The Fractional CTO

Three Non-Technical Things a CTO Must do to Survive Growth

March 4, 2019 By Kevin Carlson 3 Comments

A growing company is a great place to be. It’s fun to see customer acquisition rates and revenue increase. You’re excited for each new day, each new customer, and each new employee that joins. It not only feels like you’re surviving growth, you’re thriving on it.

And then it happens.

Your team isn’t getting as much done. Quality drops. Employees feel stuck in maintenance roles. It’s a very common occurrence in a growing business and it’s one that you can’t solve with technology alone.

You’re heading down the straightaway and it feels great. That corner you’re approaching is going to be a challenge. The good news is that you can prepare for it. The bad news is that everyone may not make the turn with you.

Below are the top three things that you as a CTO must do — all non-technical — to help a company survive growth. By the way, they’ll help you survive it, too.

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How a Recruiting Process Exposes Your Authentic Values

February 25, 2019 By Kevin Carlson 1 Comment

If you’ve ever looked for a job, you know a bad recruiting process when you see it.

You know what it’s like to put time and effort into a resume, research a company, and write a thoughtful cover letter. You send it off and wait. And wait.

And a response never comes, or comes long after you’ve already found another role.

In one case, I received a rejection email from a company a full 6 months after I had already landed another role. And yeah, I’d already figured out they weren’t interested by then…

The funny thing was that this company heavily sold their culture in the job posting. They said that people were their focus, they valued communication, and acted with a sense of urgency.

Unless you’re an applicant.

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How To Build A Tech Culture That Makes People Want To Stay

February 16, 2019 By Kevin Carlson Leave a Comment

One of the first things to suffer when things take off is culture. Rapid hiring that ignores cultural norms can introduce new attitudes and expectations. Some good, some bad, the worst of which can deteriorate trust and breed a culture of fear — and fast. So how can you start to repair a tech culture?

One of the most effective ways to build efficiencies in a technical team is to focus on culture. It’s said that culture trumps strategy. Why? Because the execution of any strategy by a dysfunctional team will be poor.

Some of the signs of cultural problems within a technology organization are:

Poor communication between development teams
Lack of visibility to the business
Ability to avoid accountability
Avoidance of meaningful conflict
The ridicule of ideas

If you’ve spent any time at all working within a poor tech culture, you’ve seen several of these problems.

So, let’s jump right in. Below are three things I do to get things moving.

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