Chris Pruett

💡 AI doesn’t just change how code is written – it changes expectations and outcomes. In the final section of Jellyfish’s AI Adoption Guide, we explore how expectations for engineering leaders are evolving as AI becomes embedded across the SDLC. Because the organizations pulling ahead are treating AI as a transformation, not a tooling upgrade. Inside, you’ll explore: - Why AI adoption is quickly becoming a leadership mandate, not an option - How to balance ambitious goals with realistic expectations - What cultural investments are required to sustain long-term gains - How data can be used to align executives and engineering teams The teams that win in the AI era won’t just have better tools – they’ll have leaders who know how to guide change. Download today: https://lnkd.in/dut_6WpQ

20

Energized by "AI Meets Formal – Redefining the Verification Frontier". Just wrapped up an incredible panel discussion. I felt energized hearing from our FV friends on how they are seeing and seizing this opportunity to lower the barrier and increase the formal footprint. Huge shoutout to VC Formal and Sandeep Jana for creating this amazing platform where our formal verification community can come together to share insights and learn from each other. Key Takeaways : - Embrace, don't fear GenAI – It's time to face this technology head-on and make it our ally - Fundamentals still matter – Strong formal verification foundations remain our competitive edge - Think systematically – We need methodical, scalable approaches to GenAI integration for long-term sustainability - The barrier is lowering – GenAI is set to democratize formal verification, making it more accessible than ever #Intel #FVCTO #FormalVerification #EDA #GenAI #HardwareVerification

135

We signed a new customer yesterday that heavily uses Stripe for billing and has some complex multi-entity and multi-currency challenges. They tried to develop an integration with a couple other accounting solutions and while doing so, asked Claude Code what other systems they should consider. Claude suggested they explore SoftLedger and by the time we got on our first call, he already had a pretty good integration specification. So he got access to his account yesterday. This morning, this is the message received by our customer success team: "This is unbelievable. I would estimate I am 60-70% of the way through what I need to do. Brought in 23,000 journal entries overnight." Something has changed in the buying journey for companies seeking an integrated accounting solution and I love it. Accounting technology should be an API driven solution that conforms to a companies processes. Tools like Claude Code enable companies to build bespoke integrations for their internal processes like never before.

51

13 Comments

CPTO Revolution: Why SaaS Companies Are Merging Product and Tech Leadership I’ve lived the pain of siloed leadership and the inefficiencies it creates many times. And I’ve also seen how tightly integrated product and tech can transform not just delivery, but outcomes. Traditional org charts are no longer keeping up. The most competitive SaaS companies aren’t hiring separate CTOs and CPOs anymore - they’re bringing both roles under one roof with CPTOs. This isn’t about headcount optimization. It’s about reducing friction and moving faster in a world where complexity is climbing and customer expectations evolve by the week. Here’s the core issue: when product and engineering leadership are separate, you’re always playing a game of telephone. Product defines what’s needed. Engineering estimates and negotiates. Product pushes. Engineering pushes back. Handoffs everywhere. Every step is a delay. A CPTO owns the entire journey - from insight to shipped product. One person accountable. One vision. One continuous flow. And it works. Companies running this model are seeing up to 40% faster go-to-market. Less tech debt. Clearer priorities. Higher team velocity. What Actually Changes 1. Aligned Metrics You stop optimizing for isolated outcomes. Product isn’t chasing adoption while engineering shields uptime. Both roll into shared business goals. 2. AI Gets Strategic With unified leadership, AI isn’t a bolt-on. It becomes core to how you design, build, and validate products - through data, feedback loops, and automation. 3. Developer Experience Matters Platform engineering gets the attention it deserves. Internal tools align with product delivery, and suddenly teams aren’t waiting - they’re shipping. UX maturity, platform architecture, technical scalability - all of it becomes a single continuum. You’re not just improving “process”; you’re aligning every decision to what users need and what’s feasible to build. The CPTO Skillset This isn’t a hybrid role - it’s an integrated one. You need the technical depth to guide architecture and the product judgment to say no to overengineering. You talk to engineers about latency and reliability, and to the board about market traction and differentiation. As AI accelerates software development, what matters is orchestration—of systems, teams, and strategy. You need to see the whole board. Cloud infra spend is growing ~10% yearly, mostly due to AI. That spend needs direction. CPTOs are the ones who can match innovation speed with platform efficiency. Companies clinging to the old CTO/CPO split are playing a slower game. Integration is no longer optional - it’s a competitive advantage. So—what’s keeping your org from making the leap?

15

What does it take to build a successful engineering organization? 🚀 It’s not just strategy decks or scaling headcount. It’s the messy, behind-the-scenes work—building clarity when there’s chaos, balancing autonomy with alignment, and constantly evolving your architecture and culture as you grow. I’ve spent the last few years learning (and re-learning) this. So, I wrote a 3-part blog series to share some nuggets. If you're leading (or hoping to lead) at scale, I hope there's something useful in here for you. Would love your thoughts, and even more—your own lessons 🙂 #engineering #leadership #lessonslearned

29

1 Comment

I thought this was a good and very reasonable talk by Eleanor Millman on how to prioritize projects for a platform engineering team: https://lnkd.in/gaYtUHRH A few insights I took from it: - Unlike product features which can be more directly tied to revenue, platform engineering work is a couple steps removed. But that doesn't mean it's unimportant! Far from it, platform engineering projects can make everyone at the company more efficient, able to produce higher quality software, etc. - While "urgency" is always going to be a factor, you don't want to just be putting out fires, you want be able to prioritize work which is "high impact" ... even if that impact isn't felt immediately. - Good rule of thumb: prioritize "highest impact for lowest effort". - The talk has some ideas on what factors to choose for impact, and how to blend them. For instance "speed of development" is one factor, "cloud cost optimization" might be another. The weighting of different impact factors can change over time, depending on the needs of the business. I would say that a lot of companies don't have much methodology here but I can really see the value in codifying it. You can always change the methodology or the weighting if it's spitting out results that don't pass the smell test or you really feel it is leading the company astray. Clarity can give the org more freedom to put resources behind projects that would otherwise never be taken on. When things are unclear, prioritization still happens implicitly, but the decisions tend to be a lot more random and fear-based and the org is worse off as a result.

15

3 Comments

Full delegation to autonomous teams is not a silver bullet. Sometimes, it’s just abdication. For the past 20 years, I’ve seen a recurring pattern: Leaders delegating too much responsibility, too early, under the guise of "empowerment." The result isn’t autonomy. It’s confusion. We need to stop treating leadership tools like they fit every situation. You cannot use the same approach for a Day 1 junior as you do for a 10-year veteran. This is where Situational Leadership comes in, a leadership method that's too underutilized. Situational leadership method requires you to assess the readiness of the individual or team you're leading: * Brand new on the job? Newcomers can rarely handle full delegation effectively. Instead leaders shouldn't shy back from suggesting direction and follow up frequently. * Fully ready and capable? High control is demotivating. A too directive style then becomes ineffective Even seasoned experts are helped by direction on a new assignment. Giving clear instructions to a senior hire isn't micromanagement; it’s alignment. It prevents slow onboarding and misaligned expectations. Don’t be afraid to be directive when the situation calls for it. But don’t get stuck there. What's your experience from overusing any of the leadership styles? What do you think about this subject? There are 4 styles: Directive, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating. Notice that "Abdicating" isn't on that list.

21

4 Comments

I loved the comments from Henry Ward regarding scaling and thinking about organizational design (as recounted from his conversation with Ben Horowitz). "What problems do you want to come to you, and which problems do you not?" This is a powerful complement to considering the flow of information you want to faciliate between teams and functions to build the systems your company needs in order to be successful. #leadership #startup #founder https://lnkd.in/eJQaXSC6

8

1 Comment