Anna Shipman, CTO at Kooth, explores the persistent gap between engineering proposals and executive buy-in. She outlines how engineers often see their ideas languish or get rejected for unclear reasons, despite strong leadership support. The core problem is a fundamental translation layer needed to bridge technical and business perspectives effectively.

Executives operate under different pressures: they answer to boards and shareholders, manage broad responsibilities, and optimize for company-wide impact. Their time is fragmented across many domains, forcing them to prioritize proposals that clearly align with business outcomes, not just engineering improvements. Understanding these constraints is the first step to being heard.

Shipman advises engineers to anticipate executive questions about cost, ROI, risks, and alternatives. Framing proposals around business needs—like customer impact or financial trade-offs—is critical. Success requires moving from technical advocacy to strategic communication, ensuring every idea demonstrates how it helps the CEO and the company win.