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šŸŖ— Writing Culture, Anti-Managers, Conflict Resolution, Self-Improving Software, Blameless Culture, No to 996: TMW #505

Andy @ CTO Craft
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This week's TMW is sponsored by DesignVerse - giving AI the architecture, standards, knowledge, and guardrails it needs to build the way your engineering organization already does - consistently, securely, and at scale.

Hello, hello, hello, welcome to the week!

More on AI and productivity...

This week, a CTO Craft community member described a company that spends about one million dollars each month on AI tools for more than 2,000 employees. The company sees no significant change in its overall metrics, but a small number of teams show very large improvements. Many teams that get poor results also use ten times more tokens than the successful teams. The responses agreed that AI amplifies what already exists: strong teams become stronger, and weak teams create more work for other people. One member said that heavy AI use did not predict results, because heavy users spent much more for only a small improvement.

Many members said that the problem is the system, not the tool. When one team works faster, the total result does not change if decisions, handoffs and approvals still cause the delay. One member showed that a team that finishes one project before it starts the next delivers three times more value with the same people. There wasn't a consensus on whether the solution is training, culture or a change to the structure of the organisation, but most agreed that somebody must have the time, mandate and authority to change the whole process, not only the work of engineers.

If your organisation doubled the speed of its engineers tomorrow, where would the work wait next, and who has the authority to remove that delay?

That's it, let's look at some links! See you next week

Andy @ CTO Craft

CTO Craft Con - Dates for Your Diary

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Where the Money Moves: Making AI Work in Systems You Canā€™t Pause | DesignVerse

AI is accelerating software development, but in financial services, legacy systems canā€™t simply be switched off or rewritten. So where can AI make the biggest difference, and how do you turn AI-generated code into real business value without increasing risk?

At CTO Craft Con: Fintech, CTO Craft and DesignVerse will bring together a small group of CTOs and engineering leaders for an off-the-record discussion hosted by Andrei Manolache, Co-founder and CEO of DesignVerse. Together, theyā€™ll explore where AI delivers the most impact, how to apply it safely, and how to balance innovation with the realities of regulated systems.

CTO Craft Mixers Coming Up

See the whole calendar here - not in your city yet? Drop us a line!

Reads of the Week

Leadership, Strategy & Business

Culture, People & Teams

Technology, Operations & Delivery

Stress, Wellbeing & Growth

Thatā€™s it!

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Have an amazing week!

Andy

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