C-TPO
Pulled in every direction. Mostly on purpose. Pairs of competing pulls around a C-TPO head, asking what the hard right thing to do is: small company and big company, delivery and product, convincing prototype and built for real, living with debt and clean architecture, vendor and in-house, keep going and let it go, the whole portfolio and in the weeds, clay first and chisel first.

Thinking out loud, mostly about technology.

I'm Matt. I started out in software delivery, probably stayed there too long, and have moved back and forth into product ever since, with a bigger dose of marketing than I ever expected. This is where I get things off my chest, as honestly and fairly as I can.

In 30 seconds, for…

Matt thinks out loud here about technology, mostly how teams decide what to build, fix and protect.

The first series argues that security gets better fastest when the teams that each hold part of the answer share it earlier. Part 2 says most critical findings aren't: seven questions tell you which, and the answers live with other teams. Clay first, chisel later is about roughing out the whole thing before polishing the parts.

Every piece says how much AI helped, and the site changes in the open. The discussion happens on LinkedIn.

Start with Part 1 →

The full TL;DR, also behind the yellow button up top.

Writing

Newest first. I'm shipping these rough and honest rather than polished, and patching them as I go. Yes, I see what I did there. Each one is marked with where it lives: here, on LinkedIn, or both.

Filter:

The roadmap

Everything I might write or build, in the open.

Raw ideas, the backlog, what I've committed to, what I'm working on, and what's out. Fixes to things I've already published too. Watch things move, tell me what to do first, and hold me to it.

Coming up

What I've committed to writing, or am writing now. No dates. I'd rather finish them than promise them. Everything else, ideas and backlog included, is on the roadmap.

What to build, and who builds it

Product and delivery are both hard, and you never do either one alone…

ProductWays of working

Site + LinkedIn In progress · A little more →

Same ideas, different readers

Part 1, for my mom

I'm writing this one myself.

In progress · A little more →

Series 1, part 3

Who may act, and who may know

Once the answers are shared, who gets to see them, and who gets to act on them.

Committed · On the roadmap →

An experiment

Same ideas, different readers

Something I'm playing with: versions of each piece for different readers. First up, one for my kids, about clothes and towels on the floor. One for my mom, who still asks what I do, is coming…

What politics can teach us about product

Nothing. Moving on.

Nowhere Not on the list

About

I've worked at big companies and small ones, on the vendor side and in-house, and in a company of my own. Delivery taught me how things actually get built. Product taught me to ask why, which I didn't do often enough back when someone else handed me the what. Somewhere along the way I spent more time near marketing than I planned, long enough to learn that a good idea nobody understands doesn't get far. That's part of why this site exists.

More about me

CTPO is the name I write under. I try to write the way I'd explain things to a friend who doesn't work in tech, and to be straight about what I don't know.

Off the clock, most of my time goes to my kids, which these days means a lot of sports and a fair bit of coaching. I also own far more tools than my carpentry skills justify. Fishing is on the list of things I want to learn, along with plenty of others I'm still trying to find time for.

I'm a proud user of AI, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd get these thoughts out without it. I think out loud first, and it helps me edit down. We also argue, a lot, which I realize sounds a little crazy. It pushes back on me, I push back on it, and what's left is what I actually mean. It isn't me handing it a topic and posting whatever comes out. There's enough of that on the internet already, and I'm trying not to add to it. The ideas and opinions are mine, and so are the mistakes.

What I write here is my own view, not my employer's or that of any company I'm involved with. I don't promote products here, including my employer's. Nobody writes it for me, either.

Get new posts by email

Just new writing, when it's ready. No spam, nothing else. And if you reply to one, it comes straight to me.

Contact

If something here is wrong, or you've seen it from a side I haven't, the best place to say so is the discussion on LinkedIn, where most pieces get posted. For the ones that live only here, message me there. And if you're part of a community that would get something out of building on this together, I'm up for that.

For people short on time

TL;DR

Matt thinks out loud here about technology, mostly how teams decide what to build, fix and protect.

The first series argues that security gets better fastest when the teams that each hold part of the answer share it earlier. Part 2 says most critical findings aren't: seven questions tell you which, and the answers live with other teams. Clay first, chisel later is about roughing out the whole thing before polishing the parts.

Every piece says how much AI helped, and the site changes in the open. The discussion happens on LinkedIn.

Start with Part 1 →
AI score 2/4 me. Idea 1.5/2 · Words 0.5/2. AI drafted these from what's on the site; I haven't rewritten them yet

Updated October 13, 2026. A TL;DR for the whole site, by reader, is an idea by Matt at ctpo.io. Copy it freely, just link back.