When May comes to and end, I will end my one and a half years journey as a CTO for ChicPlace.com.

The reasons for my depature are diverse, and possibly this is not the best place to discuss them, but I am very grateful for the opportunity to grow and learn while developing a project that has the potential to be something special.

During this time I have gained a lot of experience managing teams, and learnt a lot about myself, specially when it comes to working with non-technical people, and how to manage expectations, deadlines and organisation when working in a very fast-paced and very improvisational startup.

I will write a list of things that I have learnt, in the form of:

• List item.
  • How it has affected me personally.

Things that I now know I have to improve on and play a very big role in being a good CTO:

• Voice disagreement and take a stand when needed
  • Sometimes I have voiced disagreement with decisions by just making the Product team know I was against the decision made, but not stating why and how I could give a better solution.
  • When I feel a decision is plain wrong (not just a difference in opinion) I have to stand my ground and not budge.
  • Don’t be afraid of denying requests if you can back your denial with data.
• Find a sweet spot between being hands-off and hands-on
  • When handing out tasks I tend to plan them, and give them to someone on my team, then just wait for them to complete it. However, if they get stuck and ask for help I tend to sweep in and almost take over development. I have to improve because this, rightfully, can enrage senior developers, as well as be a hindrance to junior developers’ learning.
• Be less aggressive with estimates.
  • Most developers underestimate how long tasks will take, or the number of interruptions that will happen, and I am one of them
  • An estimate like ‘3 days if I can work full-time on this’ is useless when you positively know that you will be able to put only 40-50% of your time in it. Say 7 to 9 days right away, because all your counterparts will remember is ‘you said 3 days’
• Involve yourself in strategic decisions.
  • I used to see myself as the technical element for a business. Now I see myself as the technical bridge for a business. I have to take a more direct approach and influence on the product side, become a domain expert so I can really understand the business needs and choose the best technical solution more easily.

Things that I think I got right:

• Protect you team.
  • Your team should not be interrupted by anyone. Concentration is key.
  • Success is result of the team being awesome, or a team member exceeding expectations.
  • Failure comes when we as managers fail to provide the team with the right information and opportunity.
  • Basically, as a CTO, if your team succeeds it’s because they are awesome. If they fail it’s because you did not do your work.
• Install a ticket-centric culture.
  • No ad-hoc requests, everything has to go through a ticketing system (i.e. Redmine).
• No premature optimization.
  • We did not worry about going too deep into performance until we had a decent amount of functionality and traffic going.
• Try to find a ‘good-enough’ solution, and keep improving it when it’s no longer good enough.
  • Finding the perfect and definitive solution might be tempting, but when you work tight schedules, with the possibility of last-minute-changes on every turn, learning to recognise good-enough solutions will save you and your team tons of frustration.
• Trust your team.
  • I had immense luck in working with people like Nadal Soler, Denys Pasishnyi, Marc Morera, Aldo Chiecchia, Tomoki Kamo, Santi Castells, Alejandra Casal, Mercè Fernàndez, Audrey Maman and Olga de Mena, among others. All of them are exceptional at their jobs, and you can just be sure that their work will be top-class. As Tina Fey says on Bossypants “In most cases, being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way”.
• Always listen
  • There are no stupid questions.
  • There are no stupid suggestions.
  • Not everything has to be decided by the managers.
  • The idea that makes your business might be that one you didn’t want to listen to.

In a nutshell:

• Measure everything. Try to improve. Rinse and repeat.
• Build a great team. Trust them to do wonderful things. Assume they are awesome, let them prove you wrong: Most of the time they will not let you down.
• Lose the fear to say NO.
• Be kind, encourage the people around you.
• Be honest, especially when it’s difficult. Dishonesty brings doubt and drives a wedge between team members.