The CTO Playbook
The CTO Playbook is a podcast hosted by Adam Horner, a CTO with over 30 years of experience in the tech industry. Each episode offers insights, strategies, and practical advice for CTOs and tech leaders navigating complex roles. Through engaging interviews and leadership tips, the show covers technology strategy, innovation, and team leadership. Adam created the podcast to share the guidance he wished he had on his own journey from engineer to strategic CTO. Listeners gain tools and knowledge to build and refine their personal CTO playbook.
Episodes
106: Trust, temper, override: managing the AI you don't control
One CTO spent two weeks tearing frontier models out and ended up back where they started. Another spent a few days building a tested escape route for what actually mattered.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.The safe CTOs aren
105: The CTO's real job when agents write the code (belief reversal)
A founder went from zero to $10 million ARR in six months with six engineers and fifty agents, and the gap between idea and shipped feature was nine hours.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Most CTOs think going deeper on the
104: Why the Best CTOs Filter the Firehose Instead of Blocking It
Shielding your team from context isn't protection, it's a subtle underestimation of the people you hired for their judgment.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.The thing most technical leaders are proudest of is the same thing
103: What CTOs Miss Before an M&A Deal Hits
Most CTOs chase value creation. Jaco Vermeulen says the real job is preserving it first. Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Boards across the mid-market are running AI pilots that return nothing, and revenue is being book
102: AI Transformation Starts With What You Don't Know You're Assuming — with Duri Chitayat
Duri's father holds more than 100 patents, filed his latest one at 96, and gave him a one-line philosophy that now drives how his teams approach every problem: most people don't try.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Most CTOs
101: Why Most Leadership Assessments Are Measuring the Wrong Thing
What if the biggest constraint on your organisation isn't your tech, your funding, or your market, but whether your leaders can think at the level the problem requires?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Logan Yonavjak spent ne
100: Why AI Is Quietly Draining Your Senior Engineer Pipeline
The reps that used to turn juniors into seniors are disappearing, and most engineering leaders won't notice until the senior shortage hits in three years.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Your dashboards say velocity is up, y
99: Why Transformations Die Just Before They Succeed
The most dangerous moment in a transformation isn't the start, it's the stretch right before behaviours actually start sticking.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.My guest is Anders Wengelin, partner at Friktion in Malmö, who
98: The Office of the CTO at RevenueCat, with Miguel Carranza
When do you stop being the CTO with all the answers and start being the one who asks better questions?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Miguel Carranza built RevenueCat into critical infrastructure for thousands of mobile app
97: Stop Hiring More of the Same — Michelle McDaid, The Leading Place
Women weren't pushed out of tech once. There were multiple waves, and the patterns are still showing up in how teams get built today.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com - the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Most engineering leaders think their hiring process is neu
96: Why the Best CTOs Don't Have a Playbook — Ric Hill, Ghyston
Most CTOs are promoted for technical judgment, then get stuck trying to lead people with the same playbook that got them there.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Ric Hill has spent 14 years running Ghyston with his wife, CTO'd
95: The Leadership Signals CTOs Send Without Realising It with Paul Kinkaid
What if the biggest impact you have as a leader isn’t the strategy you set, but the signals you leave behind in every interaction?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, Paul Kinkaid, a former British Army officer,
94: Execution Beats Strategy? Rethinking the CTO Role in the Age of AI
What happens when execution matters more than strategy?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Adam Spector is a four-time founder and investor in over 200 startups. He has seen firsthand how quickly expectations have shifted, and
93: From SDLC to ADLC: How Engineering Teams are Actually Adopting AI
A CTO hired a star engineer to push AI adoption forward, and within months, the team had lost its momentum, the new hire, and any sense of where they actually were.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Almost every CTO Adam speak
92: The CTO Playbook: How to Build Trust, Consistency, and Psychological Safety in Engineering Teams
