since cag brought up cto wars, here is a cto thread to give you some background on what elezzzark and jon do

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5 Qualities of a Great CTO


The chief technology officer (CTO) is the executive responsible for an organization’s technological needs. But, as technology continues to evolve, so too does the role of those in charge of supervising it.

Today, with technology being such an intrinsic part of a company’s success or failure, chief technology officers have had to become innovators, risk-takers and true business leaders. To be profitable, chief technology officers working today are responsible for balancing technology development and market demands for a sustainable competitive advantage. They are also often the leader of the research and development for the technological goods the company produces, and are responsible for developing, implementing, managing and evaluating the company’s technological resources.

What’s more, as digital transformation continues to become imperative to ongoing business strategies, chief technology officers are finding that they are becoming responsible for more than just technology. They are responsible for – or at least heavily involved with – overseeing the transformation of every business process, and are expected to apply technology into every facet of the business.

In years gone by, CTOs would be able to work pretty much entirely within their own department. Now, however, it is becoming increasingly important for chief technology officers to not only be aware of, but actively participate in all aspects of the company. They are expected to take a leading role in company growth and transformation processes.

It’s an incredibly important role in today’s technology-focused business landscape. So, what are the qualities chief technology officers need to possess to drive their organizations forward in an ever-changing market? Let’s consider five of the most important.

CTOs Must Be Visionary and Driven to Achieve Market Success
Chief technology officers must be more than just technically savvy. They need to be strategic, analytical, forward-looking, and constantly alert to new trends that will drive their company forward.

CTOs need to be visionaries. They must have a clear idea where the company will be in X months’ time, and what technologies the business will require to reach that future state. In order to keep their organizations competitive, efficient and scalable, chief technology officers must continuously monitor and assess the rapidly-changing world of technology. They need to be analyzing market trends, keeping a close eye on the successes and failures of competitors, and anticipating consumer demand in the long-term and preparing for it.

For example, it’s no secret that the emergence of automation and artificial intelligence is dramatically influencing consumer behavior and market trends. As such, modern CTOs need to ensure their teams are quick to gauge and adopt such technologies if they’re what the market is demanding, and thereby make sure the company is able to remain relevant and competitive, or even blaze the trail ahead.

Communication Skills
A good chief technology officer must be able to explain technical concepts to non-technical people within the organization, including the CEO and other board members, as well as employees across departments.

As new technologies are identified that the chief technology officer considers will be a boon for the business, he/she must then be able to communicate the benefits effectively to different audiences. CTOs must be able to communicate technical information to business personnel, and business information to technical personnel. This involves having a true understanding of not only the technology in question, but also the audience, and having the diplomacy and patience to convey complex subjects in terms that all stakeholders can understand.

This ability to translate something technical into something business-relatable is a key skill for modern chief technology officers, and something that Greg Hanson, CTO & VP at Informatica, knows the value of first-hand. As he explains to Information Age: “One of my strengths and skills was always the ability to translate a business initiative or a business imperative into a requirement for how we should develop software solutions. This stood me in great stead – the ability to translate business requirements and initiatives into products and projects that helped to meet those business requirements.”

CTOs Must Be Entrepreneurial
Being able to work to achieve high-level business goals is a vital skill for every member of the C-suite – the CTO included. Not only will a good chief technology officer help the business stay nimble and competitive in the short-to-medium-term, but will have in-depth knowledge of the organization’s wider objectives, and use that knowledge to address how technology can best serve the organization’s goals over the long-term as well.

Rather than getting lost in small everyday tasks, the CTO must see the big picture of what the organization is moving towards. Chief technology officers must focus their time evaluating how technology can be used to create new business models and lines. They must be looking to disrupt markets, and, as such, have disruptive ideas. In short, good CTOs are entrepreneurial – they are business-minded “big thinkers” that champion innovation.

CTOs Must Be Evangelistic Product Experts
A great chief technology officer will have a sound understanding of development, and know how to transform business ideas into a real working product. They will be able to recognize early on if business goals and product development are drifting apart, take command, and steer things back in the right direction to keep everything aligned with the company’s vision.

