Tech Icon Spotlight:
Susan Standiford
Former CTO at StepStone, Ikea, Zeal Group, and Rue La La
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Susan Standiford shares insights on scaling leadership, aligning technology with business strategy, and leading through influence.
Susan Standiford’s tech leadership journey began with the realization that technology isn’t just about creating products, but about shaping companies.
“I was employee #13 at a company building retail software during a major inflection point in the market. We were absolutely tearing things up. We got bought, we got sold, we went public, and eventually got acquired by Oracle. It was a hell of a ride for ten years, and it is probably the thing that shaped me the most; not just for wanting to build great software, but to also influence companies and build great things that would make a material difference for both customers and the companies I’m a part of.”
Standiford has spent her career at the intersection of technology and business strategy, helping companies like Ikea, Disney, Travelocity, and Retek (acquired by Oracle) scale, transform, and make the right decisions for long-term success. Riviera Partners spoke with Standiford to learn her leadership insights into effective communication, indirect influence, and the art of making trade-offs.
Thinking beyond ‘Me+1’
Standiford describes how many people progress throughout their career as Me + 1. “Me +1 means if you are a developer, you want to become a senior developer. If you’re a manager, you want to become a VP. We spend so much time worrying about me +1 that it’s hard to think about anything else.”
But while Me + 1 can fuel career growth, becoming a technical leader requires a broader perspective.
“I remember going to my CTO with what I was convinced was the best technical solution. And he just looked at me and said, ‘But Susan, are we capable of that?’ It was sort of this big aha moment that making progress wasn’t just about me, my passion, or even my team, but could the company build this type of software given our culture and dynamics? That’s when I realized that technology is never the problem; it’s always people. Getting an organization to collectively come together is always the harder problem.”
Instead of focusing solely on Me + 1, Standiford advises technical leaders to think laterally and expand their knowledge base outside of their current career path. “I started out building software, but ended up in a position where I spent a lot of time with customers post-sales implementation. Nothing makes you want to build better software than to actually have to run it.”
Nothing makes you want to build better software than to actually have to run it.”
Communicate outwards
Another key milestone on the path to tech leadership is mastering communication. The best leaders don’t just execute within their own teams, but create alignment across functions to ensure that great technical work turns into real business impact.
While almost everyone understands the importance of communicating upward to bosses to gain promotions or downward to team members to get work done, Standiford advises tech leaders to perfect the art of communicating outward.
“In an early role, if you weren’t in my organization downward or weren’t my boss upward, I had pretty sharp elbows. It wasn’t because I was a bad person, I was just driven and needed people to get out of my way. But I eventually realized I needed to build relationships across the board, not just within my own team.”
“That’s something I tell people today when I mentor them: what’s your outward perspective? If you’re a VP of engineering, go talk to someone in marketing. If you’re a technical lead, build relationships with people outside your direct function. Understand their KPIs and objectives, and what drives them. Build relationships with people so that they’re excited for you when you do well, not just because it’s good for the company but because they want to see you succeed.”
Build relationships with people so that they’re excited for you when you do well, not just because it’s good for the company but because they want to see you succeed.”
The art of trade-offs
One of the hardest lessons for technical leaders is learning that the right decision isn’t always the best decision for the business. As engineers, they are wired to optimize, to solve for efficiency, to remove friction wherever possible. But once they become leaders, they must accept that every decision comes with trade-offs.
Instead of debating the ideal solution, Standiford focuses on quantifying the trade-off upfront. If a company is in turnaround mode, they don’t have the luxury of thinking about a five-year roadmap. They have to make short-term decisions that keep the lights on.
“In those situations, you have to be clear: ‘Alright, we can take the short-term fix, but it’s going to add to our technical debt by this amount. It’s going to make the long-term transformation harder. Are we all happy with that decision?’”
“One of the challenges that a lot of engineers have, myself included, is we spend a lot of time on what’s the right thing to do. And in fact, what you need is the right level of trade-offs more than the right decision. You need to make the decision, make it as quickly as you can with the data that you have, quantify the downside of doing it, and then move forward.”
What you need is the right level of trade-offs more than the right decision.”
Lead without leading
As Standiford moved on from hands-on technical leadership to executive boards, she had to shift her approach from direct management to indirect influence.
“When I joined the executive board of a publicly traded company, it was my first experience leading in a non-direct way. I wasn’t managing teams anymore; we were literally a little pod of leaders responsible for running the company, but we weren’t managing their day-to-day work.”
This shift required her to lead through influence, not authority, something every technical leader must learn as they take on broader leadership roles.
“A leader has to extract themselves from the work. I don’t need to make the decision, but instead should be part of a collaborative conversation. It makes it much easier than if I have to be the answer to all the problems.”
I don’t need to make the decision… It makes it much easier than if I have to be the answer to all the problems.”
