Join Adam Horner, a CTO with over 30 years in the tech industry, on The CTO Playbook — the podcast dedicated to helping CTOs excel. Perfect for CTOs and tech leaders navigating the complexities of their roles, each episode offers clear insights, innovative strategies, and practical advice from top leaders in tech.
With Adam’s extensive experience mentoring engineers and tech leaders, and over a decade as a CTO, you’ll gain the tools and knowledge to build and refine your own CTO playbook. Whether you're tackling complex projects, fostering innovation, leading teams, or shaping your company's tech strategy, this podcast is your go-to resource.
Adam’s journey from engineer to strategic CTO was challenging. He learned through the school of hard knocks, making avoidable mistakes and facing countless challenges. Often out of his comfort zone and wishing for more guidance, he created this podcast to provide the support and advice he once lacked.
Tune in for engaging interviews, leadership tips, and the latest in technology strategy. Each episode is designed to help you lead with confidence and level up as a CTO.
Listen now to start your journey with The CTO Playbook and build your own playbook to excel in your role.
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Stop Doing These 14 Things If You Want to Be a Great CTO
I’m not adding to your to-do list—I’m flipping it. These are the habits that keep you reactive, overwhelmed, or straight-up invisible to the rest of the exec team. I walk through the traps that I see CTOs fall into again and again, from packing your calendar like a bad game of Tetris to leading every decision and chasing every shiny trend. These aren’t theories. They’re mistakes I’ve coached dozens of tech leaders through—and screwed up myself too.
You’ll Learn:
The real reason packing your calendar wall-to-wall kills strategic thinking
What happens when you delegate tasks but not decisions
The quiet damage of assuming your team understands the company vision
Why translating tech into business outcomes changes your exec team influence
The simple phrase that makes hard feedback easier to hear and act on
What it feels like to stop chasing trends and start trusting fundamentals
The surprising link between avoiding trade-offs and leadership gridlock
How overusing jargon weakens your clarity and authority
What most CTOs get wrong about culture—and how to fix it
Why punishing mistakes kills innovation faster than any bad process
Timestamps:
[00:00] Introduction
[03:06] Why filling every hour kills your ability to lead
[04:15] The problem with working without strategic alignment
[05:01] Delegating tasks vs delegating decisions
[06:41] What happens when people don’t understand the vision
[07:50] How to translate engineering into business language
[08:55] Why leading with opinion weakens your credibility
[10:00] The cost of chasing every shiny trend
[11:00] You can’t scale if you lead everything alone
[12:58] How to have hard conversations and handle feedback
[13:54] Why jargon destroys clarity and influence
[14:50] What culture is actually made of
[15:36] Stop punishing mistakes if you want innovation
Are you managing your individual contributors in a way that fuels growth, performance, and alignment?
In this episode, I’m talking with Faris Aranki, founder of Shiageto Consulting, about leading individual contributors through regular one-on-one meetings. Faris brings a wealth of experience from his career in strategy consulting and leadership coaching. We dive into a proven system for structuring these meetings to keep performance management simple, effective, and human-centered.
We explore how to align individual performance with company goals, why weekly check-ins are crucial, and how to integrate these meetings into your larger performance frameworks. Faris also shares how building rapport and listening actively can lead to stronger relationships with your team, ensuring that growth is both continuous and aligned with the broader mission.
You’ll Learn:
The real reason weekly one-on-ones are critical for individual contributor success
Why a rolling agenda document is your most powerful tool in building trust and accountability
How to use silence strategically in one-on-one meetings to encourage deeper conversation
The quiet damage of neglecting active listening in engineering teams
What it feels like to lead with empathy and get results without micromanaging
How to align individual performance with company goals through simple, structured conversations
The surprising link between personal development plans and long-term organizational success
Why you should avoid status updates in one-on-ones and focus on personal growth
54: CTO Secrets to Scaling Fast: Lessons from COVID, Culture & Code with Peter Wong
Are you managing individual contributors the best way possible?
In this episode, I sit down with Peter Wong, a seasoned CTO, to discuss how to lead individual contributors effectively with a structured and personalized approach. You’ll hear how weekly one-on-one meetings, a simple but powerful rolling agenda, and understanding how each person learns can take performance management from stressful to seamless.
We dive into how this method helps you align your team with company goals, nurture personal growth, and create trust—ensuring the continuous development of your engineering team, one conversation at a time. This approach ensures clarity and consistency, allowing your team to thrive.
