the code!
As a CTO, there is a good chance the poster would not be materially involved in such an effort.
From a business perspective; something that works is more important than something that is well architected.