Beyond this, however, a strong CTO will be the face of the organization’s technology. In fact, chief technology officers should hold a very external role in the organization, and be interfacing with clients directly. In this regard, CTOs need the same soft skills as sales representatives or account managers – they need to be personable, empathetic, and have the ability to communicate complex technical concepts into relatable and easy-to-understand context. In fact, a great chief technology will take a leading role in closing accounts, as opposed to only being brought in after the fact to explain the technical details. Moreover, really great ones will become publicly active in getting the company’s name and products recognized for their successes. They will become evangelistic thought leaders that take advantage of speaking opportunities, interviews and publications to spread the word about the organization and its technology achievements.

Leadership Skills
Naturally, it is the chief technology officer who will be responsible for leading the organization’s technology team into the future, so excellent leadership skills are an absolute must. CTOs today need to work with a diverse range of people from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, including developers, QA experts and, increasingly, data analysts, decision scientists, and many more besides.

While working with all these different people to build and manage great products, the CTO needs to be a problem-solver and decision-maker. At same time, however, he/she must possess the patience and command to deal with differing ideas and viewpoints coming from different corners of the team, and have the natural authority to resolve any disputes in a professional manner.

As such, chief technology officers have the opportunity to play a pivotal role in building a positive company culture of innovation and collaboration. Good CTOs have a passion for team-building and mentoring, and will ensure that the tech team works productively with each other, as well as other colleagues in the business. In this way, they will create a culture that drives retention, and be instrumental in attracting top talent towards the organization.

Final Thoughts

In sum, good chief technology officers should be about far more than just technology. Occupying a pivotal executive position, they should be competent and able leaders with a great mind for business, evangelistic thought leaders with superb communication skills, and forward-looking innovators with a keen eye for aligning product development with market trends and business goals.

What Does a CTO Do?

The title is bandied about liberally and likely has as many meanings as there are actual CTOs. So how might we try to define what a CTO actually does?

http://www.allankelly.net/blogbits/C...4-12-08-48.jpgThe last few years have been good to me, I’ve enjoyed giving advice to teams and companies and helping people get started with better ways of working, ways of working which usually go by the name of “Agile” but the name is the least important thing. But…

I’ve been questioning if I want to keep doing this. Like most of us do from time to time I’ve been wondering if I need a new challenge, if I should join something bigger with more continuity and, as you might guess from my posts on Mimas, I’ve kind of missed being closer to building something.

From time-to-time people have suggested I take on a CTO role - and certainly my ego likes the idea, it sounds important! - but, seriously, I think I’d like to give it a go. But that leads me to a question of my own:

Just What Does a CTO Do?

This is something I’ve pondered before because while I’ve met a good few CTOs in my time I can’t really see a consistent pattern to describe what they do. Everyone knows what a CFO does, they look after the money so a CTO should “look after” the technology but… how do you do that?

Before I come up with even more questions let's try some answers.

First up, let's be clear, not all CTOs are code-centric. I know organizations where the primary role of the CTO is to understand the technology domain, and code - software - is secondary. Take telecoms, for example. The CTO in a telecoms company may actually be an expert in telecoms technology. The software may well be something someone else looks after, although the two need to work closely.

Such examples seem to be becoming less and less common, perhaps that is just another example of software eating the world. CTOs are increasingly about the code.

Some CTOs are programmers, some CTOs are the only programmer.

This view seems common with non-technical entrepreneurs and in job adverts for start-up companies. Maybe it is because these companies can’t afford to pay senior salaries so they hand out grand job titles instead. Or maybe it is because the founders really don’t understand technology and anyone who can code looks like a god to them.

I worry about these companies because the attributes which make the first “CTO” attractive (code god willing to work for peanuts and therefore young and mortgage free) are most definitely not the attributes you want in a CTO as the company grows.

CTOs should most definitely be able to code - even if this was sometime in the past. And many CTOs I know and have known, do continue to code. That is good when they are part of a team.

A CTO is also in partially an architect role - and hence they should code from time to time. The CTO may well be the Chief Architect or Chief Engineer although such a role is more about building shared understanding not mandating plans.

