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Welcome to this bonus episode of conversations

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in software develop.

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In episode four, I spoke with Jenny Farber

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about product development, including the various

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roles that you find in a product development

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team. Jenny herself has been the CTO

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of several companies. So we also spent some time discussing

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what a CTO does here is

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what Jenny had to say. So

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I know that you've been a CTO , uh,

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in a couple of companies , uh, and , uh, I

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find that a lot of times , uh,

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you know, the CTO sounds

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like such a lofty in such a sort of high up like

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position that it's a little bit hard for

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someone who is just starting in software development

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to sort of conceive of what exactly the CTO

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is supposed to do. So can you tell us a little bit

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about what , uh, you know, what

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does a CTO do?

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Um , well, first off I would, I would ask you basking that

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to every CTO you meet , um, you

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know, it's good to get different answers, but

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also , um , the fact that is that the

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role varies a lot. It depends on

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the person. It depends on the kind

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of company. It depends on the stage of

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the company. And so , um

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, there there's different paths, there's different types

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of CTOs with different strengths . Um , it's

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also probably worth mentioning that in most

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technology organizations, there's

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at least two top jobs. There's

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often a CTO or chief technology

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officer and the vice president of engineering.

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Um, and there's some, some kind of classic

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separations on who does what, but,

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but there's often too , um, just

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in that's just to bring

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all of the skills together that you need

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to run a successful , um , technology

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team. Um, so, you

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know, it's small companies, the CTO is often

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the smallest company is the CTO is often the top

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engineer. Um, they might write a lot of code

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or they might try to, they , they might help make

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higher level decisions about architecture,

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approach, language, selection, that kind of stuff. Some

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CTO spend a lot of their time outside the company

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, um, and that their job

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is part of the company's marketing. So,

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you know, by our software , cause our CTO

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is really smart. Um, and so they

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might spend a lot of their time on sales activities.

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They might spend a lot of their time on developer relations.

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So if they work , the company makes a product

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that's for other technologists that CTO

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is out there in the community, trying to get people

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excited about using it. Um,

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uh, they might just do a lot of public speaking, some of that's

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for recruiting and for other reasons , um,

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uh, for me , uh, I , I think

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my strengths are mostly in management

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and , uh, a strategy

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with kind of a technical background. So, you know , I

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came up through STEM software development,

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but , um, you know, in the grand

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scheme of things, didn't spend a lot of time

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there. Um, and, but I

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do enjoy , um, building teams.

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I enjoy , um, I enjoy

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people. I enjoy thinking about how you grow

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companies and all of the things that you

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need to change as, as a company grows.

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Um , so, you know, I tend to spend most of my

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time in those activities, I seek out

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workplaces where those are , um , important

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activities. So , um

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, the past three places

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I've been team

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growth was a primary team growth

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and evolution I would say are the primary focuses

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of the company. So , um , those are like

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exciting jobs for me to do because I knew that there was

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like real work to be done there

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and something interesting to do. Um,

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and so, you know, what does that mean on an average day, on

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an average day, I'm like reading and

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writing and talking to people sometimes

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about technology , um , sometimes

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, uh, about people

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on a technology team. So like how do we

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organize our teams and make sure people have fulfilling

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careers , um, regardless of what I'm

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doing, I do feel like I'm

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heavily using my technology

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background , um, sometimes

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directly, but often just often

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I just feel like an engineering

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education made me a really good systems thinker.

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And so she think just

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kind of about like, what

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does it take to turn a company from a

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30 person company to 150

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person company it's like constantly

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reinventing every little system

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that that company has. This is how we

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, um, this is what these are the

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rules for vacation time, and these are the

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rules for how to use GitHub. And these are the

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rules for, you know, and

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like, so just a lot of systems

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thinking about, you know, whatever we do, it will have consequences.

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Um, do we like those consequences or dislike those

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consequences and therefore, what do we do next?

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What, what do you think is the , uh,

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the dividing line between, you know, you mentioned

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that there's usually a CTO and a VP of engineering

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, uh, and I'm, I'm guessing that also varies

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a lot, you know, with each individual company and

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the size and nature of the company, et cetera, but what

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tends to be like the dividing line between those

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two?

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Um, I would say often a

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VP of engineering is the top engineering

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manager and the CTO

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is something else. So

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they might be more of a strategist. They might be more

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of a working engineer. Um , they might

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be more of an evangelist. So I would say

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that is the most common, most

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common breakdown .