Prologue
So, you’ve mastered the Engineering Manager role. Congrats! Maybe you’ve juggled deadlines, team morale, and stakeholder expectations so well that people have started calling you the “human Swiss Army knife.” Now you’re looking at the next peak: the CTO role at least it was my next one maybe yours is something else like VP or … but from EM to higher some points are same.
Moving into the CTO position isn’t just a promotion, oh no it is NOT, it’s a seismic shift. Your responsibilities expand from leading teams to steering the entire technical vision of an organization. You’re no longer focused on just the next sprint or quarter; now you’re thinking years ahead, aligning technology with business goals, and preparing the company to scale.
Let’s break it down: strategy, culture, and innovation.
Act 1: From Tactical to Strategic
When I was CEO, I often faced tough decisions about balancing innovation with practicality. One moment stands out vividly. Suddenly, traffic to our audio streaming service spiked after some unexpected media coverage, bringing our service to a halt. At the time, we ran everything, audio streaming, the web application, images, pre-recorded audios, all on the same server. It was clear we were hitting our limits.
One of the teams proposed a bold solution: transitioning our entire audio streaming service to a new platform, effectively separating concerns and future-proofing the system. The benefits were clear, flexibility, scalability, and reduced risk. But so were the costs. We didn’t have enough sponsors to support such a transition, and our investors were already cautious about funding new initiatives without guaranteed ROI.
Instead of jumping in with an all-or-nothing approach, we piloted a short-term solution. I spent time calming both sponsors and investors. Sponsors wanted immediate fixes, and investors were worried about peak-hour downtime. After sitting down with the teams, we landed on a compromise: reducing the bitrate of audio streams while maintaining perceived quality. It wasn’t ideal, but with clear communication and hands-on involvement from all, even me, the teams rallied behind the plan. We converted all the audios to lower bitrate and streamed new ones in lower bitrate too, changing some format and automation on recording to delivery long story short: It worked! Reducing the bitrate cut down workloads significantly, allowing us to handle the surge in traffic without sacrificing the user experience. Over time, as the business grew and funding stabilized, we revisited the original proposal, transitioning the service to a better platform when it made financial sense.
Balancing Technical and Business Realities
As a CTO, or in my case, CEO, you’ll often find yourself bridging the gap between technical possibilities and business constraints. It’s not enough to champion cutting-edge solutions; you need to align them with the company’s immediate goals and long-term vision.
In this case, we needed ROI and availability at the same time. That meant implementing a short-term fix that addressed the crisis while paving the way for sustainable growth. The key is learning to speak both technical and business languages fluently, crafting solutions that satisfy stakeholders on all sides. By focusing on short-, mid-, and long-term strategies, you can ensure technical innovation drives business success without risking the company’s stability.
Act 2: Culture at Scale
As CTO, I witnessed firsthand how rapidly scaling an organization can create both opportunities and challenges. With a growing number of projects and priorities, I quickly realized that attempting to oversee everything personally was impossible, and worse, it would lead straight to micromanagement, the ultimate growth killer.
Instead, I shifted my focus to building a strong leadership pipeline within the organization. I started working closely with Engineering Managers (EMs) and Tech Leads, ensuring we were aligned on core values: prioritizing quality over speed, fostering psychological safety, and maintaining a shared vision. This wasn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it approach; we engaged in regular conversations to tackle both immediate emergencies and long-term goals.
Of course, it wasn’t always smooth. Emergencies cropped up, and we occasionally had to compromise on our principles to meet pressing demands. But these deviations were temporary because our shared foundation kept us steady. Over time, these leaders became multipliers of the culture we wanted to cultivate. They understood the company’s goals deeply, made tough calls, and guided their teams with increasing independence.
They didn’t always get it right, no one does. But the trust we built meant I could step in when necessary, not to micromanage but to refine their approach or offer guidance. What mattered most was that they felt equipped and supported to lead autonomously. That autonomy amplified the impact of our teams and, by extension, our company.
