Jack of all trades and a master of all.
Netflix. You know the brand by the movies they’ve made, brilliant actors, and their never-ending and sometimes annoying curated inventory, yet very few of you know the movie directors behind these blockbuster creations.
A CTO is a director in a tech company. He is a near-perfect intersection between business needs and technical requirements, and while the role has technology somewhere in it, that only occupies about 25% of a CTOs day to day.
In order to understand a CTO. Let's understand the CTO's scope of responsibilities. Several articles and videos talk about the CTO as a master of 4Ts.
Team
One indicator of any company's success is its ability not only to execute but execute on time. In the fast-paced tech world, it’s the CTO's job to assemble a killer engineering machine.
Take the example of a SAAS company. A typical engineering team will consist of a development, quality assurance, and product management team. Its the job of a CTO not only to recognize talent and hire but also to position the employee in the relevant team ensuring employee growth and satisfaction.
Technology
Almost all CTOs love this part. In fact, given a chance they can, and will only dwell on it but sadly don’t, due to the ever-increasing demand from their employers.
A CTO is tasked with choosing, defending a company's technology stack, and defining technical Dos and Don’ts within an organization.
Tools
Having a team and a technical framework, the CTO has to see to it that his team has adequate tooling to deliver on business requirements. These are software licenses, computers, office internet, and other tools that might add to the team's productivity.
Timing
What’s the use of an A list engineering team if they cant execute on time? The CTOs role is to give the C-level guys a reasonable timeframe for feature delivery, bug fixing, maintenance windows, and new hires.
As a CTO you are often the one on the hot seat when features fall behind. In that light, you have to have an in-depth understanding of your team and ways to get things done in time.
In conclusion
While it might sound overwhelming it's an extremely enjoyable journey full of learning.
It's like being given the keys to a brand new Ferrari with no prior driving skills. This is the journey of every CTO.
It's always a new experience every time.
