An engineer at heart, a CTO by trade.
Christophe Montagne, interim CTO. I make the diagnosis that urgently needs making, realign technology and technical teams with the needs of the business, until you can take the wheel again.
When to bring me in
The situation is rarely described to me as it really is. From the inside it is hard to pin down, and it often takes weeks to uncover. My first job is to name it. That sometimes means saying difficult things: I say them frankly.
Most often, the situation takes one of these forms:
A change that has become urgent.
A new product line is more than a year behind schedule, and internal disagreements are slowing decisions down. The change cannot wait: it has to be carried out quickly, without disrupting the business.
A long-standing success to renew.
The product that built the company's reputation still sells, but market expectations are shifting. The next generation has to be prepared without weakening what already works.
A trajectory to rebuild.
A product strategy that has lost focus, a technical team that has stopped believing in it, a leadership team no longer sure what to expect. A clear direction and a credible plan have to be found again.
A technology shift to master.
Yesterday the web or the cloud, today generative AI: technology is changing faster than organisations can adapt.
Your situation is not on the list?
Describe it in a few lines, and we will see together whether I can help.
Write a message
What I do
- 01Interim CTOLeading the technology for the length of a transformation, until a permanent CTO or the existing team takes over.
- 02R&D turnaroundGetting an organisation that works hard and delivers little back to delivering.
- 03Next product generationMoving a product to the web or the cloud, and changing what the company can sell.
- 04Technical due diligenceShowing an investor that the technology holds up, or saying plainly when it does not.
- 05Generative AI, without the hypeDeciding where to invest and where to wait, then building systems that hold up in production.
- 06Software built to lastLong-lived products where mistakes are expensive: healthcare, banking, public registers.
Formats range from a full interim CTO mandate of several months to shorter advisory work, such as a technical due diligence or a review of an AI investment case.
Background
Still close to the technology
Electrical engineering, then software engineering with a master's degree from Polytechnic University of New York. Every technology shift since 1983, lived from the inside.
- 1983Speech recognition on a Motorola 68000
- 1990sClient-server and development tools
- 2000sJava and the web
- 2010sCloud-native and API-first on AWS
- 2020sGenerative AI, practised in my own development work
From engineering to the executive committee
From my first CTO role, my job has been to lead change: a product generation to replace, an organisation to turn around, a market to open. In 2021 I made it my profession.
- 1986Software development engineer
- 2000Architect and project manager at IBM
- 2004First CTO role, and a transition from day one
- 2008R&D rebuilt, Scrum adopted, a product in 14 months instead of 36
- 2013Founder of Jouleco
- 2015CTO for a new technology cycle
- 2021Interim CTO, officially
How a mission works
- 1
First conversation
You describe the situation in a few lines or on a call. I tell you quickly whether I can help, and how.
- 2
Scoping
A few weeks of diagnosis: teams, product, architecture, delivery, relations with the leadership team. The outcome is a trajectory that management approves and the technical team considers achievable.
- 3
Execution and handover
Team and technology set moving again, hard decisions taken rather than postponed, then handover to a permanent CTO or the existing team.
A situation to discuss?
A late product, a platform to renew, a decision to make on generative AI: describe the situation in a few lines. I reply personally.