11. Conclusion

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Appendix A: Common Tech Executive Titles and Roles

This appendix lists titles you might come across in your career and how they differ. Keep in mind these are the most common cases , but your mileage may vary:

CTO: Chief Technology Officer is by far the most common title and also the most ambiguous. In smaller companies, the CTO is likely to hold all of the LEAP responsibilities described in Chapter 1. If, along with the CTO, the company also has a VP managing the execution, the CTO tends to focus on Architecture and Evangelism responsibilities in most cases. In these cases, CTOs and their teams serve the role of bringing in innovation, researching new approaches to be taken, and communicating with the outside world. In the vast majority of companies, CTOs report to the CEO directly or to the COO. In some companies, these responsibilities are shared across a few VPs of Technology as opposed to a single CTO.
CIO: Less typical at startups, though very prominent at later-stage companies. The Chief Information Officer is often in charge of internal processes, regulations, security, and infrastructure. Some companies have both a CTO and a CIO, others only one. The most distinctive classifier I know for determining which is more fitting for your company is whether the company is developing a product for external use (should have a CTO) or whether the technology is being used solely for internal purposes (should have a CIO).
VP Engineering: An executive who is responsible for and manages the different engineering teams in the organization. Though the title says “Engineering ,” these vice presidents might manage not solely engineers, but also product managers, analysts, UX engineers, and so forth. It is effectively always true that a VP of Engineering is in charge of the People responsibility. VPs of Engineering are executives and should be treated as such. In the majority of companies, they report directly to the CEO, though instances where they report to the CTO are not uncommon. In larger organizations, there might be several people with this title, each in charge of different parts of the entire tech team. These scenarios sometimes also result in a hierarchy where several VPs report to someone with the title of SVP (Senior Vice President) or EVP (Executive Vice President).
VP R&D: The Vice President of Research and Development is, de facto, almost a synonym for VP Engineering. In some companies, though, the distinction it is intended to create is that the person holding this title is in charge not just of normal execution, but also of research efforts. In other companies, there would be a VP Engineering and a VP Research. The research team often consists of data engineers, data scientists, researchers, and analysts.
VP Product Development: A newer appearance, this title is usually part of a move to focus on impact alongside a tech organization comprising cross-disciplinary teams (as discussed in Chapter 6). All in all, similar to the previous titles, but often used to signal that they are managing the product people of the company as well.
Chief Architect: Virtually always, this role is about the Architecture responsibility, though sometimes it might also include some of the Evangelism responsibility as well. The Chief Architect position often involves the management, either solid or dotted, of a team of architects or senior engineers.
Head of Engineering: Used less often and not always an indication that the holder is an executive. In some smaller companies, such a title is used as a placeholder where the person in charge of the engineering team might eventually be “bumped up ” to one of the other titles or to allow the board to put in place someone more experienced in the executive position later on.
Director of Engineering: Normally, the title of a director means that the person is a manager of managers, usually managing team leaders or engineering managers. However, sometimes it is used in a similar fashion to the title of Head of Engineering, to indicate the most senior person in charge of the tech team, at least temporarily. In this latter usage, the Director of Engineering often holds the responsibilities and purview of an executive in practice, though not always by definition.
Field CTO: The newest and rarest of all of these titles as of the time of writing. Field CTOs are in charge of Evangelism and spend most of their time communicating with clients, prospects, and partners. They are the face of the company when it comes to technical matters and might assist with creating partnerships, sales conversations, and communicating client needs and feedback from the “field ” back to the engineering team.