And since software design is a copy of organizational design the CTO needs to understand Conway’s Law and organizational form and structure. Organizational architecture is as important as software architecture, they are symbiotic.

Some CTOs have a lot of say in organizational structure. Many CTOs run the technology development group - all the programmers and testers, and possibly analysts and project managers, report to the CTO. As such the CTO is the Chief Technology Manager.

But not all CTOs do this. Some CTOs are actually further down the organization. And some CTOs leave the running of the technology group to someone else - the Vice President of Engineering or Director of Development. Again the CTO may work closely with this person but the CTO fills more of an advisory or expert role rather than a management role.

Such expert CTOs may well be on the board, they may well have the ear of the CEO but they leave the day-to-day operation of development to someone else. And some don’t, some are deep into the details.

Perhaps as more businesses become truly digital, and technology and business become truly one, then CTOs running development operations will become less common and CTOs as experts will become the norm.

CTOs need to keep their finger firmly on the pulse of technology - what is happening, what's new, what is taking off, what is going down, what is Apple planning? And Amazon? And Microsoft?

But actually understanding the latest technology may well be less important than understanding how that technology changes business, changes competition, changes organization and structure. Manager-CTOs may well put that understanding directly into action but Expert-CTOs will educate others in the organization, from new recruits all the way up to the board.

CTOs also have a role in recruitment and forming the development culture. If CTOs think that quality is important, the engineering staff will take quality seriously. And if the CTO says, like one I knew once, “I’d rather it was on time with bugs than late and working” then every engineer will know within about 5 minutes.

While CTOs may not interview every candidate for a role they will certainly interview some of the key roles. More importantly, the CTOs needs to work as a cheerleader for the company's recruitment campaigns. Finding good engineers is hard, a CTO who gives the company a profile and makes it a place people want to work will help a lot.

CTOs often have a role to play, too, in sales. They are wheeled out to meet potential customers, talk technology, and show the company takes the client seriously. When a company is R&D heavy the CTO doesn’t do much pre-sales, but when the company makes a living selling products or services to other companies having the CTO engaged in pre-sales is very important.

And it is perhaps at the highest levels, the board, the other CxOs, that the CTO role is unique. Almost by definition, each CxO (Chief something Officer) is a specialist in their own field: the CFO knows about finance and the CMO knows about marketing. Although the CEO should be more of a generalist, they come from another function and so, once upon a time, where specialists. The COO (operations) may be another exception although this is often a post held by the soon-to-be-CEO so it is a training post (in my experience, the CSO role (chief strategy officer), when it exists is used to sideline someone before helping them leave).

In the CTO, the other CxOs have a peer they can talk with about the technology implications for their business. It is here that the CTO has the opportunity to influence the rest of the company and help them maximize the benefit of technology.

The common theme in all of this is the CTO leads the thinking of others. To use a rather over-used, and perhaps equally vague term, the CTO is a thought leader in technology. The CTO helps others in the organization understand not so much the technology itself as the implications of technology for the business (and that implies that the CTO needs to be a good communicator).

That, of course, is provided the CTO has those opportunities, i.e. that they attend meetings and senior meetings. If “CTO” is simply a grand title for a programmer, then they have little influence.

Summary
The title CTO should be reserved for roles which are more than just programming.
A CTO should be able to code.
A CTO should understand software architecture and will be one of the architects but probably not the only architect.
The CTO needs a firm understanding of Conway’s Law.
The CTO needs to understand organizational structure and play a role in designing the organization.
Some CTOs are technology experts while some are powerful managers with their own department.
CTOs need to keep abreast of the latest technological developments.
The CTO may well be the most senior pre-sales consultant in the business.
More importantly, the CTO needs to understand the implications of technology and how business is changed by technology.
A CTO helps to guide other company executives in their use and understanding of technology.
Ultimately, the CTO is a “thought leader” - they guide the thinking of others.
Given that, it is pretty obvious that very few, if any, individuals can fill the role. Any CTO will inevitably be good at some things and not so good at others; as humans, they will inevitably flawed.

