A Note on Cadence Ownership

Each cadence in this rhythm requires someone to own the preparation before the session, the tracking during it, and the documentation after it. In large technology organizations, this function sits with a CTO chief of staff. In most organizations, it does not.

What matters is not the title but the function. Someone needs to aggregate signals across teams between sessions, prepare templates and briefings before each cadence, track decisions and open items after each session, and maintain the documentation rhythm that connects weekly signals to monthly patterns to quarterly decisions.

Depending on the organization, this role may sit with a VP of Engineering, a Technical Program Manager, or a senior engineering lead.

Throughout this section, that person is referred to as the cadence owner. The CTO should identify who holds this function before the rhythm begins — not because the cadence owner makes structural decisions, but because without them, the preparation and documentation discipline that makes each cadence useful will default to the CTO, which is not where that time should go.