An interview with Ray Velez, CTO of Razorfish

Part 7 in a series of CTO interviews

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with CTOs from very different digital media companies to understand how they think about the role, what they have in common and where they differ in approach. You can read earlier interviews with the CTOs of Buzzfeed, Shutterstock, Vice, Salon, Digg and Hearst here.

Next up is Ray Velez, global CTO of Razorfish. I have the privilege of working with Ray as part of Publicis Groupe’s membership in NYC Media Lab. Ray has worked in technology and digital media for 20 years, having worked previously at Cambridge Technology Partners and Scient. At Boston University he studied computer science and philosophy; it makes sense then that in our conversation Velez was at once an enthusiast for new technology and philosophical about what it means for society.

We hear all the time that the pace of technological change has sped up. How has that changed the job of the CTO, particularly in digital media and marketing?

I am a strong believer in the arguments that Ray Kurzweil has advanced; he’s put analytical rigor around proving how fast technology is changing. Consumer behavior is changing just as fast.

What this means is that we need to look at our work through the lens of the consumer. These innovations have empowered consumers more than ever before, so when we make technology choices we need to do them iteratively, quickly and ensure they’re proven out through data. So, we need to look at fast-moving approaches like cloud computing and use more data to inform what we build. Do the analytics show that feature is successful? If not, we need to cut it.

If the consumer is in charge, we need to make sure that the services a brand offers stand out. Look at what is happening in the auto industry: the current forecast for sales is flat over the next 5-10 years, look at the Mintel report. To stay relevant, they need more services. Apple’s latest announcements were less about their products and more about their services around health and home.

The pace of change keeps the job fun. These days I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate Internet of Things technologies; it’s really expanding our aperture. What we’re going to continue to see—and we beat this drum really hard—is that it drives more interdisciplinary behaviors. Everyone understands now that you need creative, experience and software engineers; now we’re trying to add data science to the team.

What types of time horizons are you working with when thinking of how to incorporate new technologies into the business?

We look at both short-term, what we need to invest in over the coming months, as well long-term. In the short term, there are powerful technologies like cloud computing, which helps us crunch data faster than ever before. Take a look at things like the work we’ve done with Argos, using Google’s cloud to enable us to predict what gifts are a good fit for you and your loved ones. All of this is done in a matter of months, as opposed to what used to take years. Then there are technologies like the Internet of Things, which are drastically going to change the way we message and offer services to customers. People will be looking at their smartwatch or a screen on the wall instead of bumping into things while staring at their phone. Both are technologies we are using today for clients.

The question is how quickly these things will be adopted. If I had to pick a top three, the first would continue to be cloud computing, because it’s really about what it enables—data processing like never before with techniques like machine learning and data algorithm-based relevancy targeting. The second would be the Internet of Things, because it is also an enabler. I plug a device like Dash into my car and all of a sudden I have a world of services available to me. The third is the intersection of physical and digital. We will continue to see the digitization of physical spaces increasing consumer interactivity, whether it’s at a movie theatre or a retail store. Beacons and technologies like 4G LTE are going to enable to drive location-precise, relevant and interesting interactions.

We discussed how long it can take for some large enterprises to adopt new technologies, like cloud computing. What holds big companies back from experimenting with new technologies?

We started writing about this three or four years ago. Why do you get stuck using tech in large enterprises that a startup would never use? I think a major reason is that large enterprises don’t believe they can train their people, that they can pivot quickly. So if you get frustrated easily, don’t go to work for big companies. But what we’re focused on is helping enterprises change their processes. That’s where I focus my frustrations. We’ve built a course called Scrum for Teams that helps people build software faster, cross-disciplinary, and more iteratively. When you start to hit these shorter development sprints, you are staying further away from functionality that is rarely or never used. In the long run, we’re seeing technology buying centers moving from IT to marketing, where there is more openness to accept change. Marketing wants things to move faster.

You mentioned you’re a fan of futurist visions from people like Ray Kurzweil. What appeals to you about the futures he describes?

When I was a kid, I bought my first Atari 800 with money from my paper route. You typed in the programs from a book. I remember the if/then loop, and how if I changed the program it changed the graphics. I was hooked on technology from then. As a technologist, I get excited when things work.

We are already part cyborg. Think about voice recognition on mobile—it’s getting fantastic. Recently, we were camping with a bad 3G connection and someone had a question on something he was trying to cook; he used voice recognition with a bad 3G signal, and it gave him a response. Our devices are an extension of us. How do we start thinking about the impact on the way we communicate and get through our daily lives? I’m worried about the legal system, data privacy and the patent process; it all feels so slow and backwards when the tech is moving so quickly. We need more engineers in society—we need more lawyers who understand technology, more congressional leaders who understand it.

But ultimately the advance of technology makes me hugely optimistic. Take Wikipedia, for instance. Years ago at my wife’s school, a history teacher told students not to use it. Of course, it had a lot of issues when it started, but now you look at it and it is amazing. Not only has the store of knowledge been expanded, it’s created more rigor, it helps people question things, look for and expect more citations. It works. That creates huge optimism for me that we can leverage these technologies to do amazing things.

Justin Hendrix is Executive Director of NYC Media Lab. Reach him at justin [dot] hendrix [at] nycmedialab [dot] org or follow him on Twitter @justinhendrix.