You’ll Learn:
Why weekly one-on-one meetings are more powerful than lengthier sessions
The real reason a rolling agenda can transform your leadership approach
How to foster trust and build rapport by simply listening more than speaking
What happens when you tailor your questions to how each person learns
The surprising link between performance management and building personal connections
Why writing things down in meetings isn’t just a formality—it’s a trust-builder
The quiet damage of skipping regular check-ins with your team
What it feels like to have an annual review with zero surprises
The key to making performance feedback feel like a natural progression
How to use small actions like weekly meetings to drive big results over time
53: Why Most Tech Managers Fail at Feedback (and How Top CTOs Fix It)
Are you getting the most out of your individual contributors?
In this episode, I sit down with Matan Kubovsky to dive into the art of managing individual contributors through weekly one-on-one meetings. Matan shares his experience and a proven system for leading teams with consistency, clarity, and alignment. This method isn’t just about project updates—it’s about shaping growth and connecting each person’s role to the broader organizational mission.
We cover how to structure meetings, build trust, and set the right cadence to keep momentum going. Matan also discusses how to track progress with a rolling agenda and how to use the VARK learning model to tailor coaching to the team’s learning styles. Whether leading a small team or guiding team leads, this episode is packed with actionable insights to make performance management smoother and more effective.
You’ll Learn:
The real reason weekly one-on-ones are the most powerful tool for individual contributor growth
What happens when you set the right cadence for meetings and stick to it
The surprising link between active listening and building trust with your team
Why silence in meetings can be your secret weapon to get more from your team
How to use the VARK model to tailor coaching and accelerate learning
The quiet damage of losing momentum by meeting less than once a week
What it feels like to lead with clarity by aligning individual performance with company goals
Why recording your one-on-one meetings can build confidence and create valuable evidence
The key difference between a mission statement and a personal development plan
52: How to lead with presence: 5 habits every technology leader needs
In this special episode, Adam dives into the hidden cost of not showing up—at work, at home, and especially as a leader. If you’ve ever coasted through a Zoom call, half-listened to a teammate, or checked your phone while spending time with your kids, this one will hit hard.
Adam pulls back the curtain on what it really means to lead with presence—not perfection—and how that simple act can radically transform trust, engagement, and team performance. You’ll hear personal stories, hard-won lessons, and five tactical steps to build a leadership style grounded in consistency and connection. Whether you're burned out or just trying to level up, this episode delivers the wake-up call (and the playbook) you didn’t know you needed.
You’ll Learn:
How showing up with full presence activates trust, connection, and influence
Why “being there” isn’t the same as actually being present
What distracted leadership signals to your team—and how it erodes performance
How to create friction against distractions and train consistent focus
Why celebration is a strategic act—not a soft one
How to structure 1:1s that deepen trust and engagement
What a simple “thank you” does to long-term team motivation
Why consistency beats charisma in high-stakes leadership
How to audit your calendar for high-impact presence opportunities
What missed moments teach us about recommitment and integrity
51: Leadership, Change & Stillness: What Tech Leaders Can Learn from Hiking
You’re leading everyone else—but are you quietly abandoning yourself?
This episode features executive coach and former engineer Natalya Tarasova, who brings a rare blend of technical credibility, Eastern philosophy, and mountaineering metaphors to the world of tech leadership. With a background in physics, machine learning, and organizational coaching, Natalya doesn’t just talk about change—she’s lived it through multiple career pivots and international moves. Her perspective is especially powerful for high-performing CTOs who’ve built their careers on delivering results but feel disconnected from their own needs.
In this conversation, Adam and Natalya break down why so many senior tech leaders are brilliant at leading others but terrible at leading themselves. You’ll learn how to recognize when you’ve put yourself last for too long, how to approach inner transformation with the same strategy you’d use for scaling a system, and why burnout often hides behind high output. Expect unconventional insights on emotional regulation, breathing as a leadership tool, the myth of waiting until you’re “ready,” and how to rewire your mental architecture for sustainable impact. This episode is a must-listen if you’re ready to stop sprinting and start leading from stillness.
