You may want to say that Fitbit turned in advance of the curve 12 years in the past when it started pioneering wearable devices that monitored customers’ bodily pastimes.
Today, the healthcare tech market is predicted to be worth $297 billion with the aid of 2022. Many count on wearable generation to play a significant element within the future of the industry.
We’re already seeing this worldwide, with Fitbit and companies together with Dignio the usage of a faraway era to become aware of health problems before they become fitness problems while also promoting a more healthy lifestyle.
Eric Friedman, CTO and co-founder of Fitbit changed into there initially — the clue is in the identity.
He explained to Information Age that after start-ups, he and his other co-founder and CEO, James Park, had emerged as “a lot greater sedentary than in our teens and we have been looking for approaches to inspire ourselves to stand up and circulate extra”. And with a few inspirations from the Nintendo Wii, which makes users actively have to interact while playing the console, Fitbit has become born.
But, this article isn’t going to recognition Fitbit’s journey — from a begin-as much as a global tech agency. That comes later.
Instead, we’re going to cognizance of how Friedman’s role modified as Fitbit CTO, as the corporation transitioned from a begin-up to the lifestyle desire that it’s far these days.
Fitbit CTO: from start-as much as a lifestyle choice
Friedman’s position as Fitbit CTO has varied over the years.
In the start-up global, the CTO is typically the technical co-founder. In Fitbit’s case, “I am the technical co-founder with James,” he said.
Within that start-up CTO function, there’s the technical visionary, particularly for B2B companies, and there’s a technical income character, a VP of engineering, and a myriad of different roles.
For most of Fitbit’s history, Friedman has been a lot extra the VP of engineering, particularly while the business enterprise becomes small. He often drove a number of the technical imaginative and prescient loads of how Fitbit scaled — “how can we get this factor running,” he asked?
Since then, the responsibility and role changed ‘slightly’ as the engineering group grew to 900-plus. Friedman, as CTO, had continually run the research factor of Fitbit. But, following the top of studies’ decision to move lower back into IT — “again into the technical stuff, in preference to people management — he decided to take on the studies management role while hiring ahead of engineering “to run the daily stuff”.
In his function, he additionally always managed security. The logo is built around the agreement with Fitbit’s customers, and “we feel that having our customers agree with us and believe that we’re going to do the proper element in all factors of their lives is essential,” he endured.
As co-founder and CTO, Friedman instructed Information Age that he felt it should stay his obligation to look after user records’ safety and privacy, on top of his ‘new’ attention as leading research on the company.
Tips for achievement depend upon what level your corporation is at
After asking what guidelines for success Friedman had, he answered it “entirely depends on wherein you’re”.
“It’s thrilling, and I do not forget in the early start-up days, we had been talking about dealing with tech debt, something that we didn’t do when we had been just starting.
How do I keep away from the tech debt in destiny?
“For start-ups, there’s a balance among making sure you’re executing and getting something obtainable as opposed to overplaying the size, due to the fact you might pivot, and also you may not anticipate the right problems,” Friedman advised.
In his position, he abruptly had to start thinking three to 5 years in advance, whereas at the start, it’s about survival.
“Now we’re seeking to make sure we plan each for our personnel and our technology and ask ourselves how we make that selection and how we do this at scale,” he explained.
The start-up CTO vs. the established CTO
“The issue for the CTO is understanding what makes you satisfied and understanding that it might exchange over time,” as a corporation modifications all through its boom.
“I never expected to have the identical process for 12 years, so to me, that has been eye-starting,” Friedman said.
He additionally believes that knowing your strengths is an critical trait to have because the position evolves.
“When I first began the CTO role groups ago, I absolutely concept of myself as someone with radical new left-area thoughts that are going to genuinely shake the enterprise. And I surely observed I’m a higher curator of smart people and can curate the thoughts,” he said. “I can say, ‘that radical left-subject idea, that’s going to win, how can we make certain that will become a hit’ or ‘that radical left-subject goes to die and right here’s how we’re going to turn the novel thoughts and evolutionary thoughts into a larger vision’”.
