The Advantages of Hiring a CTO 

 

1.     Staying Updated with the Ever-evolving Technologies

 

Technology is evolving relentlessly, and the tech from 2015 cannot help you win a battle in 2021. Instead, you must plan to stay ahead of the curve with the tech trends that might dominate 2022.

A CTO keeps up-to-date with the newest tech inclusions in your domain. And he updates your brand’s technology and process to leverage these new tech trends. 

He also invests time in analyzing your competitors and their technological advancement.

Thus, keeping your business a step ahead of your competitors. It can be in cloud technology, UX of your product, tools used by your team, etc.   

 

2.     Establishing an Eminent Technical Stature for the Brand

 

A task that distinguishes the roles of a CTO from a development head is establishing the brand’s technical identity. 

A CTO manages and represents a brand’s technical stature in the media and on the web. He conveys your brand messaging in alignment with the innovation the brand envisions to offer. 

He also involves himself in establishing a crucial network for your brand. His networking areas may include tech conferences, domain-specific B2B network, tech talent network, etc. 

A CTO has great communication skills, and he can assist your business development team. He can help them set the right tech identity in front of your clients and prospects. In fact, a CTO plays an important part in the business development team in IT companies. 

 

3.     Optimizing the Product Development and Bug Fixing Procedures

 

A common issue that companies encounter is with handling client projects. 

The development team often compromises on the quality of a product just to meet the timeline. And without the right assistance, the final delivery is often loaded with patchwork and bugs. 

This approach affects the company’s social proof and recurring business significantly. Unsynchronized bug resolution tasks also increase the no. of committed hours on projects. And it is obvious that your business has to bear this loss in productivity. 

A CTO can help assist your development team with complex projects. Small companies utilize their CTOs as part-time coders for crucial client projects. He also helps set up the delivery processes and the bug limits per line of codes. 

Meanwhile, he assists the engineering team with improving the quality of deliverables. Improved quality standards start earning your brand repeat business and increase your overall revenue. 

 

4.     Maximizing on the Existing Technology

 

A CTO allows your business to draw maximum efficiency from your existing technology. 

One of his important qualifications is that he has hands-on expertise in a majority of tools. These include project management tools, development tools, deployment tools, etc. 

So, a CTO has the authority to decide the tools and resources used in a company. And his thorough knowledge about the ins and outs of these tools allows him to maximize them.

Your Chief Technical Officer can maximize your existing technology in several ways like:

 

• Choosing the right subscription plan for the tools 
• Trimming off the extra features that are unnecessary and hinder the productivity
• Setting up the most efficient processes to use the tech tools
• Removing the unnecessary processes and replacing the manual processes with automation
• Creating automation shortcuts that the team can use for maximizing productivity over tools
• Eliminating the redundancy in workflows and optimizing communication 
• Adding detailed reporting features that can help inform the strategies
• Curtailing the extra (unnecessary) fields from the reports to represent only the useful data

 

5.     Building an Efficient Engineering Team 

 

Your execution team is a crucial asset for your business, and inefficiencies in this team can fade your business. Here a CTO puts in an appearance. 

An ideal CTO candidate has the exceptional technical expertise and leadership qualities. He has experience in managing large engineering teams in the past. 

 

A CTO helps your business:

 

• Set performance and quality standards for the developers 
• Help the developers who are struggling with performance and motivation
• Define processes to increase the productivity of the engineering team 
• Validate and release new openings in the engineering team
• Assist and manage the talent selection process in the company
• Manage the performance of each talent and collectively as a team. 
• Set goals for low-performing candidates, notify them, and manage the exit process (if required).  

 

6.     Taking the Company’s Flagship Product to Success

 

If you are a software product-based company, you probably need an expert to assist you with the success of your products. This process includes roles like:

 

• Managing and assisting the product development process
• Evaluating the feasibility, usefulness, functionality, and project scope of new products 
• Validating the desirability of a product among the target consumers
• Selecting the deployment tools and launch platform for the product
• Suggesting and finalizing the technology and 3rd party integrations in a product (app, software).
• Assisting the marketing strategy and planning the launch schedule of a product
• Instigating the desirability for the company’s flagship products via media and networking

 

An experienced CTO can help you with these roles and bring your efforts to fruition. You can always exercise your choice between hiring a part-time CTO or a full-time CTO.  

