13 min2026-03-23
The First 90 Days as CTO: A Survival Guide
A week-by-week playbook for your first 90 days as CTO. Covers the listening tour, quick wins, team assessment, and the critical relationships to build early.
The Playbook
First-Time CTO?
Start here.
The first 12 months in the CTO seat are where most leaders either find their footing or drift. This is the playbook — assembled from the readiness framework and the patterns we see across new CTOs.
- 6
- Guides curated
- 5
- Leadership dimensions
- 12 mo
- Coverage window
- Free
- Always
What this playbook addresses
The first 90 days
Listening tour, quick wins, team assessment, and the relationships you build (or don't) in the opening window.
Building the readiness
The five-dimension framework — technical, people, business, communication, self-management — and how to grow each.
Leading the AI shift
Strategy, build vs buy, team structure, and the new skills the role demands as engineering changes.
The role itself
What a CTO actually does, how it differs from VP Engineering, and what the day-to-day looks like.
The playbook, by topic
Every guide below is written for someone who is in the seat right now — not aspirational, not generic. Read in order, or jump to what you're working on this week.
Career
AI & Strategy
12 min2026-03-25
Engineering Leadership in the AI Era: What's Changed
How AI tools are changing the engineering leadership role. New skills needed, team structure shifts, the junior engineer question, and leading through uncertainty.
14 min2026-03-25
Managing AI Engineering Teams: A CTO's Playbook
A practical guide to managing ML and AI teams. Embedded vs centralised structures, hiring vs training, setting timelines, and common failure modes to avoid.
14 min2026-03-25
CTO AI Strategy: Building Your Company's AI Roadmap
A framework for building an AI strategy that connects to business outcomes. Covers opportunity evaluation, build vs buy, data readiness, and governance.
13 min2026-03-25
AI Build vs Buy: A CTO's Decision Framework
When to build, buy, or partner for AI capabilities. A decision framework covering cost comparison, real scenarios, data moat evaluation, and reversible bets.
Know where you stand before you pick what to work on.
The free CTO Readiness Assessment scores you across 5 leadership dimensions in 10 minutes. Use the result to decide which guide above is worth reading first.
Take the Assessment