CTO2Gotm – Interim Management

The role of a CTO / Director Software Development / VP Software Engineering should, of course, be filled by an internal employee. Such a position should be strategic and long-term and it should ensure that knowledge about technology, business and the people involved is created, maintained and specialized over time.

It’s not easy to find candidates who are strong in either technology, business or people management.
It’s even more difficult to find someone who covers all 3 areas.

At the end of the day it’s an economic trade-off between the time (and opportunity cost) one is willing to invest into finding the perfect candidate vs. a readily available, however not permanent, solution utilizing an interim manager.

As “CTO2Go Interim Management” we support our clients with these services:

Selected list of services:

  • “Successor search”
    As the CTO position should be filled by an internal employee, we help hiring this person (see also “staffing” for more details).
    This activity also includes searching for candidates within your existing staff, including identifying, assessing and, if needed, coaching the person for the new leadership role.
  • Feasibility and MVP strategy
    Many startups but also larger companies create new ideas every day – but which of these ideas are both feasible and promising?
    We help our clients structure even vague ideas and how to assess their technical feasibility.
    We support develop strategies for creating “tangible” solutions that show feasibility and result in an MVP that offers the idea to defined users for evaluation.
  • Team Setup & Staffing

    “It’s all about the product team” – Marty Cagan, “Inspired”

    A great deal of whether a project or product development succeeds – or fails – depends on how the team is set up:
    Who works with whom and where is which accountability?

    We help you

    • define the right setup for your endeavor
      • Which skills are needed?
      • …and how many of them?
      • How should collaboration work, what are the roles and responsibilities?
      • What can be done externally, how much should remain internal?
    • find the right staff
      • Which existing employees may be a fit and for which roles?
      • Which other roles still need to be filled?
      • Which service providers may be used?
      • How can talent be attracted on the job market?
      • How can matching candidates be identified?
      • How can a talent be convinced to be hired?
      • How can the number of unsolicited applications be raised – via your current staff and even rejected candidates?
  • Retention
    (Too much) attrition in your software development staff can lead to high cost fast. Even worse, development progress can slow down up to a point of complete halt.
    We know how developers “tick” and we apply measures to raise happiness and morale.
  • Monitoring and Auditing of Projects / Products
  • Overarching Strategy for Software Development
    • Selection and roll-out of technologies, tools, partners and processes
    • … including especially agility and agile transformation
    • Definition of standards, guidelines, blueprints
    • Setup of departments / software business units
    • Roles and responsibilities, hiring/promoting for strategic positions
    • Team building & fostering of a “healthy” work culture
  • Sales Support, Pitches
  • Training
    • Hard skills (advanced programming, Clean Code, TDD, Architecture, …)
    • Soft skills for software engineers, including training for future leaders (Tech Leads, Architects, Directors, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, …)
  • Agile Transformation