Why Hire a Fractional CTO? (Pt 1)

This is the first in a two part post about what fractional CTO is, when you should hire one and what you can expect them to do.? In this first part we’re going to dive into what a fractional CTO is and why you should hire one.? In part two, we'll talk about what a fractional CTO does and what you should know before you seek to hire one.

Introduction: The Evolving Role of a CTO

I’m going to show my age here but when I was starting off my career in tech I actually wanted to be a CIO.? Those were the (mostly) guys sitting on the board with the CEO and CFO whereas the CTO would report to the CIO and be in charge of the boring tech stuff, the CIO handled all of the interesting projects.

Something happened a while ago where the role of the CTO got thrust into the limelight and now the term CIO is better known as “Chief Investment Officer” rather than “Chief Information Officer”.

If you are to ask me, it was the explosion in start-ups in the early 2000s that propelled the role of the CTO into the limelight, CIOs were stuffy old people sitting on boards, the CTOs were the cool ones building tech.

Regardless of the reason, people know about CTOs now, however, from the discussions I’ve had running Atom CTO, there’s still a lot of confusion about what we do, when to hire one and what to expect when you have hired one.? People know even less about what it means to have a Fractional CTO.

My hope is that by the end of this article you’ll have a better picture about what fractional CTOs do, what the benefits of having one are and when to consider bringing someone on board.

What is a Fractional CTO?

At a very basic level, a fractional CTO is a person that will dedicate a part of their time to help you with your tech needs at a senior level.

The fact that they are fractional means that they won’t be with you full time but the quality and intensity of the work you’ll get from them should be the same as if they are with you full time.

So this is just another name for a consultant right?

Well no. For me, the most important difference between a consultant and a fractional CTO (or any fractional resource for that matter) is ownership.

I’ve been a consultant. In those days, I’d go into work for a client, do the project work, make some recommendations and move on. The real responsibility for owning the decisions and the implementation of the recommendations rested with the client, not me.

As a fractional CTO the buck stops with you. You are a part of the company, you are a part of the leadership team.? The decisions you make will impact the business and it will be up to you to fix things if they don’t go quite as expected.

This is how it should be….and this is how you should view a fractional CTO when you bring them on board.

Why should I hire a Fractional CTO?

Look around you.??

Do you have anyone in your team that has a holistic view of tech within your business???

Is there someone thinking about the strategic direction for technology and how it should align with your business strategy?

Do you have the budget to pay a full time CTO?

Are you thinking about implementing tech within your business but the only tech experts you have are the guys that are updating your laptops and PCs and managing your email?

You should hire a fractional CTO when you are looking spend some significant money on technology so that it will improve your business, whether that is:

• Opening up new revenue streams to increase your top line.
• Creating efficiencies through automation to decrease your bottom line.
• Jumping on the next shiny new bandwagon and do something with blockchain or AI or the metaverse.
• Etc. etc.

If you are thinking of spending on tech but have no tech expertise then you need to get in someone that can tell you how to spend your money wisely.

You also want someone to come in that is accountable for the success or failure of whatever initiatives you decide to move ahead with.? The worst feeling is when you’ve implemented a new system, you’ve paid the consultant a lot of money and they have left you with something that you kind of wanted but isn’t quite 100% what you really wanted or what they promised you.

A good fractional CTO will not let that happen and at the very least will be accountable for turning things around.

Conclusion

Hopefully this has set the stage for you to understand what a fractional CTO is and why should hire one, in the next part to this article, I'll explore what you should know when hiring one and what they are actually meant to do

If you'd like to learn more about this topic, feel free to reach out to me or contact us via our company page at Atom CTO

Also, feel free to visit our website or listen to a podcast where we explain the role of a fractional CTO in more detail.

We also run free clinics where you can come and talk to us about your challenges:

• Atom Tech Clinic
• Project Delivery Clinic