Where I share about my journey in tech and life.
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This article is a deep retrospective on the last three months of my startup journey. Not long ago, I wrote that managing was harder than coding. Since then, I’ve taken a real step back to understand what was off in my way of working and why I was feeling increasingly overwhelmed.
I long thought I had a project management problem. But that wasn’t true.
The real issue was that the project itself was constantly changing. Changes came from clients and from an unclear product vision. Whenever one client said “this is the key feature”, we rushed to build it.
The features we built were interesting — but they matched the needs of exactly one person, not a market.
Talking with Robert (one of our coaches) made something click.
He initially talked with my cofounder about the need for focus. Then he looked at me and said it must be difficult to keep everything in place when the product changes so rapidly.
I explained why I was running 1-week sprints:
I was not behaving like a CTO trying to optimize engineering. I was behaving like a CPO trying to figure out the product.
I just didn’t want to admit it.
Later, in a conversation with another mentor, we talked about a big strategic shift — moving from SMEs to research centers.
He told me something that hit hard:
Technical is not the key. Product, insights, and numbers are the key.
I knew this deep inside, but I didn’t want to accept it. When he said it out loud, I felt a mix of shock and relief because I realized I might have been doing things wrong for a long time and because finally we were naming the real problem.
So we decided to almost restart from the beginning: back to talking with users, clarifying needs, rebuilding understanding.
But I’ll be honest: it’s tiring.
It’s emotionally heavy to feel like you’re starting over after a year and a half — especially without revenue. I just turned 30, and part of me wants more financial stability than I currently have. It’s not the number of roles that stresses me.
It’s the feeling of restarting.
And so, little by little, the title “CTO” felt less accurate. Not because I stopped being technical, I definitely still am. But because the real challenge we face today isn’t technical.
It’s product.
Understanding the market, speaking with users, making choices with clarity, avoiding the temptation to rush into building the wrong things.
This is CPO work. Accepting that was difficult — but also necessary.