How to hire the right Fractional CTO.
This is part 3 of a 3 part series. You can find the other two here:
It’s important to select executives that will bring the optimal experience and skills to meet your objectives. I asked my clients what they find most important when evaluating candidates — here’s what I heard.
Industry experience.
I’ve worked with companies where many staff have tenures exceeding 15 years, which has the advantage of consistency, but can lack an influx of fresh viewpoints to challenge the status quo. This can leave you open to disruption from a newer competitor.
One of the most valuable aspects of any new fractional executive is their breadth of experience, so look for a diversity that will complement your organization. The importance of this goes beyond just their work experience to include their network.
Fractional experience.
Does your Fractional CTO candidate have experience with temporary and part-time contracts? It takes a different approach to be successful as a fractional executive, managing the simultaneous demands of multiple clients, and the rigour of delivering on a finite timeline. If you're hiring for a finite duration, ask how your permanent staff will manage when they leave — good fractional executives have proven strategies for this.
How narrow is the scope?
In addition to broad industry experience, fractional CTOs tend to bring a diverse skillset, as all organizational units can benefit from great technology. Don’t expect your new fractional CTO to stay in their lane, as their holistic approach will see them looking to empower at least your sales and marketing teams. Share your broader ambitions with potential candidates to hear if they feel their scope could benefit a wider set of goals.
Do you actually need a CIO?
As an over simplification, a CTO has an external focus to drive business growth through technology, and a CIO focuses internally on the IT systems supporting the needs of employees.
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For some companies, the scope for their new fractional CTO is narrow, primarily focussed on the company’s IT and business processes. If that’s the case, then consider a CIO instead. Although there’s a large crossover of required skills between the jobs of CTO and CIO, you’re going to get a higher return on your investment by ensuring you’re hiring someone with a bias towards your needs.
If your priority is increasing efficiency then hire a CIO, but if your priority is profitable innovation then a CTO is going serve you better.
Key performance indicators.
Companies don’t hire fraction executives to maintain the status quo. Instead they have a distinct objective that will require change. This allows you to set hard deadlines for measuring success. Be prepared for difficult questions from your new fractional executive hire when working with them to define these goals, as they will bring the experience to know the pitfalls that lie ahead that could prevent them from succeeding.
Earlier in my career I was asked to adopt the two KPIs of increased efficiency and increased innovation. In addition to this, it was made clear to me that this company was a highly trusted supplier to their clients, making them the safe choice so tolerance for risk was negligible.
This would have been a perfect storm, as innovation is inherently inefficient, and there is no innovation without risk.
Autonomy.
Expect autonomy from your fractional CTO, but ensure you provide access to the rest of your executive team for monthly check ins. The work of your CTO is enmeshed with many other divisions of your company, so maximize their value by ensuring access.
As agents of change, fractional executives must have thick skins to handle the resistance that is inevitable from those invested in the dogma of your status quo. Use this to your advantage and treat every check in as a performance review where you shouldn’t pull your punches.
Should your CTO write code?
Look at CTO job descriptions from young tech companies and you’re highly likely to see they want their new executive to contribute to their codebase. I understand the desire to hire someone that is like the founders and the rest of the engineering team, often driven by a disdain for suits that don’t speak their language. But is this the best use of their time?
Sometimes the CTO title is a tactic to attract top dev talent, who see it as a career promotion. But the danger is they fall foul of the Peter Principle. What’s more important? Having a head of engineering to mentor your team, or someone who can talk at a low level with your engineering team, but knows what’s required to increase your EBITDA multiplier?