Invited CTO Panel

From Anita Borg Institute Wiki

Invited CTO Panel:

Moderator:
Bill Unger, Mayfield

Panelists:
Justin Rattner, Intel
Mark Bregman, Symantec
Rebecca Parsons, Thoughtworks
Brian Pawlowski, Network Appliance

Panel Discussion:

Terry’s introduced the CTO panel by opening statement that it is unusual to have a panel with 3 out 4 male panelists. In her own words - “Most of the CTOs are male and we would love to see more female CTOs.”

• How they got CTO position, what was expected out of them and is that what they really do today.

- Most CTOs on panel grew into the CTO position, many times seen as highest technical position in the organization. The trend that came out of the discussion was that most of them were Sr Technical fellows, dedicated years serving corporate technology & research, and then grew into technical leaders. - Brian Pawlowski talked about his 18 years being in research and development at Network appliances - Justin Rattner talked about how Intel operated without any CTO office till 2001 and how he got formal title of CTO from Intel Sr Fellow - Rebecca Parson sees her role as keeping 600 technologists at Thoughtworks happy and keep innovating for their clients. - According to Mark Bergman, CTO’s role is to stimulate innovation for the organization and communicate technology effectively both internally and externally

• Panel launched into a very interesting discussion around career paths. What path would lead to the highest technical position? What career path is offered for those who want to remain technologist?

- Many people with technical background starts with engineering or research role and at some point of career provided with two paths o Technical path – mostly individual contributors growing to positions like Technical Fellow. o Management path – managing technical task force and development of product as well as technology - According to Mark CTO may not be the best technologist in the company but he is a good technical leader having broader technical perspective. CTO is someone who is able to connect technology with business. - Rebecca presented challenge of creating career paths specially in consulting companies and client expectations from a Sr technology consultants. Thoughtworks is working on crafting creating paths to enable those who want to remain mostly technical and creating niche with their clients. - Most common transition seen is programmer to mid level manager to project manager but Programmer to architect to chief technologist is option for those who want to remain individual contributors serving technology

• How to best leverage skill set of technologist to benefit other areas of business. What kind of role an effective communication plays in success of technological leader.

- According to Justin, communication is a primary role and responsibility of CTO office. He brought up infamous definition of “Chief Talking Officer”. A technical leader should have ability to grasp as well as communicate and describe technology. Having broader knowledge and ability to talk about different issues with external and internal customers is equally important. AT Intel most of the founders, CEO had Ph.D. and technical background, familiarity with technologies and great influence on technical direction of the company. – Also communication has to be bidirectional and it needs to flow both ways. - According to Brian most work is accomplished through greater influence on business unit leaders and giving them right advice in terms of technology enabling product development. He sees himself as head engineer, providing balance between tech innovation and business strategy - According to Mark, a true technical leader should not be waiting for CEO to define role or give authority. - According to Grace Hopper, “It is easy to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

When asked, 85% people in the room wanted to pursue technology path pushing technology.

• When there are multiple ways of solving problem, what is leader’s contribution in terms of what path to choose and how to choose.

- According to Justin while hiring a sr technologist, he looks for more than no of patents and technical degrees. It is important how can they impact the company, products and future direction with the knowledge and technology.

• Bringing up Terry’s initial point of 3 of the 4 on the panel are men and what does it take for a woman technologist to take that role initiated very interesting discussion with audience participation

- Justin mentioned that at Intel they see dramatic attrition of women at mid grades. Sometime women opt out and sometimes they are forced. Persistence and determination is the key to get to the highest level. - Mark mentioned that it is about making choices in terms of career path that women choose. Symantec now has first woman fellow. And there is always challenge in terms of creating a middle career path where women can play role as someone who influences technology and organization instead of choosing a role of pure technologist vs people management. - Justin also brought up structural issues and micro inequities that take place changing underlying behavior of the organization. - According to Rebecca, having powerful network, understanding technology and turning it to the benefit of clients is the key to success - Mark like to rotate people in and out of CTO office to bring fresh perspective in his organization - As one of the solution to structural issues and remodeling efforts, Rebecca brought up Chief Architect position as a third avenue. A role that has greater influence both in terms of technology and business direction. - Brian mentioned that process is important but that should never over power people. Listen to people and create processes that would enable them to succeed in shaping up career path - Lack of confidence is becoming pattern in women at different levels. According to Rebecca it is necessary to create healthy environment to breed and thrive ideas. It is job of people in power to stop aggressive and hostile environment. - Rebecca also said that traditional success definitions may not fit many individuals and it is necessary to constantly redefining and customize success criteria to ensure those bring right values to the organization. - In summary – It is necessary to experiments in terms of what will work best to encourage women to grow into highest technical positions, there is need of better understanding remodeling efforts, education will play greater role in career development, bringing tech women together to discuss and learn about job ladders will create new ideas and good mentoring programs should be designed to inspire technologists

Summary by moderator:

Key to success for anyone who has dream of becoming CTO –

- Finding or choosing a right mentor for yourself - Working for company where values are respected and shared

Introduction and Links:

About Justin Rattner, http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/bios/jrattner.htm Justin’s blog - http://blogs.zdnet.com/OverTheHorizon/ Rattner on virtual worlds - http://blogs.intel.com/research/2007/09/rattners_virtual_worlds_keynot.html

About Mark Bregman, http://www.symantec.com/about/profile/management/executives/bio.jsp?bioid=mark_bregman Blog with Mark - https://forums.symantec.com/syment?category.id=bregman

About Rebecca Parsons - http://www.thoughtworks.com/who-we-are/leadership-profiles/rebecca-parsons.html

About Brian Pawlowski - http://www.netapp.com/company/research/members.html#pawlowski

Pawlowski and Photography - http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/pdfs/success_brianpawlowski.pdf