This article comes from the WeChat public account "Linear Capital" (ID: LinearVenture)
Become a Qualified CTO
We have invested in many technology-based companies and have some thoughts on what is a qualified CTO. There has been some debate recently about what a qualified CTO is, and we share some of our thoughts in a Q&A. On the one hand, these views sometimes affect whether we invest in a company, and on the other hand, they are also summed up from the history of the invested company.
What is the definition of CTO?
According to its definition, Chief Technology Officer is the highest person in charge of technology. The debate on issues related to Technology has stopped at the CTO level, and the CTO's answer will be the final answer. No appeal, no further escalation. If the CTO cannot answer the question on his own, he or she should try to find all kinds of help to make a final decision. But answering that technical question will be his ultimate responsibility. It's like the Supreme Court above the judiciary - the verdict will be final. Even wrong is final. So the level of a CTO will ultimately determine the technical level of a company.
But that doesn't mean that all technical questions should be answered by the CTO. Using the judicial system again as an analogy, courts at all levels conduct judicial practice as much as possible within their responsibilities and capabilities. Likewise, try to keep technical issues with the technical staff responsible for the relevant practice as much as possible, until disputes arise or the technical team cannot answer them independently.
The technology discussed above is the responsibility of things, and the other side of the coin is the affairs of people. In addition to Technology, another keyword that cannot be ignored in CTO is Officer. Officer is a leadership role. a leadership position. A good leader is a manager but more than a manager. He needs to build a team or there will be no team to lead, and the bachelor commander will either die from overwork or hinder the company's development; he needs to grow, inspire, motivate, and challenge the team , otherwise the team will not be able to Develop beyond yourself; he is an example, he needs to say one thing and do another, because people in the technical team will use his words and deeds as a benchmark for their own behavior. The best leadership is lead by exmaple. He needs to tap and cultivate other people with leadership potential in the team, otherwise the team will not be able to scale. I remember when we switched from engineer to manager, our VP talked to me specifically, and forgot everything else, I remember this sentence
『I don't care about your personal success. I care about your team's sucess. As a leader, your job is to make them successful.』
(I don't care about your personal success, I care about your team's success. As a leader, your job is to make them successful.)
A CTO needs to stand up and protect his team when necessary, because the company's politics will inevitably appear in the development process; instead of internally declaring that politics is not allowed like a BAT company, there are actually more political struggles than anyone else. It is better to treat it calmly and put some disputes of interests on the table to discuss.
Therefore, a CTO who only discusses technology and ignores people is not qualified. Some companies choose to separate the roles of CTO and VP of Engineering under certain circumstances. The former is only concerned with technology, while the latter is more concerned with people and culture, which is also a choice. At this time, the T in the CTO is the key point, not the O.
What is the core responsibility of the CTO?
Ensure that the core products can be released on schedule with guaranteed quality.
Whether it's the technology mentioned above, or the management of technical people, "ultimately" is not about building a "great" technical architecture. The ultimate goal is to be able to release a product, solve a problem, satisfy a customer, and capture the market - that's the heart of a business company. The role of the CTO is to serve the core.
The focus is today, but prepare for rapid product iterations and continuous releases in the future.
Does CTO need coding?
unnecessary.
However, early exceptions.
In the early days, everything was lacking, and many things required the CTO (and sometimes the CEO) to do it themselves. This time there is no need to say too many rules. If you don't have a team member, you will go on your own. No one will. The organizer will learn it, including yourself. But CTO as IC (individual contributor) should be a temporary behavior. Try to find more professional people to do specific business programming as much as possible. Whether it is front-end, back-end, data, full stack, etc., the knife should be sharper as it gets sharper. The CTO is the one who handles the knife, not the knife itself.
Does the CTO need to know programming?
The CTO must know programming, and know programming very well.
He should be a good engineer. It shouldn't take him more than 3 months to go back to his old business and become a good programmer if he needs to. Only in this way can he have good communication with other engineers, intervene in the discussion of the technical framework when necessary, and will not talk like ducks and be despised by his own subordinates.
Should the CTO participate in the selection of core technologies?
Intervene only if you are in your area of expertise or if your team cannot make effective decisions on their own.
This involves a principle "let the expert decide" when making core technical decisions. If you are the best expert, here you go. At this time you are not participating in the discussion as a CTO, but as a domain expert. Another principle is to let the team responsible for practice make decisions as much as possible. A construction team is the party most affected by a technology selection decision, and they are most motivated to take the time to dig deeper and make a decision that won't embarrass them in the future. If necessary, CTOs can use their relationships in the industry to invite the most appropriate outside experts to advise the team on case sharing, but do not leave the decision to outside experts.
