alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

#111 - Organising for Impact feat. Eric Bowman // CTO @ King


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Output → Outcome → Impact | Product + Tech | Adjacent Possibilities

How do we actually organize people to consistently deliver value and enjoy the process? This, Eric Bowman (CTO @ King) says, is the core challenge facing any CTO. In this thought-provoking episode, Eric shares insights from his remarkable career in gaming (The Sims, King), e-commerce (Zalando), and navigation technology (TomTom), offering a unique perspective on building high-performing teams and effective tech organizations.

Listen in to explore:

🔄 Outcome AND Outputs → Impact (ala Kent Beck’s Universal Value Streams)
🤖 Theory of Adjacent Possibility + Why AI isn’t there yet
⚖️ Product + Tech: Single-threaded (Amazon) vs. Dual Role (Marty Cagan or Google)
🎯 Goals: Kanban-Style Stack Ranking that limits Work-in-Progress
📈 ROI of Tech: Does it increase revenue or accelerate delivery?
🧘 Discipline = Action & Commitment

  • is it time to rethink small teams and platform engineering?
  • Have a listen. Eric has such a great combination of great combination of experience 🦾, knowledge 📚 and wisdom 🧠.

    Listen here

    Timestamps

    (00:00) Introduction

    (01:05) Eric Bowman's Career Journey
    (02:44) The Core CTO Challenge
    (05:50) Outcome AND Output → Impact
    (07:57) Accountability Over Output
    (09:22) Universal Value Streams
    (10:57) Product + Tech Leadership Models + Dynamics
    (14:16) Single Threaded Leaders vs. Dual Roles
    (16:03) CTO Role: Balancing Today and Tomorrow
    (17:17) CTO Role: Economics of Decision-Making
    (19:20) Team Organization: Autonomy and Rethinking Small Teams
    (22:48) Causal Chains, Goals and Feedback Loops
    (26:52) Discipline = Action + Commitment
    (29:43) Prioritise Goals with Kanban-Style Stack Ranking
    (36:37) Platform Engineering: Help or Hindrance? (DORA-inspired)
    (39:03) CAUTION: Compensating Measures
    (40:57) Tech Investments: ROI and Value Creation
    (42:56) AI and The Theory of Adjacent Possibilities
    (50:35) Why Eric Dislikes the Word ‘Innovation’
    (51:48) Quickfire Round: Tools and Tech

    ...more
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    alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical LeadersBy Tobias Schlottke - alphalist CTO Podcast

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