5 Things Every CTO Should Be Tracking (But Most Aren't)

The modern Chief Technology Officer (CTO) plays a pivotal role—bridging long-term strategy with short-term delivery, aligning technology with business outcomes, and guiding teams through constant disruption. Yet in the rush to deliver, many CTOs fall into a familiar trap: tracking what’s easy, not what’s essential.

Project timelines, sprint burndowns, infrastructure uptime—these are table stakes. The real differentiators lie in tracking deeper, often overlooked signals: innovation capacity, strategic alignment, weak signals from outside the company, and roadmap drift.

In this blog, we unpack five things every CTO should be tracking—but most aren’t—and how doing so can strengthen technology leadership, improve decision-making, and future-proof the organization.

1. Portfolio health, not just project status

Most CTOs can report which projects are on time and within budget, but far fewer have a clear view of whether their overall technology portfolio is strategically aligned and delivering value. This blind spot matters. A Deloitte survey found that only 32% of global business leaders attribute strong enterprise value to their digital investments, despite rising spend on transformation. This gap points to poor portfolio visibility, weak alignment with strategy, or inefficient prioritization.

To address this, CTOs need to shift from tracking individual project metrics to assessing the health of the entire technology portfolio. That includes evaluating whether investments are balanced across innovation horizons, aligned with business goals, and positioned for long-term impact. Companies like Siemens Energy manage this actively by classifying technologies based on both maturity and strategic relevance. Configurable, real-time dashboards make this possible, surfacing gaps, overlaps, and misalignments so leaders can act quickly and with confidence.

What to track:

• Distribution of projects across innovation horizons
• Tech maturity and obsolescence risk
• Strategic alignment across the portfolio
• Innovation ROI and delivery velocity
  
  

2. Weak signals from outside the organization

While many CTOs focus on internal KPIs, external weak signals—such as emerging technologies, regulatory shifts, and early-stage innovations—often provide the earliest indicators of disruption or opportunity. Despite their importance, these signals are frequently overlooked due to their subtlety and the challenge of quantifying them.

However, organizations that systematically monitor and act upon these weak signals can gain a significant competitive advantage. A longitudinal study tracking 83 companies over seven years found that firms with mature corporate foresight practices achieved 33% higher profitability and 200% greater market capitalization growth compared to the average company.

Integrating structured foresight into strategic planning enables CTOs to anticipate market shifts, align technology portfolios with future trends, and make informed investment decisions.

What to track: 

• Start-up activity and venture funding in key tech areas
• Emerging standards and regulations (e.g., EU AI Act, DORA)
• Patent filing trends and open-source contributions
• Academic and institutional research with commercialization potential

3. Internal innovation capacity

Even the most ambitious roadmap will fail if the organization lacks the internal capacity to deliver on it. Many CTOs approve promising projects or pursue bold innovation goals without fully understanding whether the people, skills, and time needed to execute are actually available. This results in bottlenecks, burnout, or stalled initiatives.

A PwC survey found that 84% of consumer market leaders identified training workers on new technology as a significant internal challenge to transformation, underscoring the importance of aligning workforce capabilities with innovation goals. 

To improve innovation delivery, CTOs should regularly evaluate whether cross-functional teams have the right expertise and availability to support high-priority initiatives. This includes aligning innovation with resource planning and making sure execution plans are realistic—not just ambitious.

What to track:

• Skillset gaps across critical tech domains (e.g., AI, cybersecurity)
• Resource allocation across the tech and product portfolio
• Innovation fatigue or bottlenecks in cross-functional teams
• Time-to-staff and capacity load by department

4. Strategic drift in long-term roadmaps

Technology roadmaps are essential tools for long-term planning—but they can quickly become outdated if they’re not continuously reviewed and adapted. Many organizations build roadmaps annually, then fail to update them as market conditions, customer needs, or internal priorities shift. This strategic drift can leave CTOs locked into initiatives that no longer deliver value.

CTOs need to treat roadmaps as living frameworks, not static documents. This means regularly reviewing how well current projects align with evolving business goals and market shifts, capturing feedback from across the organization, integrating new use cases, and being prepared to shift timelines when conditions change.

Alliance SwissPass, an industry organization for public transport in Switzerland, provides a strong example. The organization uses the ITONICS Roadmap to visualize its 2035 strategy, track project progress, and align stakeholders across its mobility ecosystem. With one transparent, accessible portfolio view, members can adjust their activities to reflect current priorities, new trends, and committee decisions, keeping execution in sync with strategy.

After successfully bringing our portfolio of projects and marketing campaigns into the system, I’d say that one of the most important benefits of ITONICS is its ability to seamlessly integrate strategic foresight with portfolio management and execution."

– Tim Loosli, Responsible for Data & Analytics, Alliance SwissPass

Rather than relying on fragmented spreadsheets or outdated slides, CTOs should adopt digital, collaborative roadmapping tools that allow for real-time updates, input from multiple stakeholders, and integration with trend and technology data.

What to track:

• Degree of roadmap alignment with current strategic priorities

• Impact of market shifts on long-term projects

• New use cases or integrations emerging post-deployment

• Internal feedback loops from engineering and product teams

5. Engagement across tech teams and stakeholders

One of the most overlooked indicators CTOs should be tracking is engagement—who’s contributing to innovation, how they’re involved, and where collaboration is breaking down. Too often, innovation efforts are siloed within a single department or owned by a small leadership group, with limited visibility or participation from the broader organization. This lack of involvement narrows the diversity of ideas, weakens buy-in, and creates disconnects between strategy and execution.

At DB Schenker, innovation begins by encouraging employees at all levels to submit pain points—real-world challenges from within the business. These submissions shape the organization’s innovation focus and guide problem-solving efforts. This inclusive approach connects internal needs with external capabilities through a two-track open innovation model.

The STARTup Terminal scouts and collaborates with startups through venture clienting, while the Enterprise Lab co-develops technologies with customers and suppliers. By aligning both around shared internal pain points, DB Schenker creates a clear feedback loop between employees, partners, and innovation teams, broadening engagement and accelerating the delivery of meaningful solutions.

What to track:

• Participation in ideation or tech evaluation processes

• Use of shared platforms and innovation tools

• Quality of feedback loops between tech and business teams

• Visibility of initiatives across departments

  
  
  

How ITONICS Helps CTOs Track What Matters

From early signals to long-term roadmaps, the ITONICS Innovation OS gives CTOs one connected platform to track what really drives technology success. Whether you’re aligning portfolios, monitoring capacity, scouting trends, or engaging stakeholders, ITONICS helps you move from scattered insights to strategic clarity.

With tools like Radar, Roadmap, and Dashboard—all fully configurable—you can cut through the noise, focus your teams, and future-proof your tech investments.

Curious how ITONICS can support your tech leadership goals? Book a demo and explore what’s possible.