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⛺ Frontal Leading, Prioritisation Techniques, Good Gossip, Conversations, Agile Budgeting, Feature Factories, Cortisol: TMW #429

Live Bytes session on upskilling teams this Weds
📝
Have you checked out the CTO Craft Reports yet? We've covered everything from CTO compensation to Generative AI - take a look!

Hello again, it's Monday - welcome to the week!

Bytes is back – join us live online this Wednesday! Don’t miss our live fireside chat with Ash Gawthorp, Chief Academy Officer at Ten10, hosted by CTO Craft. Ash will share how businesses can foster continuous learning to future-proof their workforce as AI and new technologies reshape the industry. With only one in ten UK workers equipped with essential AI skills, upskilling and adaptability have never been more critical.

Join us on Wednesday 30th April from 12:00–1:00pm BST to hear practical strategies for developing diverse talent, building lasting capability, and making your organisation AI-ready. Be part of the conversation and get your questions answered live!

Find out more and register here

That's it, on with the links - see you next week!

Andy @ CTO Craft

CTO Craft Events

Here are all the upcoming CTO Craft Con events, along with your exclusive access code for discounted subscriber tickets - see you soon

CTO Craft Virtual Bytes: Future-proof your IT Talent Acquisition Strategy in the Age of AI | CTO Craft
Join CTO Craft Virtual Bytes on April 30, 2025, for a fireside chat with Ash Gawthorp, Chief Academy Officer at Ten10, as we explore strategies for future-proofing your IT talent acquisition. Learn how to build a workforce ready to embrace AI and bridge the tech skills gap with innovative hiring models and a focus on continuous learning.
CTO Craft
CTO Craft Mixer: Edinburgh | CTO Craft
Join fellow CTOs and senior tech leaders in Edinburgh for an exclusive Mixer—an informal, free networking event designed to foster connections, share insights, and build a strong local tech leadership community. Sign up now to engage with peers in a relaxed setting!
CTO Craft
CTO Craft Mixer: Dublin
Join our community of CTOs and senior tech leaders for another insightful and interactive meet-up in Dublin.
CTO Craft

Want to meet other TMW subscribers and CTO Craft Community members in your city? See all upcoming Mixers in cities around the world here.

Reads of the Week

Leading From The Front
Don’t look back.
Stay SaaSyStay SaaSy
The State of Trust
Diving into Vanta’s 2024 “State of Trust” Report
Resilient CyberChris Hughes

CTO Craft Reports

Not long ago, we set out to answer a question on every tech leader’s mind:
💬 "What’s really happening with compensation across tech leadership today?"

Together with Albany, we're putting the finishing touches on a report that’ll shed real light on the numbers, the trends, and what they mean for your role, compensation, the state of the market, and more.

But whilst we wait for the Compensation Survey 2025 Report to launch... There’s a whole world of insights waiting for you over at CTO Craft. From scaling teams to shaping culture, the reports here are built to help you lead with confidence.

Start exploring here

If you're interested in sponsoring TMW or any of our events, drop us a line at partners@ctocraft.com.

Leadership, Strategy & Business

Universal Truths from the FTL Universe | Anjuan Simmons
FTL: Faster Than Light isn’t just a game about managing spaceships—it’s a masterclass in resource management, adaptation, and learning from failure that offers profound wisdom for navigating our ow…
Anjuan Simmons
Prioritization Techniques Compared — Part 1 - Itamar Gilad
In this article I go overpopular prioritization techniques and explains the the pros and cons of each.
Itamar GiladItamar Gilad
Mistakes you shouldn’t let your reports make
Common wisdom tells us to let people we manage make mistakes, but there are certain mistakes leaders must head-off.
BjorgBjorn Roche
You Are Leading Two Teams. Do You Know What They Each Need From You? – Scott Cochrane
Scott Cochrane

Culture, People & Teams

Whispers with Benefits: 7 Reasons to Embrace Office Gossip
Gossip and culture aren’t often seen as a good mix, but for leaders, those whispers in the break room can be highly valuable.
People Managing PeopleDavid Rice
43 things we’ve learned about hiring at PostHog
In the last 12 months, we’ve received 30,000 applications, interviewed 2,000 candidates, and hired 65 people. We learned some stuff.
Product for EngineersCharles Cook
TBM 353: Conversation Quality and Scale
You can often “just tell” how a team (or company) is doing by listening deeply to their conversations and observing how they interact. You can also boil an operating system down to how intentional people are about creating conditions where awesome conversations can happen at the right time and with the right people involved.
The Beautiful MessJohn Cutler
Hiring Great People
Look for curiosity
Fish Food for ThoughtMike Fisher

Technology, Operations & Delivery

Funding agility: Moving beyond project budgets
Implementing a funding framework for scenario planning and modelling will help decision makers navigate the complexities of long-term investments.
ThoughtworksFredrik Delin
Mastering Technical Documentation | 8th Light
Technical documentation is an essential part of successful software development teams. Learn actionable strategies to create clear, maintainable, and effective docs. Boost efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and empower your team.
8th Light
You Can’t Prompt Your Way to Intuition - Annie Vella
We don’t talk enough about the feeling of learning something deeply - the slow, sometimes frustrating and painful process that forges real intuition. As software engineers, we know this feeling intimately. The slow burn of mastering a new concept or language. The pressure and anxiety of resolving your first production issue. The endless hours spent debugging a complex system that just won’t work - until, at last, it does. And how that struggle itself is the point: it’s what transforms a beginner coder into a software engineer with real intuition.
Annie VellaAnnie Vella
7 Bold Moves to Defeat the Bloody Feature Factory Before It Burns You Out
It’s time to overcome the enemy that crashes our souls. Shall we?
Untrapping Product TeamsDavid Pereira

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

Your Brain on Cortisol: How to Rewire Your Stress Response
Cortisol isn’t inherently problematic; it’s a sophisticated chemical messenger that helped our ancestors survive countless threats. Yet in today’s environment this evolutionary advantage has become a potential liability.
Ness LabsAnne-Laure Le Cunff
Avoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AI
How to use AI coding assistants without letting your hard-earned engineering skills wither away.
ElevateAddy Osmani
Burn your title | notes.eatonphil.com
Burn your title
notes.eatonphil.com
Why You are “Always Exhausted” : The Truth About Burnout
Burnout has begun to become a widely acknowledged topic, and rightly so, as it can impact you physically, mentally, emotionally, socially…
MediumYOUth Time

That’s it!

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https://ctocraft.com/community

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Have an amazing week!

Andy

Published by:

Andy Skipper