--- title: "Looking for a CTO? Show me your list of assumptions. - Cro Metrics" url: "https://crometrics.com/blog/looking-for-a-cto-show-me-your-list-of-assumptions/" image: "https://crometrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/crometrics-og.png" --- #### Blog Friday, April 6, 2012 # Looking for a CTO? Show me your list of assumptions. Reading time: 1 minute By Chris Neumann Founder and Co-CEO of Cro Metrics. Serial entrepreneur who built and sold software company (OEM) for $5M, launched multiple startups, and developed several top 10 Facebook apps. Mechanical engineer turned lean startup practitioner. Colorado-based pilot (300+ flight hrs), biker, skier, husband, & father. [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisneumann/) [ ](mailto:%20chris@crometrics.com) ## Table of Contents - [Introduction](#intro) - [My 5 Top Takeaways from the Lead Gen Innovation Lab](#top5) - [Moving Ahead with Lead Generation](#moving-ahead) What's next? - [Strategy](https://crometrics.com/resources/?topic=strategy) ## Ready To Amplify Your Growth? Schedule a 30-Minute Strategy Consultation. [Get In Touch](/contact) ## Recent **activities** - [ How to Properly Determine A/B Testing Sample Size ](https://crometrics.com/blog/ab-testing-sample-size/) - [ Top 6 A/B Testing Tools, Experimentation Platforms & Software in 2024 ](https://crometrics.com/blog/top-6-a-b-testing-tools-experimentation-platforms-software-in-2024/) - [ How To Best Structure Your Organization’s Experimentation Team ](https://crometrics.com/blog/how-to-best-structure-your-organizations-experimentation-team/) - [ The Principles of a Successful Optimization Strategy ](https://crometrics.com/blog/optimization-strategy/) - [ Your Emails Aren’t Getting Opened Because They’re Not Getting Delivered ](https://crometrics.com/blog/email-deliverability-2026/) I get a lot of people that come to me looking for a CTO, or a developer, or someone to implement their idea. I start asking about the subject area of the idea so that I can potentially point them in the right direction. Is it an app? Website? SaaS? What’s the business model? What problem are you solving for who, and how? (My favorite product management question). Inevitably some of these questions are not answered, and they realize that they in fact do not need a CTO, but instead need to flesh out their idea more. During the course of them explaining their idea, I note a few things that I perceive to be big assumptions, and when it’s my turn to talk, I point out those assumptions, and start asking them if they have data to conclusively know if they are true or false. Then, I send them off to test their [assumptions](/the-first-step-in-starting-your-business-list-your-assumptions/ "The First Step in Starting Your Business: List Your Assumptions"). This saves an incredible amount of time and cost, and not just dollar cost, but opportunity cost as well – instead of the idea you have in your head, you might be off starting another idea. This has actually happened – my friend Mark Manning was working on an online backup idea, and when a few of his assumptions turned out to be wrong, he changed gears and started DodoCase, which is the [iPad Case](https://www.dodocase.com?Cro%20Metrics) that President [Obama uses](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/barack-obama-ipad-dodocase_n_1121417.html)! Ready to turn ambitious growth goals into deeper customer connections and measurable business impact? [Reach Out Today](/contact) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "@id": "https://crometrics.com/blog/looking-for-a-cto-show-me-your-list-of-assumptions/#article", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://crometrics.com/blog/looking-for-a-cto-show-me-your-list-of-assumptions/" }, "author": [ { "@id": "https://crometrics.com/#/schema/person/efbeb671d68f97750cde81a6785def13" } ], "headline": "Looking for a CTO? 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