Why Your Leadership Style Won't Survive Product Engineers (CTO Coach)

Is your leadership style built for an era that's already ending? Stephan Schmidt has seen tech transform three times: home computers, the internet, and now AI. As a CTO coach with 40+ years of experience, he's watched command-and-control crumble, agile get diluted, and now product engineering emerge as the response to AI-accelerated development.

In this episode, we explore why the bottleneck was never engineering (it was always product management), how AI is killing waterfall for good, and why CTOs need to evolve into CPTOs or risk becoming obsolete. Stephan doesn't hold back on what it really means to be "bullish on AI" and why developers might face the same identity crisis journalists did with social media.

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GUEST

Stephan Schmidt - CTO Coach & Author of "Amazing CTO"

Stephan has over 40 years in tech, from writing video games as a kid to coaching CTOs and engineering leaders today. He's been through the home computer revolution, the internet boom, and is now helping leaders navigate the AI transformation.

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Find Stephan:

- Website: https://amazingcto.com- LinkedIn: Search "Amazing CTO"- Book: "Amazing CTO" (available on Amazon)

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

01:17 Stefan's Journey into Tech

02:05 Tech Revolutions Over the Decades

03:05 Leadership Evolution in Tech

05:04 The Rise of Agile Methodologies

07:49 Challenges with Agile Implementation

09:52 Emergence of Product Engineers

14:40 Leadership in the Age of Product Engineers

19:57 The Changing Role of CTOs

22:47 The Evolving Role of the CTO

23:31 Defining the CTO's Responsibilities

25:21 Building Efficient Tech Teams

28:15 The Importance of AI in Modern Organizations

32:12 Empowering Non-Technical Leaders with AI

37:53 The Future of Product Engineers

41:09 Advice for Leaders Adopting Product Engineering

44:51 Conclusion and Contact Information

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. The bottleneck was never engineering - it was always product management. AI just makes this obvious.

2. Waterfall keeps creeping back because of "efficiency" - designers work 1 sprint ahead, product 2 sprints ahead. AI breaks this pattern because speed gains kill waterfall's perceived efficiency.

3. Leadership (not management) becomes critical - declaring a vision and getting people to follow, not command-and-control.

4. Teams are too big - if only 3 of 5 people engage in standups, you have 2 teams pretending to be one.

5. Code will become less important as an artifact - like binary is to us today. Think bigger.

6. Product engineering should be a promotion, not a rename - make engineers earn the title through demonstrated skills.

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RESOURCES MENTIONED

- "Amazing CTO" by Stephan Schmidt

- Extreme Programming by Kent Beck

- Article: "Why We Always End Up with Waterfall"

- Amdahl's Law (system bottlenecks)

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CONNECT WITH PRODUCT ENGINEERS

Host: Peppe Silletti

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peppesilletti/

Product Engineers Community:

Website: https://productengineers.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/product-engineers

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