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
(00:28 ) Eric Bowman's Career Journey

(02:07 ) The Core CTO Challenge

(05:13 ) Outcome AND Output → Impact

(07:20 ) Accountability Over Output

(08:45 ) Universal Value Streams

(10:20 ) Product + Tech Leadership Models + Dynamics

(13:39 ) Single Threaded Leaders vs. Dual Roles

(15:26 ) CTO Role: Balancing Today and Tomorrow

(16:40 ) CTO Role: Economics of Decision-Making

(18:43 ) Team Organization: Autonomy and Rethinking Small Teams

(22:11 ) Causal Chains, Goals and Feedback Loops

(26:15 ) Discipline = Action + Commitment

(29:06 ) Prioritise Goals with Kanban-Style Stack Ranking

(36:00 ) Platform Engineering: Help or Hindrance? (DORA-inspired)

(38:26 ) CAUTION: Compensating Measures

(40:20 ) Tech Investments: ROI and Value Creation

(42:19 ) AI and The Theory of Adjacent Possibilities

(49:58 ) Why Eric Dislikes the Word ‘Innovation’

(51:11 ) Quickfire Round: Tools and Tech