And Me?
Do I still want to be a CTO? - well yes but actually, I’m not concerned about the title, call me what you will - Chief Engineer is a title I’d love too - but what I’d love is a role which allows me span boundaries: as someone who understands technology, can code, can architect, knows how to align business with business structure and technology architecture; as someone who knows the importance of knowing what is being built and how it will meet customer needs.

If you know of such a role I can always be tempted, until then, I’ll stick to consulting.

Im currently freelancing

ok, but you know that cag wont leave jon for you until you are a powerful cto again, right?

I doubt CTO won't work without a company

be your OWN cto, the war is more important than the company or a signle man anyway ~~ the war for cag's heart -- C T O wars

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Originally Posted by m0nde

https://www.itchronicles.com/wp-cont...31-768x434.jpg

5 Qualities of a Great CTO


The chief technology officer (CTO) is the executive responsible for an organization’s technological needs. But, as technology continues to evolve, so too does the role of those in charge of supervising it.

Today, with technology being such an intrinsic part of a company’s success or failure, chief technology officers have had to become innovators, risk-takers and true business leaders. To be profitable, chief technology officers working today are responsible for balancing technology development and market demands for a sustainable competitive advantage. They are also often the leader of the research and development for the technological goods the company produces, and are responsible for developing, implementing, managing and evaluating the company’s technological resources.

What’s more, as digital transformation continues to become imperative to ongoing business strategies, chief technology officers are finding that they are becoming responsible for more than just technology. They are responsible for – or at least heavily involved with – overseeing the transformation of every business process, and are expected to apply technology into every facet of the business.

In years gone by, CTOs would be able to work pretty much entirely within their own department. Now, however, it is becoming increasingly important for chief technology officers to not only be aware of, but actively participate in all aspects of the company. They are expected to take a leading role in company growth and transformation processes.

It’s an incredibly important role in today’s technology-focused business landscape. So, what are the qualities chief technology officers need to possess to drive their organizations forward in an ever-changing market? Let’s consider five of the most important.

CTOs Must Be Visionary and Driven to Achieve Market Success
Chief technology officers must be more than just technically savvy. They need to be strategic, analytical, forward-looking, and constantly alert to new trends that will drive their company forward.

CTOs need to be visionaries. They must have a clear idea where the company will be in X months’ time, and what technologies the business will require to reach that future state. In order to keep their organizations competitive, efficient and scalable, chief technology officers must continuously monitor and assess the rapidly-changing world of technology. They need to be analyzing market trends, keeping a close eye on the successes and failures of competitors, and anticipating consumer demand in the long-term and preparing for it.

For example, it’s no secret that the emergence of automation and artificial intelligence is dramatically influencing consumer behavior and market trends. As such, modern CTOs need to ensure their teams are quick to gauge and adopt such technologies if they’re what the market is demanding, and thereby make sure the company is able to remain relevant and competitive, or even blaze the trail ahead.

Communication Skills
A good chief technology officer must be able to explain technical concepts to non-technical people within the organization, including the CEO and other board members, as well as employees across departments.

As new technologies are identified that the chief technology officer considers will be a boon for the business, he/she must then be able to communicate the benefits effectively to different audiences. CTOs must be able to communicate technical information to business personnel, and business information to technical personnel. This involves having a true understanding of not only the technology in question, but also the audience, and having the diplomacy and patience to convey complex subjects in terms that all stakeholders can understand.

This ability to translate something technical into something business-relatable is a key skill for modern chief technology officers, and something that Greg Hanson, CTO & VP at Informatica, knows the value of first-hand. As he explains to Information Age: “One of my strengths and skills was always the ability to translate a business initiative or a business imperative into a requirement for how we should develop software solutions. This stood me in great stead – the ability to translate business requirements and initiatives into products and projects that helped to meet those business requirements.”

CTOs Must Be Entrepreneurial
Being able to work to achieve high-level business goals is a vital skill for every member of the C-suite – the CTO included. Not only will a good chief technology officer help the business stay nimble and competitive in the short-to-medium-term, but will have in-depth knowledge of the organization’s wider objectives, and use that knowledge to address how technology can best serve the organization’s goals over the long-term as well.

