The CTOs role is very different depending on the size of the company and its current state of course. The CTO as a service offering is mostly directed towards start-ups and small companies as most medium sized and big companies should have this role in house.

For a startup it is fairly common to have bright project ideas that involves IT but not knowing how to implement them. Then you can hire an external CTO who will help you with the discovery phase of your product, which may include such steps as: architecture development, designing the technical solution, finding the best matching tools, clarification of the project goals, selecting the set of features for the MVP development, assessment and reduction of risks, competitors analysis, choosing the optimal tech stack.

A CTO can also evaluate the current technical solution of a company, combining both deep development expertise and business knowledge. Thus choosing the functionality in accordance with business requirements, finding solutions for technical challenges, selecting the most cost-efficient and effective technologies, evaluating the effectiveness of the current technology stack, architecture creation and improvements, selection of technologies for effective scalability and implementing complex integrations.

Perhaps you need a CTO for project planning? External CTOs are often involved in planning the development process, prioritizing the features, and selecting the features that need the biggest focus. CTO as a service can assist with the following planning aspects: improving the development processes, prioritizing the features, enhancing the architecture, creating a development roadmap, estimate budgets and timelines.