The CTO Substack

The CTO’s Double Diamond

A two-diamond design model that aligns engineering and product teams through divergence and convergence across four phases: Discover, Define, Develop…

Nov 27 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO’s Community of Practice

Your participation in both internal and external communities shapes who you become as a CTO. Neither is sufficient alone.

Nov 20 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO’s Necessary Friction

When being “difficult” is exactly what your C-suite needs from you

Nov 12 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO’s Lost Joy

We’ve become administrators of innovation rather than innovators.

Nov 5 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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October 2025

The CTO’s Communication Breakdown

You're not having a conversation with your CEO. You're having a conversation with your story about your CEO.

Oct 29 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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What If We’re Building AI for the Wrong Decade?

We’re in the middle of a technology shift that feels as significant as the move from command line to GUI. Our response is to make better command lines…

Oct 22 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO’s Seven Sins

There’s a pattern among the survivors, the CTOs who make it past the two-year mark and build lasting legacies. They avoid seven specific sins that…

Oct 15 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO’s Immutable Role

Why the World Needs to Stop Overthinking the CTO Role

Oct 9 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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September 2025

The CTO’s Todo List

The Four Visibility Multipliers That Create Legends

Sep 25 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO's Cost of Goods Sold

Understanding COGS transformed how I approach sprint planning and roadmap discussions. Instead of treating all work equally, we now evaluate the…

Sep 11 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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The CTO's Truth Detector

The Meeting Where Everything Looked Perfect (But Wasn't). How the CTO Ratio saved my *$$ from a sinking ship.

Sep 1 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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August 2025

The CTO's Branch Nightmare

Why Your 120-Person Engineering Team Spends 40% of Its Time Managing Branches Instead of Shipping Code

Aug 14 • 

Etienne de Bruin

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