What a CTO is, from startup to IPO
The organizational lifecycle and the role of the technical director
Slide contents
1. What a CTO is, from startup to IPO
The organizational lifecycle and the role of the technical director
2. For anyone who has asked three questions
Who this talk is for
What does a career in IT actually look like?
Is it worth growing into a team lead and beyond?
How do you do it right?
3. Walking the company lifecycle and finding the CTO on it
What we'll cover
The characteristics of each lifecycle stage
The CTO's role at every stage
Examples from real life
CTO levels and what each transition takes
4. 01. The organizational lifecycle
Startup → Growth → Maturity → Decline
5. The curve has five stages, not four
With turning points between them
Startup — the startup stage
Growth — the collegiality stage
Maturity — formalization, then growing complexity
Decline — the decline stage
6. 02. Startup
The startup stage
7. At a startup the CTO is a Startup Coder
Unclear goals and high creative freedom
The steps: idea → MVP → funding
At every step business and engineering move together
Characteristics: unclear goals
And high creative freedom
8. 03. Growth
The collegiality stage
9. The unit of scaling is a team
Scaling, done right
The loop: idea → requirements → design
…development → deploy → operations
A cross-functional team closes it
Plus a product manager at the entry and a lead inside
10. During growth the CTO becomes an Engineering Manager
The collegiality stage
Defining the mission and the growth strategy
Informal communication and structure
High commitment
Roughly fifty people by scale
11. The role moves along three axes, not up a ladder
Process Orientation, Technical Capabilities and Scale
Process Orientation — how much the role is about process
Technical Capabilities — how much it is about depth
Scale — how many people are below: ~10, ~50, ~150
Delivery manager and Architect are the axis extremes
12. 04. Maturity
Formalization, then growing complexity
13. Formalization is where the All-in-One CTO appears
Formalizing structure and management
Growth stabilizes
Roles and rules get formalized
The structure stabilizes
The emphasis shifts to efficiency
14. What this looked like at the Tinkoff group
An example from banking
From a monoline bank to an ecosystem — per the «Bank 4.0» book
2007–2020: Tinkoff Black, mobile bank, investments, a mobile operator
Business verticals: retail, business, investments, insurance, travel
And platforms on top of the infrastructure
15. Growing complexity splits the role into three
The structural complexity stage
Growth slows and the structure changes
Markets diversify
Management decentralizes
All-in-one CTO → CIO, CTO, VP of Engineering
16. 05. Decline
The decline stage
17. Decline is four symptoms
The talk assigns no new CTO role here
Revenue falls
Employee turnover rises
Conflicts build up
Management centralizes
18. 06. Putting it all together
CTO levels and the transitions between them
19. Five stages, five answers
And what to pull up before the next transition
20. The CTO level follows the company stage, not the title
What to take with you
Every stage has its own CTO role
The unit of scaling is a team, not a person
Delivery manager and Architect are axes, not rungs
Every transition means pulling up the weaker axis
21. What to read next
The sources from the talk's closing slide
«Team Topologies» and «Technology Strategy Patterns»
«The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well»
«Digital Transformation Game Plan» and «Bank 4.0»
Articles on the org lifecycle and the CIO/CTO/VP roles
22. Thank you!
polomodov.tech
All slides and links are in the Telegram channel
Alexander Polomodov, Technical Director & Fellow, T-Technologies
@book_cube