As CTO of your company, you do not manage the engineering organization. Currently, you have no direct reports. You have proposed to the CEO that the company create an "Office of the CTO", reporting to the CEO. This Office will consist of a very small team of senior people, who will report to you. There is a board meeting upcoming soon. The CEO has asked you to make the case for the Office of the CTO as part of the materials to be submitted to the board. Overall, she wants you to create the following document to be submitted to the board of directors:
- Market and Product Overview: A brief overview of the market you are in, the key challenges and opportunities of operating in this market, what your company’s product(s) is, how it addresses this market opportunity, and where the company currently is in its progress with respect to the market. Discuss the business model i.e., what brings in revenue for the
company (if it doesn't generate any money, then mention the business
strategy for possible future revenue). What is the defensible technology in the product or the barrier to entry.
- Office of the CTO: A rationale for why an Office of the CTO makes sense to establish at this particular stage of the company.
- Organizational Structure: A description of the areas that the Office of the CTO will own (be responsible and accountable for), as opposed to the VP of Engineering, the Chief Marketing Officer, and the CEO. A description of the areas that others will own but the Office of the CTO will work closely with, and what that relationship will look like. A description of the key positions within the Office of the CTO, and what areas each will own. And a description of the areas that will be owned by the VP of Engineering.
- Conflict Resolution: What mechanisms would you use to resolve disagreements among the CTO, VP Engineering, CMO etc.
- Hiring/growth: A description of the current engineering and product management organizations, and how you (and the CEO and VP Engineering) plan to grow them over the next year.
- Technical Design Tradeoffs: A description of three major technology-related decisions that will need to be made by the company in the near future. For each, state the major options and their pros and cons very objectively, and then state your proposed option and explain why you would choose it and what the risks with it are. You need to be specific enough and give sufficient technical and business related details, and yet keep your target audience (non-technical board of directors) in mind.
- Can Cloud Help: The board had specifically asked in the previous board meeting whether you plan to move your infrastructure "into the cloud". Address this topic. If you plan to move, say to which (cloud) infrastructure provider and how you plan to manage it. Use services from a single provider or multiple providers and why. If you're recommending not moving to the cloud, then explain why not. Discuss cost implications as well.
- Analytics: The board has also specifically asked about measuring the business. Describe how you plan to instill a culture of measurement into the company. Describe the three main Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the business, and why, and how you will measure and report them on a regular, ongoing basis. Describe the three main KPIs for the product/technology, and how you will measure and report these.
- Future Strategy: Looking into the future, lay out the technology strategy that you think the company should follow in the next two years. Examples include, new products/features that should be developed, getting into new markets or closing down any services, strategy for scaling services, cost optimizations, etc.
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Submit 23:59 EST on Sun 03/27 |
