A solution architect needs to handle various challenges from a technical and business perspective. However, one of the most challenging tasks could be to get executive buy-in. Senior executives such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Chief Information Officer (CIO) are regarded as C-level as they have a tight schedule and need to make lots of high-stack decisions. As a solution architect, you may have lots of details to present, but your C-level meetings are very time-bound. Here, they need to make the maximum value of their meeting in the allotted time slot. 

The primary question is: How to get senior executives' attention and support in a limited time? Often, during any presentation, people tend to put a summary slide at the end, while, in the case of executive meetings, your time may further reduce as per their priority and agenda. The key to an executive presentation is to summarize the primary points upfront in the first 5 minutes. You should prepare in such a way that if your 30-minutes slot reduces to 5 minutes, you should still be able to convey your points and get buy-in for the next step.

Explain your agenda and meeting structure even before the summary. Executives ask lots of questions to make proper utilization of their time, and your agenda should convey that they will get the chance to ask a clarification question. Support your summary based on facts and data that align with their industry and organization. Keep details with you in case they want to dive deep into a particular area; you should be able to pull up and show all data.

Don't try to present everything in detail by stating information that may seem relevant from your perspective but maybe doesn't make much sense for an executive audience. For example, as a solution architect, you may focus more on benefits from the technical implementation. However, senior management focuses more on ROI by reducing operational overhead and increasing productivity. You should be ready to answer the following questions that concern executives more:

• How the proposed solution will benefit our customers?: Business revolves around the customer, while executives are looking at their company growth, but that is only possible if their customers are satisfied. Make sure to do your research on their customer base and their needs. Be ready to present benefits backed by reliable data.
• What assumption did you make to baseline the solution?: Often, these meetings are at the initial phase when you may not have enough details. Solution architects always need to make some assumptions to baseline the solution. List down your hypothesis in bullet points, and have a mitigation plan associated with it in case things don't work as per assumption.
• What will be my ROI?: Executives are always looking for ROI by determining the total cost of ownership (TCO). Be ready with data to provide an estimated cost of ownership, solution maintenance cost, training cost, overall cost savings, and so on.
• What happens if we continue as it is today and do nothing?: Senior management may go into extreme vetting mode to identify ROI. They want to understand if the investment is worth it. You need to be ready with your market research—for example, technology trends, customer trends, and competitive situation.
• What will be our competitor's reaction in regard to your solution?: Competition is everywhere, and often, the executive worries more about it. They want to understand if your solution is innovative to beat the competition and give their organization the edge. It's better to do some upfront research and add competitiveness data relating to their industry and customer base.
• What is your suggestion, and how can I help?: You should always have a crisp list of action items as the next step while providing your suggestion. You need to get buy-in from executives and make them feel involved by asking for help. For example, you can ask the CIO to connect you with the engineering team or product team to take an overall solution to the next step.

Till now, in this chapter, we have talked about various soft skills such as communication, presentation, listening, and so on. Let's now look more at the leadership skills a solution architect should have as a technical leader for the organization.