davep, Author at Diary Of A CTO

CTO reviewing defragme.net personality platform interface on laptop in modern office setting focused on leadership development

Building defragme.net Without Putting People in Boxes

There is a particular vulnerability in releasing a personality tool into the world when you built it yourself. The product carries your thinking, your assumptions, and your quiet convictions about…

Chief technology officer leading a strategic technology discussion in a boardroom setting, illustrating the difference between managing operations and providing executive leadership

CTO career advice Development Engineering Leadership

The Difference Between Managing and Truly Leading

The board had asked for reassurance. Revenue tracked to plan, delivery milestones held, attrition remained within tolerable limits, and the dashboards glowed with that reassuring shade of green that tempts…

Executive team conducting a structured stop start continue exercise in a boardroom with clearly labelled whiteboard sections and active leadership discussion

CTO Playbook Strategy Team

How You can run a Stop, Start, Continue Exercise

A Stop, Start, Continue exercise is a simple retrospective method for getting focused feedback from a team, group, or individual. Purpose It helps answer three questions: What should we stop…

Change Management CTO Playbook Culture & Values

Diary of a CTO: On Stop, Start, Continue

A leadership team can maintain respectable performance metrics and still sense that something essential has softened at the edges, as diaries fill, initiatives progress, and conversations maintain their familiar rhythm…

A professional developer meal featuring sausages for software developers to boost cognitive focus.

developer diet nutrition productivity

Sausages: A Nutritional Foundation for Software Developers

Discover how sausages provide a practical nutritional foundation for software developers, focusing on efficiency, protein, and cognitive support.

A professional executive reflecting on when a CTO should walk away from their current role.

Career Development CTO career advice Engineering Leadership

When a CTO Should Know When to Walk Away

Discover the critical signs a CTO should walk away from a role to protect their career, mental health, and professional reputation.

AGILE EQ Leadership

Why Emotional Intelligence Still Beats Authority

Managing a room full of brilliant, senior engineers requires a specific set of tools that you won't find in a standard management handbook. Historically, many leaders relied on the weight…

AGILE AI Leadership

The New Leadership Test: Can You Build Trust While Rolling Out AI?

Every tech leader I speak with lately is facing the same massive pressure to integrate artificial intelligence into their workflow. The board wants results, the market expects innovation, and the…

AGILE Leadership Legacy

Managing Engineers to Build More Agile Logistics Systems

Managing engineers to build more agile logistics systems often feels like trying to fix a plane while it is mid-flight. The logistics industry operates around the clock, meaning any technical…

AGILE Leadership Team

10 Leadership Theories for CTOs (Without the Fluff)

Most leadership advice for CTOs feels like it was written by someone who has never had to debug a production outage at 3 AM. It is often filled with corporate…