The 90-Day Plan For A New CTO

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1	The 90-Day Plan For A New CTO
2	Check out CTO Toolkit for essential tools & resources for Senior Engineering Leaders: https://gum.co/ctotoolkit
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4	Start date	6 September 2025	How to use this checklist
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6	Day 1 - Day 15	Completion Date: 21 September 2025	ℹ️ Copy the spreadsheet by going to File -> Make a copy (make sure you're signed in to Google)
7		Get to know your peers, direct reports and leadership	Update the Start date with your own start date (in dd mmmm yyyy format)
8		Listen more than talk	Take note of the completion dates
9		Use the company’s product and play around with its features	Start ticking the checkbox once you've completed each task
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11	Day 15 - Day 30	Completion Date: 06 October 2025	💎 Download CTO Toolkit to help you acommplish the tasks and more in a structured way
12		Learn more about current projects and follow updates
13		Learn about the technical architecture and tech stacks
14		Understand how the current projects contribute to the organisation’s success	👩🏻‍💻 Created by Isabel Nyo (Twitter, LinkedIn, Website)
15		Observe current systems, processes, ways of working and people and identify strengths and opportunities for improvement
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17	Day 30 - Day 60	Completion Date: 05 November 2025
18		Form your own opinion around how things work
19		Monitor progress of engineering excellence via essential metrics such as up time, response time, error vs success rate, number of incidents, etc
20		Put together a 6 months and a year plan, starting with outcomes
21		Talk to customers and end users
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23	Day 60 - Day 90	Completion Date: 05 December 2025
24		Share your plan with leadership and key individuals in the organisation
25		Make small but sustainable process changes that are aligned with the future direction, eg: introducing code review process, implementing structured hiring approach (You may check out CTO Toolkit for best practices and templates.)
26		Do the first of many quarterly reviews with your direct reports and share your observation about them
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