Where Do CTOs Come From?
I recently came across a global consulting company called STXNext, which surveyed over 250 CTOs* about the positions they held before becoming CTOs. Their findings weren’t surprising to me.1
Data roles were absent from previous positions—or, at the very least, collapsed into a category called "Other," listed next to "Academic Personnel." Roles like data architect, analyst, data engineer, or data leader did not appear in the chart.
As someone who came into a CTO role from an analyst background, I may have some personal bias. However, this finding made me wonder: would today’s technology leaders benefit from having an analyst background?
Challenges with CTOs
While I can’t say exactly how many IT executives I’ve interacted with over the years—probably somewhere between 30 and 50—I’ve noticed some recurring trends. Not just in other CTOs, but in myself too. After hearing plenty of complaints from CEOs, CFOs, and IT team members, here’s a list of typical shortcomings and weaknesses I’ve observed (and yes, I’ve been guilty of a few of these myself):
Execution and Decision-Making Problems
Problems with moving forward in a productive way
The Side-Quester: Gets caught up in unimportant details or side projects, focusing too much on the things they find interesting.
The Perfectionist: Overthinks every detail, leading to slow decision-making or overbuilt solutions that don’t keep up with the pace of the business.
The Theorist: Spends time building for hypothetical scenarios instead of solving current business needs. This can tie into being overly risk-averse.
Business Alignment Problems
Problems with how technology fits with the particular business
The Actuary: Plays it too safe, avoiding calculated risks. This often leads to overspending or missed opportunities because decisions aren’t aligned with business goals.
The Maximalist: Doesn’t grasp the company’s financial model or how tech decisions affect unit economics. This is especially common when talent transitions from large corporations with big budgets to small or midsize businesses.
Team Management Problems
Problems organizing work, structuring roles, and retaining great people
The Task Tumbler: Runs an ineffective team due to unclear roles and responsibilities. Tasks get assigned randomly based on who’s nearby or available, which either overloads the leader or leaves critical work unfinished.
The Territory Defender: Becomes overly protective of their team and resources, creating silos and isolating IT from the rest of the company. This can also make the leader a bottleneck.
The Empire Builder: Equates their value with the size of their team, prioritizing headcount over actual impact.
The Excuse Enabler: Struggles to hold team members accountable, often blaming circumstances or external factors.
Why Does This Happen?
While everyone has faults and limitations, the backgrounds and experiences of CTOs shape these tendencies. Many excellent CTOs focus on their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses effectively, often coming from developer backgrounds. This is worth appreciating. However, I believe analysts bring unique advantages to the CTO role.
The Analyst
What is an Analyst?
When I talk about analysts, I mean people who analyze data to help make business decisions—regardless of their actual job title. Analysts show up all over a business: in IT and engineering, marketing, BI, operations, and even product management. Titles can vary wildly depending on the company and role, but the core skill set is the same.
For this discussion, I’m using “analyst” as a broad term to describe a certain type of person, not just a specific job.
The Advantages
An Analytical Mindset: One of my favorite qualities in a great analyst is their ability to untangle complex situations by breaking them down into core components, analyzing each piece, and then guiding well-informed decisions. Analysts with this mindset also tend to handle pressure more effectively, making them less likely to be overwhelmed and better positioned to make strong business decisions.
An Analytical Process: Good analysts often develop their own processes. Without a structured approach, using data to make decisions can be painful and time-consuming. I’ve noticed that effective analysts typically lean on templates or frameworks from previous projects—so they’re not always starting from scratch. Great analysts go a step further by picking up technical skills that fortify their workflow, resulting in efficient, DRY (don’t repeat yourself) work. By building on what they’ve already created, they save time and deepen their domain knowledge, which leads to better outcomes.
Broader Exposure: As I mentioned before, analysts often get a bigger-picture perspective due to less rigid roles and exposure to diverse business environments. After a few positions, they’ve likely reported to different departments and have a broader understanding of how businesses function—unlike many traditional IT roles, which tend to be more uniform across organizations.
Embracing Ambiguity: While IT roles usually come with clearer expectations, analysts frequently operate in undefined spaces. They adapt quickly, thrive in ambiguity, and excel at making sense of messy or evolving situations.
Executive/Client Interaction: Analysts often enjoy more direct interaction with executives and clients because they’re the ones diving into the data, helping guide decisions, or preparing board materials. Both clients and senior leaders usually want direct access to the people conducting the actual analysis, which means analysts gain a unique window into how CEOs think—along with valuable business context and domain knowledge. This is an advantage that traditional developers may not experience as frequently.
I believe these strengths—broad business exposure, robust decision-making frameworks, and strong relational skills—combine to make analysts uniquely well-suited for tech leadership roles.
The Analyst Disadvantage
Of course, an analyst’s background doesn’t come without some downsides.
Lack of IT/Engineering Experience: An analyst-turned-CTO who hasn’t worked within an IT or engineering team risks losing credibility with technical staff. Trust, once lost, is nearly impossible to regain.
Technical Skill Gaps: Analysts who lack technical expertise or curiosity about the details can struggle, especially in midsize companies where CTOs are often expected to be somewhat hands-on. Striking a balance between technical oversight and leadership is crucial.
The Analyst CTO
CTOs who thrive on data-driven decisions, understand financial alignment with business goals, and bring the emotional resilience to keep their teams focused are rare. Giving analysts opportunities to lead IT teams—and eventually step into executive roles—could help develop a new wave of such excellent tech leaders.
For existing CTOs, building strong relationships with business leaders and customers is key. Make those connections genuine — make these people real friends. You will be surprised how big of an impact this will have on the value you create as well as your quality of life.