Additional retailers to follow
The CTO You Actually Need
How to Hire, Work With, and Evaluate the Right Technology Leader for Your Business
A plain-English field guide with AI-assisted tools for every major decision.
Hire the CTO your company actually needs, then build a working relationship that can survive hard decisions.
The CTO title hides radically different jobs — a startup builder and an enterprise strategist can both be excellent, but never for the same company at the same moment.
The premise
The CTO title hides radically different jobs. A startup builder, SME technology leader, business-unit CTO, enterprise strategist, and fractional adviser can all be excellent, but not for the same company or moment.
The CTO You Actually Need gives founders, CEOs, boards, and business leaders a plain-English system for defining the role, gathering evidence, hiring the right person, and evaluating the appointment after 90 days, 180 days, and one year.
Every chapter includes ASK YOUR AI FOR HELP prompts that adapt the book's tools to the reader's company while keeping the final decision human.
Inside, you will learn how to
- decide whether you need a CTO, CIO, VP Engineering, adviser, or another leader;
- replace or reposition a founding CTO without creating a shadow role;
- choose among startup, SME, business-unit, enterprise, fractional, and full-time models;
- sidestep the classic hiring mistakes: interviewing for charisma, the famous-company halo, and hiring for the symptom;
- create a first-90-days agreement and a strong CEO-CTO working system;
- evaluate the role with prescriptive 90-, 180-, and 365-day scorecards.
Hire the CTO your company actually needs, then build a working relationship that can survive hard decisions.
Specifications
- Category
- Technology Leadership / Hiring
- Series
- Shahid Shah Fieldbooks
- Publisher
- Intellectual Frontiers Press
- Format
- 7x10 fieldbook
- Website
- shahidshah.com
- ISBN
- Coming soon
- Price
- Coming soon
About the author
Shahid N. Shah is an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and technology strategist who has spent decades designing, building, and operating hardware- and software-intensive systems in healthcare, cybersecurity, federal government, and other regulated industries.
He has served as both a full-time and fractional CTO in startups, enterprises, and government agencies. He has founded and advised technology companies, worked on national standards initiatives, and has been awarded dozens of U.S. patents in healthcare technology, digital identity, and software infrastructure.
His work has taken him from writing software and designing architecture to building teams, advising boards and CEOs, launching companies, and living with the long-term consequences of technology decisions. He writes for leaders who want practical operating judgment rather than ceremony.
Reading the book and hiring the author are two separate paths. For fractional CTVO, CTO, CISO, or EiR engagements, see consulting.