CTO · VP Engineering · Head of Engineering
CTO Board Deck: The Delivery Number You Owe by Friday
Three quarters of shipping 50 to 60% of the roadmap, a board deck due Friday, and no explanation that does not sound like an excuse. On top of that, half the team is quietly interviewing, so the honest fix has to move delivery and retention at the same time, which is exactly the kind of promise boards have stopped believing.
This is one of the six situations CTOs bring to me most often. Here is what it looks like from the inside, and how we get you to a number that survives the room.
The situation, from the inside
It is Wednesday. The board deck is due Friday. Last three quarters shipped 50 to 60% of the roadmap and I do not have a clean explanation. My VPE told me last week that half the team is quietly interviewing. I am supposed to fix delivery AND retention AND ship the deck by Friday, and I know I can only pick two.
You have probably tried
- A "delivery-focused" sprint retro that turned into airing grievances
- Reading Team Topologies at 11pm
- Adding OKRs on top of the existing OKRs
- Telling the board "give us a quarter" (they gave you 6 weeks)
How we tackle it
Split the delivery story into leading indicators (sprint completion, ad-hoc ratio, cycle time) and lagging outcomes (roadmap %). Board gets a defensible narrative. Team gets a system that moves the numbers without a death march. We work the exact board deck line by line.
Target: By the next board cycle: a number that survives scrutiny, a written plan, and no more "give us a quarter" asks.
Working it 1:1
Bi-weekly 60-minute sessions, weekly while the fire burns. I have sat in the seat: built Mews into a $2bn+ unicorn from 8 to 80 teams, led engineering at Manta before IBM acquired it, and spent 4+ years in the Bay Area as Principal Software Architect at Databricks. The pattern data comes from 3,400+ unique sessions with engineering leaders in 17+ countries. Rated 9.17/10 on average across 300+ reviews.
Pricing is public: 430 EUR per session, 361 EUR per session for ELC members, or 2,580 EUR per quarter (6 sessions over 3 months). You only pay for a session you rate 7 out of 10 or higher. Full pricing.
Related reads
The other situations CTOs bring
- First 90 days in an inherited org →
- Technical due diligence before a raise →
- AI adoption pressure from the board →
- Every decision routes through you →
- A sounding board without politics →
All six, plus the questions CTOs ask most: CTO coaching & mentoring