AKF CTO Accelerator

Workshop Overview

The AKF CTO Accelerator is designed for technology and product executives, aspiring CTOs, and senior level managers of product, engineering, operations, infrastructure and QA organizations. This training course is meant as a growth opportunity for future CTOs, a foundation for new CTOs, and a breadth opportunity for existing CTOs. The course covers an introduction to finance for technology executives, roles and responsibilities within product organizations, organization structure and development for innovation, and proprietary AKF models, patterns, approaches, and principles to build low cost of development, fast time to market, highly available, easily scalable and low cost of operations technology product solutions. Classes are offered at our classroom in Scottsdale, AZ with an option for 3 remote sessions covering additional topics.

Next Offering: 7 - 8 March 2023

• Signup - 2 days onsite
• Signup - 2 days onsite plus 3 remote sessions

Location: Scottsdale, AZ

Cancellation Policy: Full refund for cancellations within 7 days of booking for bookings more than 1 month before the course start date. After 7 days post booking period, cancellations can be used as a full credit against a future course offering but no refunds are issued.

How is the workshop structured?

The workshop is delivered in multiple collaborative sessions. While a member of the AKF team will lead the discussion in each session, much of the interaction comes from the participants themselves. We keep the session size limited (maximum of 25 attendees) so that each attendee can be an active part of the conversation, share experiences, and ask questions from other executives who have been in your shoes. You’ll leave the workshop with principles, tools, and examples that you can continuously apply to your platform and organization.

Who should attend the workshop?

Our event is designed for current CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Chief Architects, and other technology executives who want to improve their management, leadership, and technology skills. It is also suitable for Chief Product Officers and senior product managers who wish to get a deeper understanding of the roles their colleagues play within the development lifecycle. The course also serves as a great way to help grow aspiring executives within the combined product and technology organizations. We help companies scale their technology and product platforms. Although nearly any technical organization would benefit from the lessons shared in the workshop, our sessions will provide the most value to companies that use technology to deliver their core product or service (e.g. SaaS, eCommerce).

What topics are covered in the 2 day onsite portion the workshop?

The following is a partial list of the topics covered at our facility in Scottsdale, AZ:

• The CTO Role: A discussion on the diversity of expectations and responsibilities (including fiduciary/legal responsibilities) from the hundreds of companies with which we’ve worked.
• Organization Construction: A discussion on the pros and cons of various organization structure concepts, and approaches to building high performing teams.
• Management & Leadership: The skills of a transformational leader and highly effective manager.
• Conflict & Innovation and Durable Multidisciplinary Product Teams: A discussion of good and bad conflicts in organizations and how to increase innovation.
• Team Goals, OKRs & KPIs Setting goals, metrics, and KPIs for Agile teams to ensure success.
• The Experiential Chasm: The widening gap between business leaders and technology leaders and how to close it.
• Service Delivery Mindset: The most successful technology organizations are structured with a service oriented mindset and we will discuss how to transform your organization and mindset.
• Introduction to Finance for Tech and Product Managers: A high level review of financial statements and how they relate to the tech and product organizations. Includes an in-depth discussion of technical debt.
• AKF Risk Model: Our viewpoint of risk and how to manage it successfully in your architecture, people, and processes.
• AKF Scale Cube: Our approach to designing highly scalable architectures.
• AKF Availability Cube and Availability Evaluation: Our approach to designing highly available architectures and how to calculate theoretical availability of a system.
• Availability and Scalability Patterns and Anti-Patterns: Our patterns for developing services oriented architectures and micro-services.
• Creating Fault Isolation: The importance of isolation for availability and time to market.
• Architecture Principles: An in-depth look at the top architecture principles and how to apply them.
   

What topics are covered in the optional remote portion of the workshop?

The following is a partial list of the topics covered in the remote sessions:

• Big Data Best Practices: A discussion on big data approaches, patterns, anti-patterns and best practices.
• Product Management: Applying strategic frameworks for B2B, B2C, and B2B2C companies.
• Lean Work Patterns. A review of the foundations of Agile, Kanban, Waterfall and when to use each approach, avoiding cognitive overload for teams
• Managing Change. Changing behaviors for transforming how people work at an individual, team, and organizational level
• Designing from the Outside In: Introduction to several design approaches such as Jobs to Be Done, Journey Maps, and Domain Driven Design.
   

When are the remote sessions?

The three remote sessions will be held from 11:00am to 2:00pm on Mondays following the onsite workshop: March 20th, March 27th, and April 3rd 2023.  

Who teaches this workshop?

Workshops are delivered by members of the AKF team. To date, AKF has helped hundreds of companies across 18 countries to achieve their business objectives.

Read more about the AKF Team.