Product Driven Newsletter

Product Driven Newsletter

Home
Notes
Chat
Archive
About
The Five Modes of a Modern CTO (And Why Most Only Master One)
Most CTOs start as builders. The best ones learn how to shift.
You Don’t Need a PM to Own the Product
Most CTOs start as builders. The best ones learn how to shift.
How to Scale Yourself as a Builder-Turned-Leader
Lessons from the journey to CTO that nobody prepares you for
1
You’re Hitting Every Metric. And Yet…
It’s Not Working.
How to Build Empathy on Teams That Never Meet the User
With guest: Anton Zaides, Engineering Manager & Founder of Manager.dev

April 2025

Your Team Might Be Doing All the Right Things for the Wrong Reasons
A gut-check for leaders who think “on time” means “on track.”
"I Could Never Speak at Conferences" and Other Things Tech Experts Tell Themselves
When I saw Cory House speak at my first tech conference, I immediately thought, "I could never do that."
You’re Not the Bottleneck Anymore
It used to be that being an engineering leader meant being the team’s unblocker.
The Tech Leader's Guide to Managing Up, Down, and Across
How to Drive Product Direction When Everyone Has an Opinion
What “Done” Should Actually Mean on Product Engineering Teams
Why your dev team’s definition of done might be killing momentum—and what to do instead.
1
When to Kill Your "Working" Product and Start Over
There's a painful truth that most tech founders don't want to hear: sometimes a product that's "working" still needs to die.
1
Engineering Managers Hold the Key to Effective Team Collaboration
Your standup meetings probably sound like this:"I worked on the authentication module yesterday. Today I'll finish it. No blockers."That's not a…
1
Why Technical Founders Fail at Sales
The late-night text message lit up my phone:
Engineering Teams Need Craftsmen, Not Just Artists or Scientists
When I'm hiring developers at Full Scale or building teams for my own ventures, I always face the same question: what kind of people truly build…
1

March 2025

Engineer to Founder: The Critical Mindset Shift Most Developers Miss
Have you ever tried to teach a fish to see water?
Why Most CTOs Fail: The Hidden Trust Crisis Between Tech Leaders and CEOs
When the CTO-CEO relationship breaks down, it's rarely about technical skills. It's almost always about trust.
Why Your Developers Should Talk Directly to Customers: Lessons from AWS
The surprising productivity hack that transformed this developer's impact and what it means for your engineering team...
Why The Best Developers Are Already Great at Sales (They Just Don't Know It Yet)
The unexpected career superpower that's hiding in your developer mindset...
Why Your Most Logical Engineers Struggle with Ownership (And How to Fix It)
Ownership isn't a skill problem. It's an emotional intelligence problem.
Great Engineers Make Poor CTOs: A Hard Truth About Technical Leadership
Building successful software companies requires exceptional talent at every level.
Your Best Engineers Could Be Your Biggest Communication Liability (And How to Fix It)
The same traits that make someone an exceptional engineer can sometimes make them a significant liability when it comes to team communication.
The Hidden Scaling Crisis Every Startup CTO Must Overcome
Let me tell you about a conversation I recently had with my friend Rachel that perfectly illustrates a crisis I'm seeing across the startup landscape.

February 2025

© 2025 Matt Watson
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture