What I wish I knew when I became CTO
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What I wish I knew when I became CTO
1–10 of 258 posts
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#2Enjoyed reading this article, all valid points. However, the one thing that stood out to me in this area was how light I was in effective principles of management and leadership. As a CTO of an organization of more than a handful of people you eventually "get things done" largely via other people rather than being hands on yourself. Had to read a lot of Harvard Business Review to gain the skills and confidence for that. Just like programming, there are indeed tangible skills to learn. It's not just common sense and you're not just born with it.
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#3> Don’t hire someone to do something you’ve not yet figured out (some exceptional candidates can bring new capabilities to companies, but often the most reliable route is for some “founder magic” to re-assemble the company until it can perform the new thing)
I'm curious what this "founder magic" bit means. Is this advice largely because of the difficulty of trying to find a qualified expert to bring new capabilities to your company when you personally aren't familiar with that area? E.g., it's hard to not get the wool pulled over your eyes by someone who talks well but can't deliver?
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#4Yo, why are you doing BI queries on MySQL?
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#5> Don’t hire someone to do something you’ve not yet figured out (some exceptional candidates can bring new capabilities to companies, but often the most reliable route is for some “founder magic” to re-assemble the company until it can perform the new thing) I'm curious what this "founder magic" bit means. Is this advice largely because of the difficulty of trying to find a qualified expert to bring new capabilities…
Unless you are hiring someone for a VP type role, your new hire likely isn't going to step in and know exactly what they should be doing everyday to achieve the goals you have laid out for them.
So you have to try it all out yourself first and figure out what makes someone in this role successful, what makes them not successful, and how to create a process or blueprint that your new hire can follow to success.
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#6Yo, why are you doing BI queries on MySQL?
I'm no fan of MySQL either, but probably because they were already using MySQL and they had some Business questions they wanted answered Intelligently without setting up a bunch of new infrastructure. Sometimes at a startup you just need to get things done, and fix it later when (if) it becomes a pain point.
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#7Great article!
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#8> Don’t hire someone to do something you’ve not yet figured out
Hum. I would say the reverse. Bring people that are smarter and know more than you.
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#9Enjoyed reading this article, all valid points. However, the one thing that stood out to me in this area was how light I was in effective principles of management and leadership. As a CTO of an organization of more than a handful of people you eventually "get things done" largely via other people rather than being hands on yourself. Had to read a lot of Harvard Business Review to gain the skills and confidence for th…
It’s funny how, as you progress through a career and gain responsibility, those HBR articles go from seeming like a bunch of Markov chain corporate-speak to being on-target for that exact problem you had last month with the leadership team.
Re: What I wish I knew when I became CTO
#10> ...it’s a blessing that my predilection for hipster technologies has not caused any serious problems.
It's entirely possible that this was the primary source of his problems with hiring, firing, testing, and a lot more.
The technology you choose determines which technologists you attract. And it's not a superficial thing, it actually says everything about the CTO's own technical skill, judgement, and experience.