And when the team is caught in an argument and cannot make a decision independently, if you believe in your players, you can participate in an arbitration at this time; because if the two sides in the stalemate are excellent, the technical option in question should not exist. A situation that would be significantly better than some of the other options. Just pick one and move on. As CTO, you need to understand when arguments are enough and when it's time to make a decision.
Should CTO participate in Code Review?
First, a CTO who doesn't actively promote Code Review is not a qualified CTO. Obviously there is no global vision and deep thinking about long-term efficiency.
With the mechanism of Code Review, I suggest that CTOs should often look at the core part of the code to maintain familiarity with their team's code.
Reading code is like reading. If you don’t read for a long time, you will lose your sense of words. But it doesn't have to be read in full. The core code of the core system, and when the company encounters a big bug, should be checked frequently. The former has a first-hand understanding of the core technology implementation of their company and knows where the strengths are; the latter can understand where their teams usually stumble and where they are weak.
Should the CTO participate in architectural discussions of core systems?
should.
If a CTO does not understand the general practice of his core system, he will not be able to intervene in the final technical arbitration when necessary; nor will he know what kind of technical personnel to recruit to develop the team. The former is to do things, and the latter is to be a person. Things and people should serve the system. The system, of course, is for product services.
Should CTOs participate in core product discussions?
should.
The product needs to be realized. Only by knowing what the core product is, can we know what kind of core system is needed, and then what kind of technology and talent. Therefore, it is very important for the CTO to participate in the discussion of core products.
Should CTO lead the construction of engineer culture and system?
One of the main responsibilities of the CTO.
CTO is a leadership role. When the team is small, management is relatively easy, and everyone can mainly discuss matters. As the team grows, whether you like it or not, it will gradually be layered. You need to gradually develop middle-level cadres and gradually think about cultural construction. The so-called cultural construction is a process of forming a consensus. This consensus is about what style of doing things is to be encouraged. Culture is not right or wrong, culture is a choice.
If the early CTOs of many founding teams cannot grow up with the growth of the company, they are still caught in the local war of a specific piece of code every day. Know how to delegate, or just let go and ignore it completely, and don't know how to validate. The teacher did the job of the platoon leader.
If a company's CTO just wants to manage things, not people. Either add a VP of Engineering in charge, or give up the CTO position to a more suitable candidate.
Should the CTO often go out and communicate with the outside world?
Although not required, it is an important point that differentiates a good CTO from a great CTO.
Going out, on the one hand, you can expose your company's problems in technology and people. The premise of reaching a high level is that you and the high level are connected, so that the two waters have a chance to level. Unless you are so conceited that you are a lot better than the rest of the world. On the other hand, you can show some of the achievements of your company and show the cultural characteristics of your company, which can better attract good people to come in. As mentioned earlier, an important role of the CTO is to build the team. The premise of a team is a good person; the premise of attracting a good person is that others want to know you. If the CTO does not go out and communicate more with the industry, it is probably unreliable to expect headhunters to find great people.
But to distinguish between effective communication and the turn of the meal. The former requires solid sharing, to contribute to the community, to spend money and energy to invite great people to share, and everyone to do in-depth and unreserved discussions. The latter is mainly a dinner exchange, a general friendship, and does not discuss the exchange of specific examples of leading people to do things. Although the latter has some value, we can do it as investors, but it is of little significance to the CTO.
At this point, you can refer to this article (Note: http://www.svpg.com/what-makes-a-great-cto/) on the role of the CTO on Evangelism (sermons)
The CTO will serve as the company spokesperson for the product development/technology organization, demonstrating leadership in the community, with developers, partners and customers. This is often measured by establishing a university relations/recruitment program, and sponsoring or participating in at least two events per year in the developer community.
Who should the CTO do the regular 1 on 1 with?
Regular 1 on 1 should include CEO + VP of Product + direct reports + technical lead of core product + architect. In addition, for those who are about to change from engineer to management position, manager to director, etc., they should communicate once or twice during the inspection period.
The above is just our family's words. Like a successful CEO, a successful CTO may have different backgrounds and styles, but in the end, he must play the role of Chief Officer around Technology.
Original address: http://36kr.com/p/5052742.html