Starting a digital enterprise can often be paired with the feeling of helplessness caused by the lack of appropriate technical background that an entrepreneur has: a blazing idea is crushing against the insufficient information on how it can be driven home. The person who can alleviate these suffering is known as Chief Technical Officer. This magician is equipped with a magic wand in order to facilitate transferring your vision into a tangible product. The superpower in the format of specific knowledge and skills can be invited to avoid losses of time and money which can be provoked by ineffective workflows and misconceptions.
Inclined to consider this type of expert? The Purrweb tips on selecting cto as a service for startups will hit the bull’s-eye. The guys covered the difference between hiring an in-house specialist, inviting profile advisor or cooperating with CTO as a service. By navigation in the diversity of nuances, it’s more likely to sieve the decision you actually need.
How will your startup benefit from cooperating with CTO as a service?
As undoubtedly a tricky task, inviting a full-time Chief Technical Officer entails sensitive expenses and losses of time: a highly qualified employee is unlikely to be free on the labor market, on the one hand, and his hiring is expensive, on the other. What if to try your luck with searching for a CTO-advisor on the freelance market: it’s definitely cheaper. The obstacle is hidden in the quality of expertise and the volume of attention the expert is able to devote directly to your brainchild. Located in the middle of this equation, the opportunity of hiring part-time CTO as a service seems a rewarding alternative. You don’t overpay for taxes, sick leaves etc., but in parallel you can count on responsible attitude to the development process and intervention when it’s required. Respectively, CTO as a service brings value regardless of your company scale: small enterprises can afford it as large ones.
Now, let’s sort out what actual value CTO as a service delivers for startup.
- Conversion business goals into technical specifications
A knowledgeable expert works as a talented intermediary between business founders, investors and development team. He’s able to transform your ideas in a way which makes them clear and understandable for technical experts. So, thanks to the effort of CTO as a service, the IT-team gains a tangible vision of what they’re expected to do.
- Choosing technology stack that contributes a lot to product performance
As a leader in questions of the technical side of building the product, CTO as a service facilitates a proper choice of applied technologies. The reward is constrained time and budget on building the app and no trouble with scaling the platform in the future.
- Strategic planning and selecting tactics
Along with creating a roadmap for developers, CTO as a service is responsible for explaining not only what the team will do, but how and within which timelines. So, the expert knows how to estimate the budget correctly: where it makes sense to cut corners without any bad consequences, and where it’s a failure in perspective.
- Keeping the team from getting lost on the path
By keeping a finger on the pulse of a team’s activity, CTO as a service is equipped with the power to boost developers’ efficiency and track whether all the steps are performed according to the plan. The expert won’t allow the team to stall, get stuck or lose the track. Instead he/she will inspire employees to work on time, share up-to-date tricks and professional insights to speed up the process when it’s required.
Which are underwater rocks in hiring a CTO?
The point is you don’t need to hire a CTO. You need to hire an effective and talented CTO. But how to find out whether the person matches professional standards and can bring noticeable value to your undertaking?
To make sure, you won’t waste time and money with an inappropriate candidate, examine if these requirements to qualify CTO as a service coincide with the features your applicant shows.
- Solid technical background
Deep knowledge of at least one programming language and no less than five years of practical work in the industry on technical positions are must-have for offerors who are planning to head your team. A perspective candidates skillfully navigate in diverse technology stacks and can assess their pros and cons in regard of your project.
- Specialized education
Impressively if a relevant technical expertise is backed by the relevant education. Though the formal diploma isn’t an obligatory sign of a person’s qualification, a PhD in computer science says you’re communicating with an expert with fundamentals in the industry and adherence to the determined professional interests.
- Relevant works in portfolio
The more eloquent evidence of a person’s hard and soft skills are products represented in his portfolio. Ask questions and assess how the candidate can argue his vision and position in various aspects.
- Advanced communication and management skills
If one has an MBA, it’s a sign you have met a specialist who’s equipped with knowledge of how to organize people in effective groups and build interaction between them purposeful and productive. But even if a person doesn’t have a formal confirmation of his erudition in the domain, the applicant can turn out to be a brilliant communicator and manager backed by self-development, experience and natural abilities.
- Creative thinker and advanced strategist
Creative inclinations and ability to think out of the box are the inseparable features of advanced CTO. Since one of the most significant tasks is to create the product’s architecture, the ability to put customers’ shoes and dive into journey searching for the shticks and highlights is an irreplaceable thing in CTO as a service work. Finding balance between the uniqueness of the application and its convenience is an intricate task.
Pricing: which aspects are impactful?
It’s hardly affordable for a small or average startup to hire a full time expert: in the USA the salary of specialists spins around $160,000-$300,000 per year. Obviously, this burden is excessive for a startup. But the alternative solution saves the situation: part-time CTO as a service will cover your needs when and where required. One of the life hacks is searching for offshore services. As illustration, the hourly rates for this type of work start from $50 per hour in eastern Europe. Weigh all pros and cons, and try to find a matching partner if you feel it’s exactly what will facilitate your business growth.
Leave a Reply