BOTTOM LINE: Would you be surprised if your organization spent less than 20% of engineering capacity creating customer value? You’re stuck here because your org has so many handoffs it looks like an Olympic marathon relay. Value stream mapping reveals the same number told two ways: value density (aspirational metric that makes boards feel hopeful) … Read more
The Moment You Knew Something Was Broken You were in the board meeting when it happened. Q3 review. Your CEO clicked to the product roadmap slide—the one you and your VP of Product spent six weeks perfecting—and the room went quiet. “So we’ll have dynamic pricing by… Q2 next year?” The lead investor leaned back. … Read more
You standardized your sales tools years ago. Now your competitors are doing the same with AI development—and measuring what you can’t. The Disaster You Already Prevent in Sales Your top AE—the one closing $5M deals—didn’t pick Salesforce. Your CRO did. That rep adapted in two weeks and got back to selling. You did this because … Read more
They just made you Chief AI Officer. Or VP of AI. Whatever title they invented when the board asked about AI strategy. Here’s what nobody told you: this job will be great for your career and probably end badly. Not because you’ll fail—because they don’t know what they hired you to do. That’s fine. You’re … Read more
Tuesday, 3:47 PM Your phone buzzed. Terry: Can I call you later? Terry is the fake name of the leader, but Terry could be you, or a friend of yours—there are a lot of Terrys right now. You’ve known Terry for years. Ten years at their company. Joined right after the IPO. You’d grab drinks … Read more
Last week, your company declined a senior candidate requesting $250,000 in base compensation. Five years of experience across two startups. Built a complete AI SaaS platform using AI development tools. Delivered features that would have required your engineering teams quarters to ship. Her equity had vested, she sought work-life balance after years of startup intensity, … Read more
Or: How I Rewrote Everything, Gave Away Two Free Cars, and Saved $32M Week One: The Numbers New CTO. Corner office. Finally made it. VP of Engineering closes the door: “$50M technology budget. $40M—80%—goes to legacy maintenance. $2M—4%—goes to new products.” You’re spending 80% chasing the past while competitors invest 100% in the future. She … Read more
You’ve been here long enough to see the pattern. Your CxOs want AI. They talk about it in all-hands meetings. They mention it to the board. They’ve probably put it in your objectives. But ask them to change how engineering works with product? Silence. Suggest consolidating toolchains? “Not the right time.” Propose breaking down silos? … Read more
Part One: The Text The text from board chair Amanda arrived at 6:47 AM on a Tuesday: “We need to talk about the competitive situation.” David sat in his kitchen and felt his stomach drop. Four years as CEO of Velocity Systems. Grew it from $80M to $200M ARR. Built what he thought was a … Read more
Alex has been trying to hire an engineer for three months. Not just any engineer. A specific person who works at a company that ships features in days while his 47-person team takes weeks. He’s watched them launch three features in the time his team shipped one. Same complexity. Same domain. They just move faster. … Read more