Background

The role of CTO evolves and differs in various stages of a company's growth.

As a consequence, it’s not always easy for companies to accurately describe what they expect from a CTO.

Inversely, it’s not always easy for a CTO to find their place in a company. Some people will perform well in every stage of growth, but they are not very common. Most people thrive best in a particular phase.

To improve the communication about expectations between Payflip and its CTO, we’ve conducted research about “CTO Readiness Levels".

Documentation
Visualisation

Payflip needs

Where we currently are in terms of tech maturity?

fully operational team with 6 talented and motivated mid-level engineers
lack of engineering/product leadership, resulting in
- distinctive roadmaps
- hiring shortfall
- feature shortfall
- business agnosticism

Where we want to be in 2025?

Hire & launch 3 business-minded subteams.

Restore internal trust in our platform.

Reconsolidate the company as one rocketship.

→ via single-threaded leadership. CTO operates as Engineering Lead.

CTO Readiness Level	Programming	Tech strategy	Team alignment	C-level alignment	Time horizon	Size of tech team
Level 3	++	+++	++	+	3 months	5-7
Level 4	+	++	+++	++	6 months	+10
Level 5	-	+	+++	+++	1 year	+20

Where we want to be in 2026?

Maintain & expand business-minded subteams.

Inspire a growing team of tech & product people.

Align on business goals with CEO.

→ CTO operates as force of business growth.

CTO Readiness Level	Programming	Tech strategy	Team alignment	C-level alignment	Time horizon	Size of tech team
Level 5	-	+	+++	+++	1 year	+20
Level 6	-	-	++	+++	2 years	+50