Your CTO is hiding behind process. Here is how to tell
When the engineering output drops, weak CTOs invent more process. Here are the signs your CTO is managing meetings instead of shipping product
The quickest way to identify a CTO who has stopped shipping is to count the ceremonies he introduced this quarter. Sprint refinement. Architecture council. RFC review board. PR template version 4. None of these things provide features. They all hide the fact that nothing is shipping
Sign 1: the calendar grew, the changelog shrank
Get the changelog from six months ago. Count the items by week. Review this week. Compare. Now look at the engineering team's calendar. If there are more meetings and fewer merges, you have a CTO who is managing instead of leading
Sign 2: every problem becomes an RFC
A small bug becomes a Notion doc. A small feature becomes a working group. A two-line config change becomes a three-team meeting. The process is a moat the CTO is digging around their own job
Sign 3: cannot answer git shortlog
Ask your CTO to run git shortlog -sn --since="1 month ago" and read out the top three names. If they have to ask their EM what that command does, you have your answer. They haven't opened a terminal in months
The fix is uncomfortable
Either the CTO goes back into code or they give the technical role to someone who actually ships. The organizational chart doesn't need a manager of managers in a company of 30 people. It needs a senior who can still type