Every business is unique, but the tech leadership challenges are predictable: delivery stalls, priorities blur, and risk increases. Here are patterns I've observed and how I address them.
| Observed | Solution | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Context | When the CTO seat is empty or overloaded, priorities get lost and learnings fade as teams rush to deliver. | → |
Clear decision frameworks and priority alignment restore delivery cadence.
Interim leadership bridges the gap when tech challenges impact revenue.
Read More:AI Focus Groups |
| Perspective | Teams can be siloed into a specific approach or tech stack, limiting scalability and making change feel risky. | → | An outside perspective helps leadership rethink tech stack and processes—identifying constraints and modernizing pragmatically. A complete rebuild is rarely necessary. |
| Assumptions | "What got you here won't get you there." Assumptions about tech needs and customer requirements can block growth and limit scalability. | → | Decision frameworks help break the "this worked so far" mindset and align tech choices with business outcomes. Tech debt isn't bad—it's misunderstood when managed strategically. |
| Myths | Common myths drive tech decisions: "We need more developers," "Custom code is always better," or "Tech costs scale with revenue." | → | Low-code and no-code solutions are often faster and cheaper than custom development. Tech costs don't always correlate with revenue growth. The right tech decisions enable teams to scale without proportional cost increases. |
| Experimentation | Teams know experiments are important, but making them happen consistently can challenge even agile teams. | → |
An experiment and measure mindset breaks assumption deadlocks
and helps teams identify productivity gains without over-committing to
unproven solutions.
Read More: Sunk Cost Thinking |
| Tuning | Teams grow, but productivity can remain stagnant. More people don't always mean faster delivery. | → | Teams and processes need tuning against metrics that align with business milestones. Decision frameworks help score solutions and promote tech choices that align with growth outcomes. |
| Code | Custom code is often the default solution. CEOs assume they need dedicated developers for every tech challenge, driving up costs and timelines. | → |
Tech
is a Capital Expenditure! Treat it that way.
Low-code, no-code, and integration solutions often deliver faster
outcomes at lower cost—without sacrificing functionality.
Read More: Why devs run to code. |
| Time | Limited time and pressure to deliver can train teams to make decisions quickly using instinct instead of intentional frameworks. | → |
Clear decision frameworks allow teams to process choices at appropriate
speeds and break the "get it done yesterday" pattern that creates
technical debt and delivery risk.
Read More: Resource Restriction |