Draft for Tamir's review. Not published.
Start from the decisions
List the technology decisions that reached you in the last six months and who should have made them. Separate running IT, which a manager and a provider can do, from choosing and changing systems, which may have no owner.
If the need is keeping things running, a CIO is the wrong hire. If decisions pile up on you, you need a senior technology leader with business judgment. Write the role: the decisions it owns and the budget it controls.
Full-time, part-time or interim
Decide by what the business or product needs in the next six months. If the architecture and team need daily decisions, you need a full-time leader. If the need is direction and investor confidence, a part-time or interim leader can bridge while you hire.
Either way, secure the documentation, credentials and architecture knowledge a departing leader held. After a failed project, write the brief from the failure's cause. Ask a part-time option how many days a week it commits and who covers emergencies.
Depending on your seat
If you're on the board approving a hire, assess what you can judge: the candidate's decisions, the evidence behind them and what happened. Ask references about vendor handling, budget discipline and what went wrong under them. Have each candidate explain a technical matter to the board.
If you're the CEO, ask investors whether they need a name or a plan with milestones. For a critical role, add one technical conversation with someone independent for the final candidate.
What to check before you decide
- List the technology decisions that reached you in the last six months and who should have made them.
- Write the role for the next two years: the decisions it owns and the budget it controls.
- Ask each candidate for three decisions they made, the evidence they used and what happened.
- Ask references about vendor handling, budget discipline and what went wrong under them.
- Have each candidate explain a technical matter to non-technical people, and judge the clarity.
- Secure the documentation, credentials and architecture knowledge a departing leader held.
- Arrange an independent technical conversation for the final candidate if the role is critical.
Questions people ask
Board approving a technology leader hire from management's shortlist, how do we assess candidates we can't judge technically?
Assess what the board can judge: the candidate's record of decisions and their outcomes, how they handle vendors and budgets, how they explain technology to non-technical people, and references from people who worked for and above them. Add one technical conversation by someone independent if the role is critical. It depends on what the company needs the role to do in the next two years.
Our technical co-founder left, should we hire a full time CTO or bring in a part time CTO before the round?
Decide by what the product needs in the next six months: if the architecture and team need daily decisions, a full-time leader is needed even if junior to the title; if the need is direction and investor confidence, a part-time CTO can bridge while you hire. Keep the knowledge the co-founder held documented either way. It depends on the team's size and on how much of the product only the co-founder understood.
We've grown to several hundred people with only an IT manager and a provider, is it time to hire a CIO?
Hire when technology decisions now shape the business, such as which systems the company runs on, what customers see and what the company spends, and nobody can own them. A CIO is wrong if the need is only keeping things running; a senior technology leader with business judgement is right if decisions pile up on you. It depends on how many of the decisions on your desk are technology choices and on what the next two years require.
How I can help with this decision
- Ask or talk (Free)
- I give my view on whether your decision list calls for a hire, and what the role should own.
- Review (Pay if it was worth it)
- I write an independent assessment of your technology decisions, the current setup and the role you need, or of the final candidates against it. I recommend a structure, a brief and a timing.
- Retain (When it makes sense)
- I stay close through the new leader's first year to review the major technology decisions.