The difference between a good CTO and a trusted one often comes down to a personal playbook.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Sam Boswell is the CTO of Terralayr, an energy tech company focused on solving global energy storag
91: The Hardest Upgrade for Technical Leaders: Leading Without Losing Your Edge
What if leadership isn’t about managing people, but about owning decisions?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.I’m joined by Michael Di Prisco, who describes himself as “a software engineer struggling to realize that he became
90: Data Is a Leadership Problem, Not a Technical One — A Playbook for CTOs
Most teams don’t have a data problem; they have a decision problem.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Nic Granger, Chief Information and Financial Officer at the North Sea Transition Authority, joins me to share her perspectiv
89: Engineering Velocity for CTOs: How Superhuman Moves Fast Without Sacrificing Quality
If your team feels busy but nothing meaningful gets delivered, this might explain why.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Loïc Houssier, an engineering leader with two decades of experience across startups, scale-ups, and globa
88: The CTO Role Has Changed — Why Doing More Isn’t the Answer
Why does the CTO role feel heavier after you start winning?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Many leaders in CTO leadership roles are shipping products, raising funding, and hiring well, yet describing a new weight in the rol
87: AI Governance for CTOs: Turning AI Risk Into Competitive Advantage
What if the biggest risk in your AI strategy isn’t the technology, but the assumptions you never question?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Today I’m joined by Jill Heinze, an AI Foresight and Strategy Architect who helps mid
86: Why Communication Is Now a Core Skill for CTOs and Senior Engineering Leaders
What if the most underused asset in your tech organization is your voice?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Kathleen Lucente, founder and CEO of Red Fan Communications, to explore why communica
85: From Firefighting to Flow: How CTOs Build Teams That Learn Fast
What if speed as a CTO has less to do with urgency and more to do with discipline?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Bastien Duret, CTO at a French-American company building web-based
84: Why Your Definition of Done Is Limiting Engineering’s Business Impact
What if redefining one simple phrase could change how your entire organization delivers value?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Why does the definition of ‘done quietly’ determine whether engineering effort turns into real bu
83: Are We Building the Right Things? A CTO’s Guide to Influence, Ethics, and Responsible Innovation
What if the most dangerous thing we build as leaders is certainty?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Today, I sit down with fellow technology leader Joe Thompson, to examine how ethical technology leadership shows up
82: Are You Running Fast in the Wrong Direction? A CTO’s Guide to Clarity with Jason McGhee
Are you running faster with AI, or just running blind?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Most teams don’t lack data, they lack understanding. Today, I sit down with CTO Jason McGhee, who has spent years inside analytics, machi
81: The Culture Playbook for High-Performing Engineering Teams — with CTO Pasha Jam
What if the strongest part of your engineering organization isn’t your tech stack, but the culture you protect every day?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined by CTO Pasha Jam, who has grown an engi
80: Gut Instinct in Tech Leadership: When to Trust It, When to Challenge It
Your most powerful decision engine isn’t your data, your dashboards, or your AI, it’s your gut.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.There is a topic that most technical leaders quietly wrestle with: gut instinct. Not a
79: What Engineers Really Need from Their Leaders: A Conversation with Massimo Belloni
Most CTOs fail not because of bad decisions, but because they stop asking why.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Massimo Belloni, Head of Machine Learning and Data Science at Docpla
78: The Hidden Cost of Getting Paid: Why Trust Is a CTO’s Blind Spot
The real reason invoices don’t get paid has nothing to do with accounting.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Late payments aren’t just annoying, they quietly drain focus, energy, and leadership bandwidth. In this epi
77: The CTO Guide to Scaling Operational Maturity — Lessons from Amazon to Startups
What if the biggest challenge in scaling your organization isn’t execution, but knowing where you actually are?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with James Webster, former Amazon engineer
76: How Great CTOs Influence Regulators, Auditors, and Certifications
What if the real blocker in your certification isn’t the rules at all, but how you’re playing the game?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.What really happens when you treat compliance like a fixed checklist and then
