Imbalance Between Business Leadership and Technology Leadership

Imbalance Between Business Leadership and Technology Leadership

I have spent a large portion of my career being parachuted into dysfunctional technology environments and attempting to recover them. Most of the time, the disconnects are relatively small and can be resolved fairly quickly; once in a while, however, I encounter a situation that truly amazes me in how bad things have become.

When a situation deteriorates too far before someone attempts to steer the ship back into calmer waters, the problem can turn into a serious business issue. Sometimes, new feature development has to stop entirely to make room for technical refactoring or even a complete technology rebuild. As a CEO, there are few things worse than hearing that not only will you need to spend more on technology in the short term, but you also won’t be evolving your product features. It truly feels like a lose–lose scenario.

I recently joined one of these projects again, which led me to question the root causes of the problem. Why do some environments become so much worse than others?

After reflecting on the topic, I believe the issue stems from an imbalance between the power held by business leaders and the power held by technology leaders.

Building technology that aligns with business needs requires a delicate balance of power.

Dominant ‘technology’ voice

If the technology voice is too dominant, a high-quality product will be built, one that runs very well, but it will become increasingly slow to evolve. Costs will continue to rise, often beyond what the business can reasonably afford. In these situations, we often see companies run out of money before they find a product–market fit.

Dominant ‘business’ voice

If the business voice is too prominent, too much emphasis is placed on features and speed to market, and not enough on software quality. In these environments, discussions tend to focus heavily on estimates, with business leaders frequently making statements such as “It’s as simple as ABC” or “It shouldn’t take long.” Every task that exceeds its estimate is aggressively scrutinized, and we often hear questions like, “How can we get this resolved faster?” or “The original estimate was X, what happened?” This pressure leads to significant corner-cutting by the technology team, resulting in a product that appears to work but doesn’t truly function as it should. The quality is too poor to scale, or even to survive beyond a few months.

Balance

Finding the right balance is difficult, and that balance will evolve as the business grows and its needs change over time. That’s why it’s essential to have open discussions and ensure that both business and technology leaders genuinely listen to each other and reach the right compromises. Give each other space to voice opinions honestly, and don’t lead with an answer. If you start with, “Give me an estimate for X, but it shouldn’t take too long because…,” don’t be surprised when corners are cut and things go wrong.

If you need help determining the right level of quality for your business today, we’d be very happy to help. Click here to contact us.