Sarah Chen
CTO · TechFlow
"The best 1:1s happen when you stop talking about work and start talking about the person."
PeopleRoutines1:1s
HOW TO CTOEST. 2025
Hi, I'm AlexanderTimofeev.
Learning out loud as a CTO — notes, interviews, and the messy bits in between.
This is my public notebook. No playbooks — just things I'm figuring out.
NowShipping CTO Spotlight · Drafting lessons on 1:1s
ATEditor's note
Why thisexists
I spent most of my career as an engineer and then stepped into leadership. The CTO role turned out to be part strategy, part people, part systems — and not at all tidy.How To CTO is where I keep notes on what helped me, and sometimes how other leaders actually work.
CTO Spotlight
Real routines and decisions from other leaders — use what fits, ignore the rest.
Marcus Rodriguez
VP Engineering · DataCorp
"I learned to say 'I don't know' more often. It's liberating and builds trust."
LeadershipCultureTrust
Emily Watson
CTO · StartupXYZ
"Technical debt isn't just code — it's also processes, meetings, and decisions we avoid."
TechnicalStrategyProcess
Field Notes
Stories from the field. Personal takeaways, not advice.
#0174 min read
A lesson from my first 90 days as CTO
How I set focus without boiling the ocean.
strategypeople
#0183 min read
1:1s that actually helped (pattern I'll keep)
Agenda and signals that made my 1:1s useful.
peoplemanagement
#0195 min read
When the senior engineer quit
What I learned about knowledge transfer and team resilience.
peopleprocess
#0206 min read
My first technical debt crisis
How we dug out of a hole without stopping feature development.
technicalstrategy
Short, useful, irregular.
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