Here’s a critical insight/sidenote I learned along the way: a company isn’t just about R&D or IT; it’s about the business as a whole. As CTO, you can have a significant impact, but there are limits to how far you can grow without alignment across all parts of the organization. It’s like this: you can’t grow the head bigger than the body. At some point, everything, engineering, product, marketing, sales, C-level… needs to work together. Without that collaboration, growth stalls, or worse, the system collapses, so don’t do it alone take others with you if you can.
Build a Leadership Pipeline
As CTO, you can’t manage everything directly. Your success hinges on the strength of your leadership team. Invest in mentoring your EMs and Tech Leads, equipping them to lead autonomously while staying aligned with the company’s vision. They are the ones who will carry your culture forward and amplify your impact across the organization. And remember, true growth only happens when every part of the company works in harmony. Build leaders, but also build alignment across the organization if possible.
Act 3: Innovation Meets Risk
As CTO, I inherited a legacy system that was holding us back—not just in terms of adopting new technologies, but also in our ability to take on new projects and scale effectively. The engineering team was frustrated by how much slower development had become, and we were in emergency mode. A year of stagnation had left the company struggling to stay competitive, and the business side was pushing hard to break into a new market segment.
Replacing the legacy system outright wasn’t an option. It would have meant significant downtime, not to mention the risk of failure. But leaving it untouched wasn’t viable either. We couldn’t implement new protocols or adapt to modern demands—it would’ve been a death wish for the company’s future.
We chose a phased approach instead. New features were built on a microservice’s architecture, while the core monolith continued to handle existing operations. To bridge the gap, we introduced a containerized and non-containerized separation. It wasn’t an easy decision; this path created significant technical debt, required team reorganization, and demanded rapid upskilling in new technologies.
The process was intense. I still remember the big brainstorming meeting where we pitched the idea to the team. Despite the challenges, the developers were excited about the opportunity. It was an 8-month sprint of hard work, filled with bugs, chaos, and growing pains. But the outcome was extraordinary.
We delivered a breakthrough platform that enabled new products, scalability, and orchestration across the company. The legacy system still exists, but now it’s contained, and we know how to move forward without reinventing the wheel. By embracing the chaos, we turned what seemed like insurmountable risks into opportunities for growth and innovation.
Balancing Legacy and Innovation
As CTO, one of your toughest challenges will be balancing technical debt with the need for innovation. Legacy systems often feel like an anchor, but they don’t have to sink your progress. A phased approach, like introducing microservices while maintaining core operations, can mitigate risks and deliver value incrementally.
It’s not about avoiding chaos; it’s about using it as a catalyst to create opportunities. By embracing challenges and rallying your team around a shared vision, you can modernize, innovate, and scale without losing sight of your long-term goals.
Finale
Stepping into the CTO role is not just a promotion; it is a transformation. It is about shifting from tactical execution to strategic vision, from overseeing code to orchestrating culture, and from delivering features to shaping the company’s future. The challenges you face will be bigger, messier, and more complex, but the rewards are just as extraordinary.
If there is one overarching lesson from my journey, it is that leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about creating an environment where the right answers can emerge. And when they do not, remember this: make a decision.some times you don’t even know whether it is right or wrong, as CTO, you need to make the call. That is what sets this role apart from being an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead. You cannot say, “I don’t know!” You are not in the position to defer or wait for clarity. Sometimes, you will be in uncharted territory where no one has the answers. You are the pioneer. You need to make the mistakes and fail fast, learn from them, and lead the way forward.
Whether it is balancing legacy systems with innovation, building a pipeline of leaders who amplify your impact, or aligning technical possibilities with business realities, the key is staying adaptable, collaborative, and focused on the bigger picture.
Remember, a company is not just its technology. It is the people, the culture, and the shared vision that drive everything forward. Growth does not happen in isolation. Like I said before, the head cannot grow bigger than the body. Every part of the organization, including engineering, product, marketing, and beyond, needs to work in harmony to sustain success. If things do not align, know that it is not always your fault. Even as CTO, there are limits to your power.
To me, the heart of being a CTO lies in navigating this delicate balance. It is about embracing chaos to find opportunities, fostering collaboration to drive alignment, and leading with humility and purpose. It is about empowering others, inspiring innovation, and building something that truly matters.
So, enjoy the climb. The view from the top is not just about what you achieve. It is about the people and the legacy you leave behind.