Hi, I'm Andy, founder of CTO Craft

I've been CTO or Head of Technology for a number of startups and charities since 2006, across a number of sectors, team sizes and technology stacks. If you'd like to drop me a line, simply reply to this email. I promise to reply to everyone personally.

Part 1, Becoming a startup CTO: Getting started

Andy says:

"CTO Craft member Adam Dunkley's post on taking the fledgling steps from contributor to leader is heartfelt and a must-read."

There are a few questions that I had when starting my career, more that I’ve had over the years since and plenty that I still have today. I’m going to give my personal experience to the ones I’ve experienced and maybe even bug a friend or two for the ones I am yet to experience.

Lessons Learned — A Year Of Going “Fully Serverless” In Production

Andy says:

"If you're looking at the option of serverless for your application or product, this is a great, detailed list of actionable stuff you can use - be warned, it's heavily Lambda-focused, so if you're not in AWS-land, this might not be as useful for you"  

Atlassian’s CIO: On Getting More Women into Engineering Leadership

When I was growing up in India, my family made sure I knew I could do and be anything. My dad was convinced I could be the prime minister if I wanted, just like Indira Gandhi, the first female prime minister of India.

How Our Fully Remote Team Onboards And Trains New Employees With Zapier + Trello

Every year, remote work becomes more popular and commonplace across the globe. It's the path we chose at Zapier back in 2011. Seven years later, we're still a completely remote company with 135+ teammates over 15 different countries—from Austin, Texas to Zagreb, Croatia and everywhere in between.

How To Turn Conflict Into A Communication Tool

Last year, I was working with leaders who had recently joined an Israeli company. One of them said to me, “Anett, I used to work for a Midwestern company, and now I’m working for a company that yells and pounds the table in meetings–you can even hear it on the phone! What do I do?”

Forget about the 10x developer, focus on 3x instead

I am going to open up a controversial subject, the 10x developer myth. This subject has been debated by the industry for decades, so why bring it up again? Well, I have some interesting data that might change the way you think about developer productivity.

New report reveals one third of UK workers leave their jobs due to poor company culture

Called ‘The Culture Economy”, and produced by breatheHR, the report claims that culture has a clear impact not just on business success, but on the wider economy and reveals that poor company culture costs a staggering £23.6bn per year.

Working With Software Developers (9 Tips for Product Managers)

Andy says:

"My favourite of the bunch:

Some of my best dev friends will sit doing “nothing” for 2hrs, take a break, play some ping-pong, have some coffee … and then solve the problem in 2 seconds with three lines of code. You should try it sometime when you don’t have back to back meetings"

Someone’s underperforming. Now what?

Someone’s slipping. You see it. You feel it. You’re not on the same page. You desperately want to pull the person up, but you’re not sure exactly how. Do you encourage them? Switch them off the project? Change how you’re leading them?

9 ways you are demotivating and disempowering your team

If your organization is like many of the companies in the modern corporate world, there has been a lot of focus on how to get the most out of your team -- the best performance, the most productivity, the biggest numbers.

How to run your first meeting as a new manager

It happened: You’re a new manager now. Perhaps, it’s the first time you’re leading a team. Or you’re taking over a new team as a manager. Either way, that first meeting as a new manager is a daunting event.

How to Build Your Own “Spotify Model”

It is early 2011 and you are the CTO of Spotify. You’re staring out of the window of a coffee bar in a snowy and dark Stockholm. It has been an amazing year. Your company is acquiring customers faster than ever and you’re launching in more and more countries.

Dual Track Development is not Duel Track

If you’ve heard the term “dual-track development” before, this article explains where it comes from, and what it means. Here are the key points: Now, if anyone asks you what the article is about, you can answer them without reading the next 1,500 words.

Project Management Mistakes

I found an interesting link discussing common Project Management problems and suggested solutions, and I found myself questioning the advice given… 

Activities from Retromat

The weekly retro activity comes from Retromat by Corinna Baldauf. Do your team a favour and pick up a copy right here!