75: The Hidden Systems Behind High-Performing Engineering Teams
What if your team's biggest problem isn't talent, it's the rules you've never written down?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I'm talking with Gerald Chablowski, a lead developer based in Thailand
74: How Great CTOs Lead: Rory Herriman’s Five-Part Framework for High-Performance Technology Teams
What if your biggest advantage as a CTO has almost nothing to do with technology at all?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Rory Herriman, US CTO at Zip Co, whose thirty year career
73: How Avalanche Rescue Taught Me to Lead Calmly in Crisis | Leadership Lessons for CTOs
What if your calmest moment showed up in the middle of a crisis?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.I'm joined by Caroline Elliott, who has made life and death calls in avalanche rescue and now brings that same rescue
72: Why OKRs Fail — and What to Use Instead (with Radhika Dutt)
What if goals are the real problem?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined by Radhika Dutt, an engineer who studied electrical engineering at MIT. She wrote Radical Product Thinking and is now
71: The Real Reason Digital Transformations Fail — It’s Not Technology or People
What if the real bottleneck isn’t people or tech but the thing between them?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined by Michael Louis Schank, author of Digital Transformation Success. He’s spe
70: A Better Way to Explain Your Platform to Non-Technical Executives
Ever tried to explain a technical decision and felt the room silently check out?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.Why do brilliant ideas so often get lost in translation? There is one simple metaphor that changes ev
69: Breaking Free from Vendor Lock-In: A New Playbook for Modernising Legacy Systems
When your CTO dies and no one can read the code, you realize the real problem was never the software.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Matteo Di Battista and Marcello Modica, two Ita
68: Startups, AI, and the Funding Reset: What Investors Really Want in 2025
What if the future of startups isn’t decided by who builds the flashiest AI, but by who solves the right problems?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined again by my friend Thorgeir Einarsson
67: People, Process, Technology: The Leadership Formula Every CTO Needs
What if the real lever isn’t the tech at all?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Matthew Carr, who does interim work and often comes in as the firefighter when a company has taken a
66: CTO Playbook: Leading Change Without Chaos — Giorgia Prestento
Logic alone won’t land; people react to change emotionally.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Giorgia Prestento, a behavioral scientist and author of The Change Maze. She’s here to
65: Unrealistic Planning, Broken Collaboration — and How to Fix Both
Are you optimizing for starting work instead of finishing?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined by Joakim von Prónay, an engineer and psychologist by education and a coach by passion.We bre
64: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There — CTO Leadership with Catherine Stagg-Macey
What if the playbook that built your career suddenly stopped working and nobody told you?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Catherine Stagg-Macey, an executive coach who works with
63: How Corey Hart Scaled a Crisis Team Fast — Without Losing Trust
Would you say yes to leading through chaos with no plan, little information, and no guarantee of success?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Corey Hart, a crisis operator who’s built
62: Tech Debt Is Killing Your Team — Here’s What to Do About It
What if the biggest reason your team feels stuck isn’t money, but the weight of your own code?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Lou Franco, author of Swimming in Tech Debt and a ve
61: Why I Coach CTOs: Lessons from Avalanches, Startups, and Rebuilding Teams
What if the only difference between freezing in chaos and staying calm is how much practice you’ve done before the storm hits?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I trace the moments that shaped why
60: What Do You Do When No One’s Watching? The Truth About Proactive Leadership
Proactivity isn’t an all-or-nothing game.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I break down the myth that leaders are either “proactive” or “reactive” and share why even small, flickering moments of
59: The Future of the CTO: Etienne de Bruin on Leadership, Liquid & Lasting Impact
What if the hardest part of being a CTO isn’t about the technology at all, but learning to lead without a map?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined by Etienne de Bruin, founder of Seven CT
58: You’re Not Leading If You’re Not Listening – Wesley Eugene on Empathy and Influence
