#111 - Organising for Impact feat. Eric Bowman // CTO @ King

alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

Output → Outcome → Impact | Product + Tech | Adjacent Possibilities

How do we actually organize people to consistently deliver value and enjoy the process? This, Eric Bowman (CTO @ King) says, is the core challenge facing any CTO. In this thought-provoking episode, Eric shares insights from his remarkable career in gaming (The Sims, King), e-commerce (Zalando), and navigation technology (TomTom), offering a unique perspective on building high-performing teams and effective tech organizations.

Listen in to explore: 🔄 Outcome AND Outputs → Impact (ala Kent Beck’s Universal Value Streams) 🤖 Theory of Adjacent Possibility + Why AI isn’t there yet ⚖️ Product + Tech: Single-threaded (Amazon) vs. Dual Role (Marty Cagan or Google) 🎯 Goals: Kanban-Style Stack Ranking that limits Work-in-Progress 📈 ROI of Tech: Does it increase revenue or accelerate delivery? 🧘 Discipline = Action & Commitment

• is it time to rethink small teams and platform engineering? Have a listen. Eric has such a great combination of great combination of experience 🦾, knowledge 📚 and wisdom 🧠.

Listen here

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction (01:05) Eric Bowman's Career Journey (02:44) The Core CTO Challenge (05:50) Outcome AND Output → Impact (07:57) Accountability Over Output (09:22) Universal Value Streams (10:57) Product + Tech Leadership Models + Dynamics (14:16) Single Threaded Leaders vs. Dual Roles (16:03) CTO Role: Balancing Today and Tomorrow (17:17) CTO Role: Economics of Decision-Making (19:20) Team Organization: Autonomy and Rethinking Small Teams (22:48) Causal Chains, Goals and Feedback Loops (26:52) Discipline = Action + Commitment (29:43) Prioritise Goals with Kanban-Style Stack Ranking (36:37) Platform Engineering: Help or Hindrance? (DORA-inspired) (39:03) CAUTION: Compensating Measures (40:57) Tech Investments: ROI and Value Creation (42:56) AI and The Theory of Adjacent Possibilities (50:35) Why Eric Dislikes the Word ‘Innovation’ (51:48) Quickfire Round: Tools and Tech