 

7.     Defining the Long-term Technical Strategy for the Company

 

A CTO has strategizing and decision-making responsibilities as a crucial part of his profile. 

He contributes and aligns his strategies with the long-term vision of a brand. A full-time CTO must analyze the broader picture of a brand and strategize accordingly. 

A CTO is accountable for a brand’s technical stature and valuation 4-5 years down the line. He must know where the brand is headed and has the authority to tweak or change its direction.

A CTO is a strategic visionary who brings forth the future possibilities into discussions. And he defines the long-term processes and the team dynamics for the brand.  

 

 

The Disadvantages of Hiring a CTO 

 

1.     Extravagant Hiring Cost of a Full-time CTO

 

With reference to the tech companies, a CTO makes a quintessential part of the C-suite league. But, the lumpy salary of a CTO can turn many heads and cause a hole in your pocket.  

As per a source, the average cost of hiring a full-time CTO is $230,000. This figure is enough to intimidate the annual budget of a budding tech company. 

When you plan for a full-time CTO, you also have to prepare for the resources and tools he suggests. This setup process adds to the cost of hiring a full-time CTO.

The decision of hiring a full-time CTO also increases the liability on a business. This liability can be nerve-racking for startups and small businesses. 

One way to reduce the cost and liability is by hiring a part-time CTO. Many startups and enterprise businesses postpone the requirement for a full-time CTO. And they prefer to employ CTO-as-a-Service solutions or part-time CTOs for specific roles. 

But, in any given context, the cost of hiring a CTO is higher than hiring senior developers. 

 

2.     Exhaustive Hiring Process and Hiring Budget

 

The roles and payroll of a CTO make it evident that it is not an ordinary job role. But a Chief Technical Officer has far more diverse responsibilities than a manager or head developer. 

With that said, companies find it daunting to find the right CTO for their business. 

The qualifications and experience required for a CTO transcend to that of head developers. And domain expertise plays a crucial role in selecting the right CTO candidate. 

Therefore, a full-time CTO hiring process spans over several months. This process absorbs many efforts from the recruiters and the selectors. And it eats away a significant part of the company’s total recruitment budget. 

 

3.     High Risks of Wrong Hiring

 

The role of a CTO spans overs several departments in an organization. These include divisions like execution, training, product development, client coordination, management, etc. 

So, a company needs to assess a CTO candidate for diverse types of roles. And with the daunting selection criteria, there are high risks of wrong hiring. 

 

For instance:

 

You hire a full-time CTO for a specific role like software development assistance. You made this hiring based on his exhaustive experience in the same field. And he outperforms your expectations and helps you make a stellar software product.  

 

However, he fails to assist the team with the subsequent tasks like product marketing owing to his little experience in the field. 

 

In this case, you are too late to realize that you made the wrong hiring. 

 

So, it is advisable to list down all the long-term roles & responsibilities of a CTO before hiring one. A way to dwindle the risk of hiring the wrong full-time CTO is by choosing an interim CTO.

 

4.     Full-time CTO’s Limitation to a Single POV (Point of View)

 

A limitation that is peculiar to a full-time CTO is his limited POV. 

Now, a full-time CTO is a long-term job role with diverse leadership responsibilities. And a CTO dedicates several years of his career to a single employer. This approach develops long-term value for the employer while reliable stability for a CTO.

However, there is one limitation to this approach. When a CTO serves for 5 to 10 years in the same company, he becomes less competent. The CTO’s experience and POV are limited to that company. 

On the other end, part-time CTOs work with several firms. This helps them polish their skills, learn diverse roles, experiment better, and stay competitive. 

 

So, some companies also hire part-time CTOs as consultants, despite having a full-time CTO, to:

 

• Stay competent and up-to-date with the latest trends
• Test the feasibility and desirability of their software product from a different POV
• Help the external part-time CTO assist the full-time CTO with some specific roles
• Tweak or modify their business strategy to stay ahead of the competition