Ryan Fox, CTO at Super.com and former SWE at Google, shares insights from his leadership transition from VP of Engineering to CTO. He emphasizes the importance of a 'not do' list for prioritizing responsibilities and aligning team outcomes with company goals. Ryan discusses effective coaching strategies for department heads and the significance of situational leadership in engineering management. He also dives into the benefits of mission-aligned teams, highlighting their role in enhancing collaboration and accountability within organizations.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
VP to CTO Transition
Ryan Fox transitioned from VP of Engineering to CTO at Super.com after the former CTO/COO departed.
He was chosen for his execution abilities, organizational knowledge, and close alignment with the CEO.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Define Your Role
Create your own job description, especially if the role is new or undefined, to establish clear expectations.
Include not only what you will do, but also what you won't do, to manage expectations and build buy-in.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Build Buy-in for "Not-To-Do" List
When defining your responsibilities, consider what your predecessor did and decide which tasks to adopt, delegate, or decline.
Build buy-in for your "not-to-do" list by explaining why those tasks won't be your focus.
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Ryan Fox, CTO @ Super.com, joins us to dissect his leadership transition from Vice President of Engineering to CTO. He shares how he created his own job description and – perhaps most importantly – identified & found buy-in around his “not do” list. We also cover Ryan’s favorite strategies for coaching department heads, why it’s important to focus on strategic thinking as an eng leader, tips for instilling accountability & autonomy, and defining different levels of situational leadership. Patrick and Ryan also dissect Super.com’s MAT leadership approach and how it is incorporated into their engineering functions.
Ryan Fox is the CTO at Super.com, an all-in-one app that has helped millions of customers save, earn and put over $150 million back in their pockets. Previously, Ryan worked as both a SWE and SRE at Google.
SHOW NOTES:
Ryan’s background / experience with Super.com (2:04)
What sparked his transition from VP of Engineering to CTO (3:40)
How Ryan tackled creating his own job description (5:50)
Strategies for prioritizing responsibilities & developing a “not to do” list (8:20)
Process for defining what not to do (9:32)
Examples of building buy in for a “not to do” responsibility (11:45)
Insights on prioritizing company wide outcomes vs. departmental outcomes (13:33)
Transitioning from a department head to coaching other department leaders (15:26)
Components of a successful coaching conversation about strategic thinking (18:48)
Frameworks for instilling accountability & autonomy in department heads (21:25)
Incorporating mission-aligned teams into the engineering organization (25:37)
Why the MAT leader focuses on business, not people aspects (27:52)
Elements that contribute to the MAT model’s success (29:32)
The intersection of MAT & functional leadership (32:04)
Ryan’s advice to leaders new to the MAT approach (34:20)
Rapid fire questions (36:29)
LINKS AND RESOURCES
MAT Resource Guide - A guide to understand the Mission-Aligned Team organizational structure, how Super.com rolled out MATs, and how such a structure may be able to help your organization.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg - Hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg, the show features insider takes on business, technology, and society and interviews with the world's most influential thinkers.
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
The Engineering Leadership Podcast