50: From Chaos to Clarity: Using KPIs to Protect, Persuade, and Prioritize as CTO

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Your KPIs aren’t just underperforming—some of them are actively lying to you.

In this episode, Adam sits down with Lior Gerson, co-founder and CEO of Target Board, a company that's redefining how tech leaders track and prove their impact. With two decades of experience leading both e-commerce and SaaS companies, and advising giants like Macy’s and Sephora, Lior brings a brutally honest take on why most CTOs are flying blind when it comes to metrics—and how to fix it.

This conversation is a no-BS breakdown of the most overlooked lever in engineering leadership: meaningful, actionable KPIs. You’ll learn how to turn your data into a defensive shield, why most dashboards are vanity theater, and what it actually takes to align your metrics with strategic business outcomes. If you’re a CTO tired of being reactive—or worse, irrelevant—this is your wake-up call. Expect a tactical playbook for building real visibility, accountability, and leverage inside your org.

You’ll Learn:

• How bad KPIs create blind spots—and how to replace them with metrics that drive results
• Why most dashboards fail to align with business outcomes (and what to do instead)
• How to use KPIs as a defensive shield to prove your value as a CTO
• What engineering leaders can learn from consumer companies about data discipline
• Why many CTOs unconsciously resist accountability—and how that holds teams back
• How to build a metric system that connects engineering output to revenue
• Why founder-led companies often ignore metrics—and what fractional CTOs must do differently
• How to identify whether your team is measuring for impact or just checking boxes
• What makes a KPI actually meaningful (hint: it’s not speed or story points)
• How to avoid the DORA trap and surface the metrics your exec team actually cares about

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction

[00:52] Why KPIs are critical infrastructure, not just reports

[01:28] Common CTO struggles with metrics and alignment

[03:54] The shock of entering a $100M SaaS company with no metrics

[05:32] The impact of analytical leadership on performance

[06:18] Why understanding other C-level roles gives CTOs an edge

[07:12] How fractional CTOs prove impact fast

[08:48] Why engineering teams resist accountability and tracking

[10:51] How internal pressure forces KPI adoption

[11:23] Using metrics as a defensive shield in leadership

[12:42] How lazy KPI systems fail ambitious CTOs

[14:11] Why every team needs different metrics to improve

[15:28] Why most BI teams can’t deliver what CTOs need

[16:42] How Target Board replaces data teams in days

[17:52] Why DORA metrics don’t move the business needle

[19:07] Connecting metrics to revenue and business outcomes

[20:26] Why paychecks depend on the metrics people ignore

[22:13] What causes misalignment between execs and data

[23:31] How OKRs can sabotage team performance

[25:01] Why full metric visibility empowers better decisions

[27:01] Automating metric modeling across platforms

[28:13] The hardest part of using KPIs effectively

[29:58] The mindset shift needed to use metrics well

[31:09] What data can’t fix when politics blocks accountability

[32:28] A step-by-step playbook for KPI-driven execution

You can connect with Lior and his company on Linkedin.

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube, and check out Adam's CTO coaching company Synova Tech.