You’ll Learn:
How high performers unknowingly sabotage themselves by avoiding stillness
Why “putting yourself first” is essential—not selfish—for sustainable leadership
How to use mountaineering metaphors to map out complex personal growth
What breathing techniques reveal about nervous system regulation under stress
50: From Chaos to Clarity: Using KPIs to Protect, Persuade, and Prioritize as CTO
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
49: What’s the Point of Your Tech Team? Why Most CEOs are Missing the Signals
"Compliance doesn’t make you good—so how do you really know if your tech team is any good at all?"
In this episode, Adam sits down with Andy Graham, former CTO with 30 years of M&A and enterprise tech leadership, and Dane Eldridge, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Stackup. Together, they’ve built a deceptively simple tool that’s flipping the script on how tech leaders assess their teams—and uncover hidden risks before they explode.
You’ll learn why most CTOs are unknowingly flying blind, how to detect the silent killers of innovation (like misaligned architecture or fuzzy definitions of "automation"), and how a single 30-minute assessment can surface the unknown unknowns holding your business back. Whether you're a scaleup CTO, a board member trying to evaluate tech health, or a founder wondering if your dev team is as strong as they say—they break down the real reason so many companies move slow, and how to fix it. You'll walk away with a new lens on language, leadership, and the hidden liabilities inside most tech functions.
You’ll Learn:
How benchmarking reveals hidden risks and weak spots in your tech function
Why compliance frameworks can create a false sense of confidence
How to detect misalignment between your tech strategy and business goals
What most CTOs miss about the real cost of technical debt during scale-up
Why “automation” means different things to different teams—and why that’s dangerous
How to use Stackup’s 30-minute assessment to surface unknown unknowns
What poor communication habits are silently sabotaging CTO credibility
How to use objective scoring to drive strategic investment and track improvement over time
48: Why great CTOs slow down to think, and see what others can’t
"Most CTOs spend all their time chasing rabbits—and miss the real future right in front of them."
In this sharp, no-fluff episode, Adam cuts through the chaos CTOs face daily and reveals the underrated superpower every tech leader must develop: strategic foresight. Forget firefighting and sprint planning—this is about learning to think deeply and see the horizon others can’t. Adam shares why boredom (yes, boredom) might be your secret weapon for unlocking creativity and how slowing down can give you the attitude needed to lead confidently instead of just managing crises. You’ll get a clear three-step playbook to zoom out beyond the immediate, create deliberate mental space, and build a network that challenges your perspective. If you’re ready to escape the cycle of reactive firefighting and step into real leadership, this episode will push you to rethink what it means to lead technology—and how to spot the future before it’s obvious to anyone else.
You’ll Learn:
How strategic foresight shifts CTO leadership from reactive to visionary
Why boredom can unlock breakthrough creativity and clear thinking
How to create mental space for insight in a nonstop, distraction-heavy world
What the loneliness of leadership really means—and how to handle it
How to spot hidden risks and opportunities before they become urgent problems
Why zooming out beyond the quarter accelerates better decision-making
How to build a support network that challenges your perspective and expands your thinking
What deliberate stillness in your schedule does for creative problem-solving
How small early mitigations prepare you for future challenges without wasting resources
47: The Future of Distributed Architecture and Durable Execution with Temporal CTO, Maxim Fateev
What if the most complex part of your backend system... just vanished?
In this episode, Adam sits down with Maxim Fateev, CTO and co-founder of Temporal, a platform quietly revolutionizing how distributed systems are built at companies like Stripe, Snap, and Netflix. With a career spanning Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Uber, Maxim brings a rare, battle-tested perspective to the chaos of modern infrastructure.
This conversation unpacks why the old way of building event-driven systems is fundamentally broken—and how Temporal’s concept of durable execution makes reliability and scale feel effortless. You’ll learn why your devs are wasting thousands of hours on boilerplate, how workflows are being redefined by AI, and why most “modern” architectures are really just legacy spaghetti in disguise. If you care about developer velocity, rock-solid uptime, or building tech that doesn’t implode at scale, this one’s a must-listen.
You’ll Learn:
How durable execution eliminates retries, race conditions, and orchestration chaos
Why event-driven systems create hidden coupling—and how to break it
How Amazon’s early monolith shaped a new paradigm for backend scale
What makes step functions a step backwards in modern architecture
How to write workflows that survive failures, restarts, and region-wide outages
Why most business logic doesn’t need YAML, queues, or 12 microservices
How to scale from prototype to production without rewriting core systems
What AI agents reveal about the future of workflow orchestration
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