I joined OptConnect as CTO on December 1, 2025. Sales Kickoff was January 20, 2026. Not much time before a room that expects a finished vision.
I did not bring one.
I brought a Learning Tour: about three dozen interviews in December and early January, turned into five working themes. SKO was the start of the rollout, where I got input and validation. That fed Q1 planning, then my first board meeting, then our five-year strategic planning offsite.
Listen first
For about fifteen years I have used The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins in each new role. I lean into it harder each time. This time I bought the book for my team and colleagues. My joining changed their world too. Shared language mattered.
I stuck to the interviews before SKO even though the calendar wanted answers. I recorded conversations in Google Meet, used Gemini on the transcripts, and loaded everything into NotebookLM, now known as Gemini Notebook. Gemini Notebook still does not get enough credit. With enough sources in one place, patterns are easier to see and harder to invent from memory.
Five themes
I shared five working themes with leadership ahead of SKO as a way to prioritize work, not as a locked roadmap:
- Bridge. Close the gap across product, marketing, sales, and engineering so the right work gets owned, vetted, and shipped with less guesswork.
- Packaging. Evolve go-to-market and channel offerings so customers and partners get the right mix of managed versus lighter-touch service.
- Storytelling. Turn connectivity and operational data into customer value stories (ROI, reliability, outcomes), not just feature lists.
- Multiplier. Use AI to increase velocity across engineering and the company, with discipline, not chaos.
- Global. Harmonize technology and systems across the international footprint so teams are not fighting silos.
Bridge was the one I staffed first. Jeff Penka joined at SKO as Product Advisor on that theme: product management as the translation layer between market needs and what we build. I shared the Gemini Notebook with him so he did not have to rebuild my first month from hallway talk. That stack was Multiplier in practice too.
Rollout
At SKO, alongside Jeff and our VP of Engineering, we ran a lively workshop with the broader organization. We shared the themes and the big projects already underway, and everyone weighed in on how they would invest our resources: what were we missing, and where should we lean? I wanted input and validation, not applause. Themes framed the year. That conversation showed where energy wanted to go and fed Q1 planning.
About a month later I reused the same theme content at my first board meeting and got additional buy-in. A month after that, at our five-year strategic planning offsite, I kept folding those themes into the new initiatives that came out of the room. SKO was the first public pass, not a one-day reveal.
What I want you to take
If you feel pressure to show up at the first big meeting with a finished vision: don't.
Set the expectation that you will listen and learn first. Use the weeks you have. Show up with working themes the room can validate or correct. Anything else is foolhardy and sets you and the team up for failure.
If you want the fuller map of clarity, foundations, and motion, start at the ZAG Matrix.
