Level 3 | Notion

The CTO has about five developers; they’re programming less and less, and spend more an more time on giving direction and aligning.

Programming The CTO has less time available for programming. When they’re not aware that this will happen, this is often the phase in which they say “I can’t get my work done anymore – I’m in too many meetings and can’t spend my time programming.” The CTO doesn’t have enough time anymore to check everybody’s code.
Architecture Designing architecture and communication around architecture take more time.
Team alignment Team alignment takes an even bigger chunk out of the CTO’s time. They’re not only working on following up on team members, but also start to device processes to enable efficient and effective follow-up.
C-level alignment This starts to become a specific attention point for the CTO. Not only their team has grown, but probably also the other teams. When not managed properly, there’s a risk that everybody will spend time in their own team, and forget about the C-level team.
Time horizon Months rather than weeks.
Size of tech team Around five to seven.
Typical phase of the company Some customers are on board and are using the company’s product in anger. Customers are very different though, and on-boarding is very labour intensive. The company wants to explore how to acquire and on-board customers at a larger scale. They’re looking for a product-market fit.

Main focus of a Level 3 CTO