The Guest – Oliver Spragg, Advisor at Postera Capital
Oliver Spragg is an Advisor at Postera Capital, and the previous CTO of Plan A, which enables global brands such as BMW, KFC, and Visa to measure, report, and reduce their emissions. Over the last 5 years, he led the engineering organisation at Plan A through a period of rapid growth, shaping everything from technical architecture and team structure to strategy and culture. He’s especially interested in applying machine learning principles to build high performing teams and drive operational excellence.
Oliver shares his transition from building hardware at a small startup to diving into machine learning and cryptocurrency data, before eventually leading the engineering department at Plan A. He delves into the challenges and lessons learned in growing the engineering team from just two to over thirty members, and how to maintain high-performance standards as a company scales. The conversation touches on key topics such as team culture, the importance of measuring performance beyond simple metrics, and the evolving role of engineers with the rise of AI and no-code tools.
Some highlights of this episode include:
- The evolution of a CTO’s role in startups
- The pitfalls of over-optimising metrics
- Building high-performing engineering teams
- AI’s role in measuring and enhancing developer experience
- The future of software development: from code to domain expertise
Q: How did you find that your job as CTO was changing? Is this something you realised over time, or is it in retrospect that you think that kind of just changed? Can you just talk us through that?
“Yeah, sure. I think a big part of doing a good job and creating meaningful impact is the ability to reflect quickly on how your role and how you allocate your time. This needs to evolve, and you need to adjust your actions accordingly. In the first six months, you need to be directly involved in building the product. Your hands are on the keyboard; you’re writing code, reviewing pull requests, and ensuring the team is focused on the right things. But as the company and the team grow, you have to recognise that coding is no longer where you can make the greatest impact. What I’ve learned over the years is that you need to constantly assess where your contribution will matter most and be willing to shift your focus in order to maximise that impact.”
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