As we scale and automate our operations, our leadership team is debating whether we need to split our Operations seat to create a dedicated Chief Technology Officer seat. How do we determine if we actually need another seat on the leadership team or if this will just overcomplicate things?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Expanding the leadership team is a decision that should never be made lightly. A bloated leadership team slows down decision-making, dilutes accountability, and often leads to political turf wars. You must evaluate this strictly through the lens of the Accountability Chart, not personalities or titles.

Look at your current Operations seat. Is the complexity of your technology infrastructure and AI systems truly beyond the capacity of one person to oversee alongside daily delivery? To answer this, define the major roles for a potential CTO seat. If those roles are highly strategic, such as designing proprietary software architectures or managing complex data compliance, it may justify a separate seat.

However, if the technology needs are primarily supporting your existing operational workflows, those roles should remain under the Operations seat. You can hire a technology director who reports to the Operations leader, keeping them off the leadership team.

Keep your leadership team small, ideally between three and seven seats. If you can keep technology as a sub-department within Operations, do so. This maintains a lean, agile decision-making unit that can execute quickly, which is exactly what sophisticated buyers look for when evaluating your organization.