Both hands on the wheel
There’s a framing I keep coming back to, which describes the modern technology leader as both the navigator on the bridge and the engineer in the engine room at the same time. That’s exactly the tension I recognize from the field. The CIOs I most want to work with are the ones who haven’t abandoned either role. They’re genuinely curious about how the infrastructure works, not just what it delivers. And they’re genuinely accountable for business outcomes, not just technical ones. That dual orientation is rare, and it’s valuable and when I find it, those tend to be the engagements where we build something worth building. And this is one thing that fascinates me about open source: The people who engage with it tend to be true tech experts.
For those of us on the architecture side, the implication is clear. We can’t show up to these conversations as purely technical resources anymore, either. The best solution I can design is useless if it doesn’t connect to the organizational reality my customer is operating in. Understanding the strategic pressure they’re under, the cultural conditions they’re working with, the decision-making constraints they’re navigating, that context shapes everything about how I recommend we build.
The engine room and the bridge have always been part of the same ship. It just took a while for the org charts to catch up.
