How deeply does Think Like a CTO cover technology vision?

Develops the statement into benefits, delivery choices, success criteria, milestones, timing, and a pitch; it does not prescribe an implementation stack.

Technology vision in Think Like a CTO

A strategic view, typically expressed as a statement, of how technology should support and shape an organization's future direction.

A technology vision describes how technology will help an organization deliver future value. A CTO may be responsible for both the vision and its execution, although the role varies by organization. The vision should do more than name a technology upgrade: it should explain what employees, clients, or the business will gain. section 1.0 section 3.1.1

Keep the statement simple enough for people to remember, then distinguish its “what and why” from its “how.” The first part makes the benefit clear to board members, investors, clients, and colleagues. The second gives the technical group enough direction to act. Test decisions about hiring, vendors, and the technology stack by asking whether they move the organization closer to that direction. If the team cannot see how its work supports the vision, clarify the plan before trying to sell it more widely. section 3.1.1 section 3.1.2

Make the benefit visible

A company moving away from legacy, call-staff-dependent claims handling could use “a self-driven, customer data–centric platform” as its vision statement. By contrast, “integrating machine learning into our analysis” is not enough on its own: without a client benefit, business reason, or delivery plan, a fashionable technology leaves the team without a problem to solve. section 3.1.1 section 3.1.2

A vision is usually a multiyear, multiproject undertaking, not a project that finishes in a few months. Define smaller deliverables and unambiguous success criteria so progress is visible well before the end. Plan around the organization’s capacity to fund and support the work, seasonal periods when changes are risky, the people needed to deliver it, and the need to keep existing systems running. Allow the plan to adapt as technology changes. section 3.1.3 section 3.3 section 3.3.1 section 3.3.2

Table 3.1 Visionary statement examples (view table figure)

Statement	What	How	Success
Deprecate all hardware and move exclusively to the cloud.	Remove the overhead of maintaining physical assets so we can move to a pay-as-you-go model that will accelerate the onboarding of new clients.	Stop purchasing hardware, start learning cloud alternatives, and identify the areas where we can have early wins without putting the business at risk.	When the last server is turned off and the reliance on the office/data center is zero.
Move toward an API-driven architecture.	Make our data/services available in a secure and reliable fashion, which lets our customers directly integrate with us without transferring files.	Identify the touchpoints our clients need to send and receive data, as well as how we move data around internally, to free ourselves up from data overhead.	Client interacting without needing to send or attach files; self-servicing using the API.
Replace the legacy system.	Move the system to a modern, supported architecture that will enable us to react to the requests that clients have been asking for with significantly less effort.	Extract all the business rules and responsibilities of this system, and then start designing one or more systems to take over in a phased approach.	When the legacy system is finally turned off, supporting no more clients.
Empower the client with a modern web and mobile interface.	Remove our call center from managing all interactions, instead letting customers do it themselves.	Using a modern web framework, talking securely to backend APIs.	Seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of calls being actively answered.

Compare sample vision statements by what they aim to achieve, how work would begin, and what would count as success. section 3.1.3

Before asking others to commit, check the plan and the pitch:

Name the problem, the client or business benefit, and success measures the business would recognize. section 3.3.2
Set out a timeline with interim deliverables, resource and continuity implications, and a budget; do not promise an uninterrupted path to a distant result. section 3.3.1 section 3.3.2 section 3.8
Prepare technical and nontechnical versions of the pitch, practice a short explanation, and be ready to report progress to different audiences. section 3.5.1 section 3.9

How Think Like a CTO covers it

Related concepts

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