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Joshua Hoffman - Should the CTO be Coding? - Codemotion Amsterdam 2019
This document discusses the role and responsibilities of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in a startup environment, emphasizing the diversity of the role and the importance of leadership skills. It covers aspects such as recruiting, mentoring, engineering culture, and whether a CTO should engage in coding. Additionally, it shares insights on team structure, performance management, and the need for continuous learning and teaching in technology leadership.
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Joshua Hoffman - Should the CTO be Coding? - Codemotion Amsterdam 2019
- 1. Should The CTOBe Coding? Joshua Hoffman (Independent) Amsterdam | April 2-3, 2019
- 2. Set the radioto channel 1!
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- 5. Experience Highlights • RedHat • Tumblr • SoundCloud • LeaseWeb
- 6. Who is thistalk for?
- 7. This Talk IsFor • Engineers thinking about a career change to management • New Startup CTOs (especially with rapidly growing teams) • Anyone who wonders what a startup CTO does
- 8. Should the CTO becoding?
- 9. What is aCTO?
- 10. “Executive-level position focusingon scientific and technological issues.”
- 11. “The CTO developspolicies and procedures and uses technology to enhance products and services.”
- 12. “The CTO examinesthe short and long term needs of an organization, and utilizes capital to make investments designed to help the organization reach its objectives.”
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- 15. “It’s a fuzzysort of role that doesn’t really fit in a box.”
- 16. “It totally dependson the startup.”
- 17. Some Types ofStartup CTO • A Technical Founder • Solo Engineer • Lead Engineer of a small team • Head of Product Team • Head of Engineering Team
- 18. It totally dependson the startup.
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- 20. The CTO Spectrum Startup———————ScaleUp—————————BigCorp 1-415-30 50-100 500+
- 21. The CTO Spectrum Startup———————ScaleUp—————————BigCorp 1-415-30 50-100 500+
- 22. How did Iget here?
- 23. Why be aTechnology Leader?
- 24. “Taking the lobotomy” Photoby https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bz3rk Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
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- 26. My First ManagementExperience Photo by https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Bidgee Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia
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- 28. What does a StartupCTO do?
- 29. Stuff a StartupCTO Typically Does • Recruiting • Coaching and Mentoring • Help define Career Paths • Help define Team Structure • Influence Engineering Culture • Maintain a Vision of The Future • Coding?
- 30. My Top StartupCTO Priorities • Deliver top quality products and/or services • Be a great place to be an engineer
- 31.
- 32. –Amsterdam Economic BoardReport: Fighting The Odds “Developer and data scientist vacancies are constantly open and it usually takes… more than 12 weeks to fill these vacancies.”
- 33. –Amsterdam Economic BoardReport: Fighting The Odds “The demand for Junior IT talents has doubled in the past year, reaching 1 candidate per 26 vacancies, with developers still being the most sought-after candidates…”
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- 37. “What advice wouldyou give someone who is considering a career change to software engineering?”
- 38. “What is onebook every software engineer should read and why?”
- 39. “What advice wouldyou have for a junior engineer on their first day of work?”
- 40. “In your opinion,what is the difference between a Junior and Senior software engineer?”
- 41. “What would youlike to learn from us and what can you teach us?”
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- 43. Coaching Advice or assistancethat is immediately actionable.
- 44. Coaching • Immediate feedback •No relationship required • Practical • Incremental focus
- 45. Mentoring A trusting relationship,built over time, typically in which a more experienced person advises a less experienced person.
- 46. Mentoring • Thoughtful advice •A long term relationship • More questions than answers • Long term focus
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- 49. Engineer Level 1 •Influence: self • Communicates clearly and effectively • Actively involved in learning new skills • Asks for help when stuck
- 50. Engineer Level 2 •Influence: team • Regularly facilitates team communication • Actively involved in learning and sharing new skills • Helps others when asked • Can solve small problems independently
- 51. Engineer Level 6 •Influence: industry • Regularly writes research papers and/or conference talks • Actively involved in coaching and/or mentoring other team members • Contributes to engineer onboarding program • Can lead a large project involving multiple teams
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- 53. Leadership Example How tochange the behavior of 100+ engineers
- 54. Uptime 96% Photo byhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/dirrksv Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
- 55. Outages occur primarily duringworking hours
- 56. Outages mostly effect new/activeprojects
- 57.
- 58. –John Alspaw “All outagesare the result of someone doing their job.”
- 59. 7 Requirements To CompleteAny Task
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- 68. 7 Requirements To CompleteAny Task 1. Awareness 2. Tools 3. Skills / Knowledge 4. Capacity 5. Standard / Definition of Done 6. Measurement 7. Motivation
- 69.
- 70. Prepare a servicefor production
- 71.
- 72. Conduct a post morteminvestigation
- 73. Uptime 99.9% Photo byhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/dirrksv Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
- 74. Uptime Academy 1. Preparea service for production 2. Respond to an incident 3. Conduct a post mortem investigation
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- 76. Team interdependency is adirect result of architectural choices
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- 80. Vision of TheFuture
- 81. Should the CTO becoding?
- 82. The CTO should SOMETIMESbe coding.
- 84. –Lisa Cash Hanson “Leadershipis the ability to guide others without force into a direction or decision that leaves them still feeling empowered and accomplished.”
- 86. Seven Secrets Of TheSuccessful Startup CTO
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- 91.
- 92. Plan For TechDebt
- 93. Build and Maintain YourNetwork
- 94. Seven Secrets ofThe Successful Startup CTO 1. Never Stop Learning 2. Never Stop Teaching 3. Tech Over Taste 4. Elevate Others 5. Make Decisions 6. Plan For Tech Debt 7. Build and Maintain Your Network