Index

A, B

Algorithm review

bite-sizing/milestones

definition

execution

celebrations

deadlines

tracking progress

initiatives frequently

lifecycle

planning

summarization

celebration

learning

processes/definitions/watchdogs

trust-building session

WIIFM

Arbitrary

building rapport

change culture

constant stream

current obligations

expectations

feel overwhelmed/sense stress

fog of war concept

SeeFog of war concept

goals

on-call schedule

one-on-ones

organization

projects

roadmap

root cause

evidence

fundamental socratic questioning

influential leaders

readily identifiable symptoms

shadow meetings

triage process

accountabilities/follow up/update

escalations

handling issues

maintaining long term

personal backlog trimming

Window of Malleability

Common tech executive titles/roles

bumped up

CTO responsibilities

director

field feedback

product development

research/development

VP engineering

Conway’s law

Driving change

algorithm

SeeAlgorithm review

culture

initiative

intentional modification

ongoing attention/follow-up

pushing change

Speed of Change

Drucker, Peter

Executive toolset

autonomous teams

coaching vs. mentoring

delegation

guidelines

objections

pseudo-effective

responses

executive’s equivalent

healthier meeting culture

agenda declaration

code/inattentive participants

decision making

individual contributors

meeting culture

pathological tardiness

preparation

times

keyboard chord

management roles

managing process

autonomous teams

executive leverage

micromanagement mode

results

talk business

strategic focus

tactics

calendar reset

executive assistants

leadership blocks

personal time management

personal velocity

tetris

time allocation

tailoring approaches

fundamental guidelines

habits/methodologies

leader

mindset

shyness/speak up

F, G, H

First 100 days

SeeArbitrary)

Fog of war concept

Hiring/firing decisions

meaning

team’s health

architectural soundness

compliance/regulation

hiring

innovation

organization’s size/maturity

processes

quality bar

reputation

turnover/employee churn

tweak processes

velocity

tracking projects

I, J

Innovation

avoid groupthink

celebrating failures

cost centers

cross-fertilization

failing spectacularly

hackathons

hire heterogeneously

implementation

account

advantage

Bonanza

budget number

cascading schedule

intermissions

non-feature work

sprints

intangible benefits

learning

budgets

creativity leap

investment

level deeper

work-friendly shenanigans

long-lasting business

planning poker

process ingenuity

product novelty

ROI right

tech capital

technological edge

vision

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Leadership, Evangelism, Architecture, and People (LEAP)

architecture

concepts

evangelism

leadership

people/Managing execution

responsibilities

role information

M, N

Management by wandering around (MBWA)

advantage

management roles

open-door policy

remote/semi-remote environment

Move upstream

coaching clients

decision stream

executive power

approach matters

business

coach benefits

coaching clients

conversation/voice option

executive decisions

executive meetings

fostered relationships

receiving tasks

fostering autonomy

leadership capabilities

compiling roadmaps

cultivating culture

forming strategy

motivating

risk assessment/management

silos

prerequisite

Operating system

Organizational structure

expensive

feedback skeleton

mirroring purposes

onboarding

providing feedback

growth process

career ladders

individual contributors

leveling up

peter pan count

professional track

knowledge

horizontal development

peer forums

professional leadership

shaping

managers

aspects

coaching

Knee-jerk promotions

knowledge transfer

management bit

onboarding

promoting/stepping

support system

premature optimization

principles

team information

charts

forming teams

roles

size

P, Q

Product mastery

approaches

backend engineer/business analyst

bootstrapping

business/revenue engines

problem/solution space

product 101

roadmap/vision

CEO meeting

Clients/solution

company’s conversation

business health metrics

history

interview process

vision/values/mission

competition/rival solutions

crash course

critical elements

customer-centered approach

dogfooding

friction

key factors

lack advantage

lacking transparency/impact

market

market information

meta-reviews

needle-moving working

onboarding plan

organizational pigeonholing

personal task system

problem

project execution

repeating factors

reports

self-assessment

shadow/even practice/customer success

sharing roadmap goals

solution

competition fares

current approach

customer success/support (CS)

product walk-through

research

stark contrast

stressing technical mastery

technical mastery

testimonials

users/buyers

Pushing process

approaches

consensus trap

preliminary legwork

processes/initiatives/tasks

R&D organization

decision-making process

focus creation

attributes

business’s dashboard

high-level goals

impact-driven goals

non-prescriptive

novelty aspect

overarching goals

steps

impact measurement

advantages

impact-driven goals

individuals

lowering standards

responsibilities

steps

team’s performance

organizational structures

assortment

cross-functional team

improved communication

organization/developer empowerment

product mastery

useless solution

quality issue

coherent strategy

cooperation

gaining significant progress

impact-driven approach

innovation

leadership role

objectives act

occurrence

perceptible results/outputs

pomp/circumstance

reducing waste

stereotypes

twofold

upstream/shape

Speed of Change

arbitrary deadline

improving process

meta-level changes

stale velocity

T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

Tech executive

axioms/effective leadership

coders without borders

executive leadership

force multiplier

individual contributors

innovative assets vs. technology

long-term

people responsibility

balanced scale

benefits

effective

glorified managers

long-term plans

meaning

momentum detractors

personal knowledge

role section

technical aspects

unmotivated executives

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11. Conclusion