Hello, I am Walter Hurst, the founder of Hurst Advisors. My career has spanned 25+ years from hands on software engineering to building and directing successful technology organizations.
Through Hurst Advisors, I offer fractional CTO advisory services to help you and your team to realize their potential. This is a critical juncture for most software companies as they embark on AI adoption and my focus is to help guide that transition.
Teams are more effective when they are structured following the Product Operating Model (POM). This means that all the individuals who work on a product are on the same team. Their work is organized in the context of the product they own rather than planned around projects. They are responsible for the features, defects, technical debt, and risks of their product. They have the autonomy to execute and the accountability that follows.
Product-focused teams are not a new concept: they are a proven approach at companies large and small.
What’s different now is that AI is enabling product-focused teams to perform at a higher level. Generative AI streamlines the processes: artifacts are actionable, and ideation to development to release happens on faster cycles. The Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) and Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) are rapidly evolving to incorporate AI, and product-focused teams are positioned perfectly for this evolution.
The result is that whereas before, product-focused teams were a nice-to-have, they now enable lasting competitive differentiation.
I work alongside your leadership team, not around it. The aim is a structure your people can run without me.
Understand your business goals and customers, then map how people, process, technology and data work today and where they get in each other's way.
Agree on a target operating model and a prioritized roadmap tied to measures you already care about: delivery speed, reliability, cost and customer outcomes.
Stay with your leaders through execution with a regular cadence, adjusting the plan as you learn and building the habits that keep it going.
Engagements are shaped to the need: a focused assessment, an ongoing advisory retainer, or hands-on support through a transition such as a reorganization, platform change or the search for a full-time CTO.
I have experience owning technology organizations and can deep dive where necessary.
From the fieldLed a 200+ person group through two reorganizations into teams that own features, resiliency, quality and security together.
From the fieldAdding quarterly planning to the annual cycle preceded two straight years of hitting product, security and revenue targets, and new board funding.
From the fieldConsolidated vendor portfolio including removing vendors from across an enterprise, sunset legacy products and renegotiated platform contracts for millions in savings.
From the fieldTook a 1PB+ dataset serving 2,000+ banks through a clean data-quality audit and stronger governance.
Founder, Hurst Advisors LLC
Walter has led technology organizations for more than 25 years, from founding a venture-backed software company to running technology for a business at the center of U.S. banking.
Most recently he was CTO of Certos, the fraud and identity business of Early Warning Services, the bank-owned company behind Zelle. He ran the 200+ staff business unit engineering organization, guided a 30-year-old platform through steady modernization under quarterly OCC exams, and earned board funding for a multiyear transformation.
Today he builds with AI hands-on and mentors engineering teams adopting it. What motivates him now is helping leaders and teams reach their potential and deliver value to their customers.
Tell me about your company and the outcome you're after. I read every message and will follow up personally to set up a call.