CTO Series: Scaling Engineering Teams and Aligning Tech with Business Goals With Toni Sallanmaa

CTO Series: Toni Sallanmaa on Scaling Engineering Teams and Aligning Tech with Business Goals

In this BONUS episode, we explore the journey of scaling technology teams and maintaining alignment between engineering and business objectives with Toni Sallanmaa, CTO at Funidata. Toni shares invaluable insights from leading the development of Sisu, a cutting-edge student information system serving over 100,000 Finnish university users, and discusses practical strategies for growing engineering organizations while preserving company culture.

The Genesis of Leadership in Technology

"I understood what I was really responsible for. I'm interested in the business we are running—the business adds meaning to the work."

Toni's approach to technology leadership was fundamentally shaped by a pivotal moment early in his career when he first gained influence over system development and technology choices. After working with large-scale systems for 20 years, this moment of responsibility revelation transformed his perspective from purely technical to business-focused. He emphasizes that infinite curiosity drives success in tech businesses, and understanding the business context gives meaningful purpose to technical work.

Bridging the Gap Between Tech and Product

"Don't separate Tech from Product. We established a common language between product and technology people."

One of Toni's most significant insights centers on eliminating the traditional divide between technology and product teams. As Funidata grew from a small startup to a 70-person organization, the challenges of maintaining alignment became apparent. Their solution involved several key practices:

• Teaching developers the language of the product domain

• Banning confusing technical terms that create communication barriers
  Workshopping product language to ensure clarity

• Keeping entity names deliberately vague until true understanding emerges

This approach draws heavily from Domain Driven Design principles, creating a unified vocabulary that enables seamless collaboration.

Collaborative Planning and Transparency

"We use transparency as a collaboration technique. Every team sees what's being proposed as a goal for the next quarter."

Funidata implements a unique "marketplace of goals" approach during their quarterly big room planning sessions. Rather than using scaled agile frameworks, they focus on transparency and collaborative goal-setting. Teams present their high-level quarterly plans to each other, creating visibility across the organization. Product owners are embedded within teams, keeping communication distances short and ensuring alignment between technical execution and business objectives.

Future-Forward Roadmapping

"We talk about the higher level ideas regularly, but let them bubble up from the community. We hold internal hackathons."

Toni's approach to roadmapping balances strategic vision with grassroots innovation. They maintain an internal technology roadmap that addresses emerging trends like AI, while allowing ideas to organically emerge from the engineering community. Internal hackathons serve as catalysts for innovation, providing structured opportunities for teams to explore new technologies and approaches that might inform future roadmap decisions.

Scaling Challenges and Cultural Preservation

"The biggest challenge is not technology, it was the rapid scaling of technology teams. When you scale up, keep the culture in mind."

The most significant challenge Toni faced wasn't technical but organizational—rapidly scaling teams while preserving company culture. Growing from 10 to 50 people required evolving processes, from establishing internal forums for architectural discussions to implementing continuous integration flows. The key was identifying pain points proactively and maintaining open discussions with team members throughout the scaling process. Strengthening company culture became essential to successful growth.

AI's Impact on Software Development

"Productivity is on the rise. We see opportunities like generating test data, but we have strict requirements for cybersecurity, which puts pressure on code quality."

Toni views AI's impact on software development with cautious optimism. While productivity gains are evident, particularly in areas like test data generation, the stringent cybersecurity requirements in their domain mean that AI hasn't yet significantly improved code quality where it matters most. The technology shows promise, but implementation must be carefully considered within the context of security and quality requirements.

Measuring Engineering Success

"We use DORA and SPACE framework. We measure how much of our work is KTLO (Keep The Lights On) and how much is elective development."

Funidata employs both DORA and SPACE frameworks to measure engineering organization success. From SPACE, they particularly focus on measuring software team wellbeing, while also tracking the balance between "Keep The Lights On" (KTLO) work and elective development. Using JIRA connected to a data warehouse, they mine extensive data that serves both leadership decision-making and team improvement efforts, ensuring metrics benefit everyone in the organization.

Influential Leadership Resources

"The organizational books have been more influential to me than purely technical ones."

Toni emphasizes that organizational leadership books have shaped his CTO approach more than technical resources. Two key influences stand out: "Team Topologies" for understanding how to structure and scale engineering teams effectively, and "Radical Candor" for building authentic, productive relationships within the organization.

You can find a BONUS episode on Team Topologies with the authors Matthew Skeltton and Manuel Pais.

About Toni Sallanmaa

Toni leads technology and engineering at Funidata, developing Sisu—a cutting-edge student information system serving over 100,000 Finnish university users. Passionate about agile methodologies, system architecture, and software engineering, Toni specializes in technology management, software lifecycle, OOP, and relational databases to deliver innovative, scalable solutions in higher education tech.

You can connect with Toni Sallanmaa on LinkedIn.