Models for Thinking About Tech Senior Leadership

I have a very opinionated view of the job of the CTO, especially as it applies to product-focused startups. I stand by it, but I realize that it’s not the universal model for CTOs at all companies. I also know that there’s a great deal of muddiness in senior levels of management. Where does the VP of Engineering fit in? How about the Chief Information Officer? Is that a role we need to fill? What about the product team?

Instead of trying to cover all of the variants of roles in senior leadership, I’m going to start by explaining some of the most common roles that senior management can play, and how those roles can fit together. These descriptions may make sense for your company, and they may not. Some people will be able to play several parts, some people will be able to play only one or two, and some companies won’t even need people to play all of these parts. All of them break down at large-enough companies, at which point you often have to look at these roles division by division. But by presenting a taxonomy, I hope to help you consider the possible skills you’ll need to be successful in various senior leadership positions. The common roles include:

Some companies focus on expanding the cutting edge of technology, and therefore may have a senior leader in the technology organization who is focused on experimentation, research, and new technology generation. This role might own technology strategy, or it might be purely a role for finding new ideas.

Technology strategy meets product development. This person often also manages the product organization. He’s focused on how technology can be used to grow the business and works to predict the evolution of technology as it applies to the company’s industry. This differs from R&D in that the visionary isn’t usually focused on research potential; he uses business and technology trends to guide his decisions.

The organizational manager guides the structure and people in the organization. She owns the plans for staffing the team as well as organizational structure, ensuring projects are staffed accordingly. This role is often paired with “Execution,” discussed next.

Usually paired with “Organization,” this person makes sure things actually get done. He helps align roadmaps, plan work, and coordinate large efforts. He makes sure that projects get prioritized. He breaks roadblocks, resolves conflicts, and makes decisions in order to get the team moving forward.

When a company sells software-based products to other companies, one of the senior technology leaders usually is expected to participate in this sales cycle. She may attend client meetings and speak at conferences to encourage use of the product. A company that is invested in building an engineering brand for hiring purposes may also need one of the senior leaders to play this role by speaking at conferences and recruiting events.

This is the person responsible for all of the technology infrastructure and infrastructure operations. This role might be cost-focused, security-focused, or scaling-focused depending on the company and stage of evolution.

This is someone whose first focus is the business itself. This person understands the industry and understands the other essential functions of the business at a high level. He balances internal development needs with business growth needs and owns prioritization of projects at a high level.

Here are some combinations of these roles that I’ve observed personally and from a distance:

• Business executive, technology strategy, organization, and execution: CTO or Head of Engineering (VP/SVP)
• R&D, technology strategy, external face of technology: CTO, Chief Scientist, Chief Architect, sometimes Chief Product Officer, usually for a company that is selling a software-based product
• Organization, execution, business executive: VP of Engineering, General Manager
• Infrastructure manager, organization, and execution: CTO/CIO, possibly VP of Technical Operations
• Technology strategy, business executive, and execution: Head of Product (or Chief Product Officer), sometimes CTO
• R&D, business executive: CTO or Chief Scientist, cofounder
• Organization and execution: VP of Engineering, sometimes Chief of Staff

As you can see, organizations can mix and match and define these roles in different ways depending on business needs. The CTO role in particular changes its focus wildly depending on the company, although most strong CTOs have a strategic function under their command, whether it’s business-focused, technology strategy, or both.