BetaThis check is new and still being refined. It is a diagnostic built from Catherine's published writing on technical leadership, not recruitment advice. Your answers stay in your browser. Tell me what you think.
What kind of technical leadership do you need, and do you need it yet?
"We need a CTO" usually means one of four things, and only one of them is a full-time hire. This check asks whether there is a strategy for a technical leader to work to, how decisions, delivery, people, risk and customer trust are going, and why you are asking now. You leave with two answers: which technical leadership job your company needs (a systems architect, a scaling leader or a strategic one), and how to fill it: not yet, fractional, interim, or a permanent hire now. Plus the flags that matter most and what to do first.
36 questions · about 10 minutes. The Technical Leadership Check needs JavaScript to run; if it has not loaded, book a conversation instead.
What the check covers
- Strategy Whether there is a business, product and technology strategy, and whether the people building the product know it. Many problems that look like technical leadership problems are strategy problems.
- Direction and decisions Whether technical decisions get made, by whom, and whether they hold.
- Delivery Whether what is promised gets delivered and works where customers use it.
- People and leadership Whether technical leadership has kept pace with the company and its team.
- Risk and evidence Whether you could show an investor, a regulator or an acquirer what you own and how safe it is.
- Customers and investors Whether the people outside the company trust what they hear about the technology.