The Thread
I'm Duanne O'Brien
Two decades as a CTO, building and scaling global SaaS platforms, leading listed companies and high-growth technology organisations through hyper-growth, international expansion, platform modernisation, M&A and structural transformation. Earlier in my career I specialised in large-scale enterprise integration, connecting complex systems across complex organisations.
The platforms I've designed and operated are used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, for brands including McDonald's and Booking.com and have been recognised with NZ Hi-Tech Awards.
What has stayed with me isn't just the platforms. It's how they evolved, how the people around them evolved, and how I evolved. How people respond to pressure. How leadership bends without breaking. How systems, technical and human reveal their truth under load.
At its core, Present Thread is rooted in patina and, over time, it should produce patina.
Present Thread is where that experience becomes legible. As thinking, as a framework for how to operate and as a foundation for the work I do with leaders and organisations navigating the same terrain.
Of all the threads in motion, which one is the present thread?
Content
The content here is ongoing and chronological, ideas surfaced, tested, and published as they form. It is grounded in experience but not bound by it. Some pieces are sharp and considered. Others are closer to thinking out loud. All of it is honest.
Essays
Longer explorations of ideas that merit the space. Essays move through observation, pattern recognition, and implication, without forcing a conclusion. The thinking is lightly held, the writing deliberately so.
Field Notes
Shorter and sharper. A single observation, a pattern emerging, a signal worth naming. Field Notes are closer to real-time, captured while the thinking is still warm.
In Conversation
Podcasts, interviews, panels, and appearances where these ideas meet other perspectives. A record of the thinking in dialogue, not just in print.
Product
CTO <F9>
<F9> is the Toggle Breakpoint, the deliberate mark you place before the run. The moment you look at a system and decide: this is where the truth will surface, toggle it.
CTO <F9> is a framework built from two decades of operating as a CTO, how I research a role before accepting it, how I enter an organisation, how I design a team, how I prepare for a conversation when things haven't gone well. It is grounded in process and repeatability, but written in the first person, what has worked for me, where I have adapted, and what I would offer as a starting point for others.
This is not a playbook. It is not prescriptive. It is the accumulated operating knowledge of a practitioner, made legible for the leaders who want to adopt it, adapt it, and make it their own.
Ways of Working
I work with a small number of organisations and individuals at any one time. The engagements vary in form, but share a common thread, they are substantive, peer-level, and grounded in the same thinking you find here.
Speaking
I speak at conferences, leadership forums, and executive events on AI strategy, agentic transformation, SaaS scale, leadership, engineering, platforms and the commercial shift from per-seat licensing to consumption economics. If you are building a programme and want an experienced practitioner perspective, I am interested in the conversation.
Advisory
I work with boards and executive teams on technology strategy, platform readiness, and the structural shifts required to compete in an agentic, protocol-native world.
Mentoring
I work directly with CTOs and senior technology leaders — particularly those navigating scale-up environments, listed company pressures, or the transition into a first executive role. This is peer-level, not prescriptive. I share what I have seen, what I have done, and what I would consider doing differently.
Customer Advisory Boards
I serve on Customer Advisory Boards for technology organisations where I can contribute meaningfully, bringing scale-up CTO perspective to product direction, go-to-market strategy, and enterprise readiness. I am currently a member of the MongoDB global Customer Advisory Board.
If any of this resonates, I am glad you are here. You can ask me anything, and I will answer as honestly as I can.