Abbreviations - we all love and hate them. We love them because they are easy to remember and can explain an entire field in a few letters. We hate them when we don’t know what they mean.
Why is this even important? Because the abbreviation “CTO” is ambiguous. As with all titles, it comes from US and their corporate culture and “C-level executives” and has also extensively been used by the startup universe. The most important with the title is that it emphasises “The person who is in charge of tech”.
A CIO is responsible for IT and infrastructure, while the CTO is the person who innovates, leads and drives the technology activities and initiatives in an organization.
See the article below for a more detailed explanation of the 2 roles:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/ready-and-enabled/cio-vs-cto/
Now that we defined what a CTO is, let's look at the different types we can find across companies:
A typical startup CTO. Is either the sole developer who initially joined a startup as a co-founder. Either because there were no funding available to pay salaries or it grew from a joint idea which was built by a few friends.
Is hands-on and is really a Software engineer (a developer) who is responsible for everything tech mainly because there’s no team. Has little or zero leadership skills and usually no leadership ambition either.
Can be great in a startup situation, and will learn, do, learn and grow fast.
A typical corporate Project Manager who worked a few years leading different kind of projects, and gradually learned all the buzzwords and has gathered enough experience about product and tech development to be able to talk to a team, and do a good job leading them.
Is a great leader but doesn’t have any technical skills that goes deeper. “Understands” concepts but can’t explain API’s or git, nor code.
Will be great in larger corporations where it's more about "selling in" concepts to other departments than to actually develop innovation.
A CTO with extensive knowledge in-depth knowledge of software engineering, its processes and the different components needed in order to build a product. Has experience from not only one but many different companies and can thus learn from their own mistakes.
This CTO is either reporting directly to the board in the best case, or thru a CEO. Doesn’t have to have a formal education but it’s not uncommon that they have Dual Master degrees in both Technology as well as in Business Administration. Despite all the fanciness, they can roll up their sleeves and still code. Review, mentor, help, consult and advice others on ways of doing it.
This CTO is also well versed in different programming languages and approaches as they have seen more than one. The goal of a proactive and “modern” CTO is to create self-managed and empowered teams that are cross-functional and has everything they need in order to build great products.
The famous answer? It depends. Early stage startups may benefit from having a hands-on CTO that can “build it”. There are so many development frameworks out there, so if just one of them is followed, not much can go wrong.
However – if you need leadership, and you will when you have more than one or two developers – it’s a good idea to work with someone who’s interested in people. If your hands-on CTO is that, great! But does the person really want to lead people? Or just build great code?
Here the Business PM-CTO can be a good alternative. Someone who’s dedicated and knows the business plus has the needed leadership skills. However, if you are scaling and building a larger product, the BPM-CTO may need mentorship and help on the tech side, either from tech leads or other senior developers.
If you identify as a Business PM-CTO, our free 5-part guide to leading tech teams will help you understand developers and the development process better, so your team can release new and better features faster.
If you want to person in your organisation that leads everything tech to talk to the board, it’s a good idea to have someone who’s a mix of business and hands-on developer. The type 3 is then a good alternative.
Certainly one that costs more, but what costs more – Fundamental Errors or Experience?
It’s not always as binary as it’s described here. We’ve met some of the best CTOs from all different types.
Whatever the type, it's a good idea to get an experienced CTO on board if you want to avoid mistakes which will cost you a lot more in the end.
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