What if your most important leadership skill had nothing to do with technology, and everything to do with how people feel?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m joined by Wesley Eugene, SVP at HIT Gl
57: Why Leaders Fail to Grow — Even When They’re Doing Everything ‘Right’
What if the very habits that once made you successful are now holding you back?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I talk with Dr. Ravi Iyer, a physician, scientist, and leader with over four decades
56: 14 Things Great CTOs Stop Doing (And You Should Too)
Stop Doing These 14 Things If You Want to Be a Great CTOBuild your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.I’m not adding to your to-do list—I’m flipping it. These are the habits that keep you reactive, overwhelmed, or straigh
55: CTO Leadership Secrets: The Power of IQ, EQ, and FQ with Faris Aranki
Are you managing your individual contributors in a way that fuels growth, performance, and alignment?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I’m talking with Faris Aranki, founder of Shiageto Consulting,
54: CTO Secrets to Scaling Fast: Lessons from COVID, Culture & Code with Peter Wong
Are you managing individual contributors the best way possible?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Peter Wong, a seasoned CTO, to discuss how to lead individual contributors effecti
53: Why Most Tech Managers Fail at Feedback (and How Top CTOs Fix It)
Are you getting the most out of your individual contributors?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, I sit down with Matan Kubovsky to dive into the art of managing individual contributors through weekly
52: How to lead with presence: 5 habits every technology leader needs
Being busy isn’t your problem—being absent is.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this special episode, Adam dives into the hidden cost of not showing up—at work, at home, and especially as a leader. If you’ve e
51: Leadership, Change & Stillness: What Tech Leaders Can Learn from Hiking
You’re leading everyone else—but are you quietly abandoning yourself?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.This episode features executive coach and former engineer Natalya Tarasova, who brings a rare blend of technic
50: From Chaos to Clarity: Using KPIs to Protect, Persuade, and Prioritize as CTO
Your KPIs aren’t just underperforming—some of them are actively lying to you.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, Adam sits down with Lior Gerson, co-founder and CEO of Target Board, a company that's r
49: What’s the Point of Your Tech Team? Why Most CEOs are Missing the Signals
"Compliance doesn’t make you good—so how do you really know if your tech team is any good at all?"Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, Adam sits down with Andy Graham, former CTO with 30 years of M&a
48: Why great CTOs slow down to think, and see what others can’t
"Most CTOs spend all their time chasing rabbits—and miss the real future right in front of them."Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this sharp, no-fluff episode, Adam cuts through the chaos CTOs face daily and
47: The Future of Distributed Architecture and Durable Execution with Temporal CTO, Maxim Fateev
What if the most complex part of your backend system... just vanished?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, Adam sits down with Maxim Fateev, CTO and co-founder of Temporal, a platform quietly revolutio
46: The CEO’s Playbook for Hiring the Right CTO with Warren Beazley
Most CEOs hire the wrong CTO—not because of a talent shortage, but because they don't know what they're actually looking for.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, Adam sits down with returning guest
45: From Crisis to Clarity: Rob Kalwarowsky’s Playbook for Transformational Leadership
What if the part of you causing burnout is the same one that got you where you are?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, Adam sits down with Rob Kalwarowsky—executive coach, TEDx speaker, and author of
44: The tech behind the scenes at The CTO Playbook
Ever wondered what it really takes to produce a high-quality tech podcast from scratch—while wrangling kids, late nights, and a studio in your basement?Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this rare behind-the-scene
43:The CTO’s Guide to Performance-First Architecture with Victor Nicollet (Lokad CTO)
Victor Nicollet is an expert in mechanical sympathy for software, focusing on how software design can better align with the hardware it runs on for smarter, faster systems.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this e
42: From Chaos to Clarity: 9 Principles for Leading in a World of Citizen Developers
In this episode, you'll learn how the rise of citizen builders is reshaping software creation, why leadership now demands alignment over control, how to measure real impact across teams, and what it takes to scale safely in a world of AI-assisted development.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast,