Rather than getting lost in small everyday tasks, the CTO must see the big picture of what the organization is moving towards. Chief technology officers must focus their time evaluating how technology can be used to create new business models and lines. They must be looking to disrupt markets, and, as such, have disruptive ideas. In short, good CTOs are entrepreneurial – they are business-minded “big thinkers” that champion innovation.

CTOs Must Be Evangelistic Product Experts
A great chief technology officer will have a sound understanding of development, and know how to transform business ideas into a real working product. They will be able to recognize early on if business goals and product development are drifting apart, take command, and steer things back in the right direction to keep everything aligned with the company’s vision.

Beyond this, however, a strong CTO will be the face of the organization’s technology. In fact, chief technology officers should hold a very external role in the organization, and be interfacing with clients directly. In this regard, CTOs need the same soft skills as sales representatives or account managers – they need to be personable, empathetic, and have the ability to communicate complex technical concepts into relatable and easy-to-understand context. In fact, a great chief technology will take a leading role in closing accounts, as opposed to only being brought in after the fact to explain the technical details. Moreover, really great ones will become publicly active in getting the company’s name and products recognized for their successes. They will become evangelistic thought leaders that take advantage of speaking opportunities, interviews and publications to spread the word about the organization and its technology achievements.

Leadership Skills
Naturally, it is the chief technology officer who will be responsible for leading the organization’s technology team into the future, so excellent leadership skills are an absolute must. CTOs today need to work with a diverse range of people from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, including developers, QA experts and, increasingly, data analysts, decision scientists, and many more besides.

While working with all these different people to build and manage great products, the CTO needs to be a problem-solver and decision-maker. At same time, however, he/she must possess the patience and command to deal with differing ideas and viewpoints coming from different corners of the team, and have the natural authority to resolve any disputes in a professional manner.

As such, chief technology officers have the opportunity to play a pivotal role in building a positive company culture of innovation and collaboration. Good CTOs have a passion for team-building and mentoring, and will ensure that the tech team works productively with each other, as well as other colleagues in the business. In this way, they will create a culture that drives retention, and be instrumental in attracting top talent towards the organization.

Final Thoughts

In sum, good chief technology officers should be about far more than just technology. Occupying a pivotal executive position, they should be competent and able leaders with a great mind for business, evangelistic thought leaders with superb communication skills, and forward-looking innovators with a keen eye for aligning product development with market trends and business goals.

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Tldr

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Originally Posted by Desolation

Tldr

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they do tech at small or big companies

Don’t think Jon could be a CTO. White nationalism and conservative populism is a no go at any tech company especially in a progressive place like Austin. Dude probably works for some weirdo start up making 80k.

jon really isnt into the whtie nationalist stuff, thats mostly me lol

and whats wrong with 80k

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Originally Posted by Cag.

and whats wrong with 80k

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Nothing but he could make more of he pretended to be super liberal and mainstream.

both Jon and elezzzark described themselves as ctos on Timmy's tantrum forum, and thus started the CTO wars

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Originally Posted by Cag.

and whats wrong with 80k

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pretty sure Jon makes more than 80k, lmao

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Originally Posted by m0nde

pretty sure Jon makes more than 80k, lmao

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Cag is smart idk if she’s trolling or what, but it seems like she has no idea about the finances of her family.

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Originally Posted by Simio

Cag is smart idk if she’s trolling or what, but it seems like she has no idea about the finances of her family.

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if you cant find anything good about people get the fuck out

cag is married to a powerful tech executive and there is another tech executive on this forum who she had an online relationship with, a certain, very talented, mexican man. both are currently or have been C T O s (chief technical officer). and there is currently a war raging for cag's hand

bev, since you're kind of new here, i wanted to summarize what C T O wars was about

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m0nde

cag is married to a powerful tech executive and there is another tech executive on this forum who she had an online relationship with, a certain, very talented, mexican man. both are currently or have been C T O s (chief technical officer). and there is currently a war raging for cag's hand

bev, since you're kind of new here, i wanted to summarize what C T O wars was about

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ok