41: Steel Thread, Event Storming & Target Architectures — Zac Beckman's Guide to Predictable Delivery
Zacharias Beckman is a technology leader and creator of the Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you're going to learn what the Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook i
40: Mastering the Art of Influence: How to Get Executive Buy-In for Your Big Ideas
In this episode, you'll learn how to win support for a tough proposal, avoid getting blindsided in meetings, use informal conversations to map your allies and blockers, and turn neutral teammates into advocates.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, con
39: Preparing for the Jump From CTO to CEO with Andre Louca
Andre Louca is a former CTO who became the CEO of a deep tech startup focused on AI and computer vision. Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you'll learn what it takes to move from CTO to CEO, h
38: Why Cultural Transformation Fails (And How CTOs Can Get It Right) with Eric Johannsen
Eric Johannsen is an engineering leader, author, and father of triplets who has helped lead multiple startups to successful exits.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you're going to learn what cultura
37: Scaling, Strategy & Survival: The CTO Playbook for Large Enterprises with Sarah Greasley
Sarah Greasley is an IBM Distinguished Engineer turned CTO with over 40 years in tech, known for leading large-scale transformation projects at companies like IBM, Direct Line, and AWS.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic imp
36: The CTO’s Guide to Managing Large Engineering Teams Effectively
In this episode, you'll learn how to shift from one-on-one coaching to group leadership, how to reduce politics and knowledge gaps in large engineering teams, how to build a high-trust leadership environment, and how to implement an open-door policy for better team alignment.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Co
35: Why Scaling a Company Feels Impossible (And How to Do It Anyway) with Kevin Howren
Kevin Howren is the Chief Product and Technology Officer at NPACT, where he has led major organizational changes, doubling the customer base and scaling SaaS assets under management from $50 billion to over $100 billion.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with cla
34: The Five CTO Archetypes: Which One Are You?
In this episode, you'll learn what CTO coaching is, who it’s for, the impact it can have, and how to find the right coach for your goals. Adam Horner shares common CTO challenges, the skills needed to succeed at the executive level, and a framework for accelerating leadership growth.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO jou
33: The Fractional CTO Formula for Success with Dan Gwalter
Dan Gwalter is a fractional consultant and former IT director who helps businesses navigate growth challenges.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you're going to learn why Dan left a high-paying corpo
32: How to Run 1:1s That Actually Improve Performance
In this episode, you'll learn how to structure effective one-on-one meetings with engineers, how to maintain alignment between individual performance and company goals, how to use a rolling agenda for tracking progress, and how to transition from weekly check-ins to quarterly and annual reviews seamlessly.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform bui
31: The Fatal Flaw of 10x Developers (Here’s What Actually Matters)
Matt Watson is the CEO of FullScale and previously bootstrapped an SaaS company to $35 million ARR before a $150 million exit.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you're going to learn what skills CTOs
30: How to Align Data, Teams, and Strategy for Business Success: Ritavan's Framework
Ritavan is a machine learning expert, author of Data Impact, and has worked in industries such as banking, energy, and real estate.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you're going to learn how to avoi
29: How to Scale a Developer-First Startup with Daniel Jarjoura
Daniel Jarjoura is the Managing Director at Avolta, specializing in helping engineering-led companies prepare for mergers and acquisitions.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you'll learn the importan
28: The No.1 Reason Startups Fail and How to Avoid It with Dr. Georgios Christou
In this episode, you'll learn the top mistakes founder engineers make when starting a business, why early technical decisions can have long-term business consequences, how to choose co-founders with complementary strengths, the importance of understanding business fundamentals as a technical founder, and strategies for picking the right tech stack for your startup's needs.Build your own CTO Playbo
27: How to Stop Hiring the Wrong People with Stephan Schmidt
Stephan Schmidt is a CTO coach and the author of “Amazing CTO”.Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.In this episode, you're going to learn why hiring the right people is the foundation of success and how to assess cand
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