Software is the ultimate creative medium. It allows organizations to scale human potential at a magnitude few other disciplines can match. You do not have to look far to see how much technology innovation depends on imagination. Consider the evolution of Apple iOS, where simple, elegant interactions paired with technical sophistication redefined what users expected from mobile experiences and set a new standard for the industry.
“We often think of creativity as something exclusive to artists, but in reality, it is a crucial skill for technologists,” says Corey Coto, an Operating Advisor at Fauntleroy Partners. Creativity helps teams see patterns differently, interpret information with greater nuance, and design solutions that customers often do not yet know they need. At Pluralsight, Coto helped his organization increase engineering productivity by 30% while improving customer retention by 25% by shifting teams away from a single assumed solution and encouraging them to test competing approaches, pressure test assumptions, and prototype quickly.
Here, he shares how leaders can strengthen technology execution by creating spaces where creativity is allowed to thrive. “When people feel safe to explore before they execute, they build solutions that are not only faster but fundamentally better,” Coto says.
Multidisciplinary Teams as Innovation Engines
Coto’s leadership philosophy centers on the belief that complex problems require diverse minds working together. During his time at Amazon, he helped scale AmazonSmile, Amazon’s charitable giving program, into a program that would ultimately go on to drive more than $200 million in charitable donations. That success, he says, was the product of deep collaboration among business leaders, designers, engineers, and customer teams who understood the mission from different perspectives.
The magic happened when teams were given room to explore possibilities before committing to a direction. “That space to wander is often where the real breakthrough hides,” he says. For Coto, creating such a space is a leadership requirement.
Creating a Shared Language
Leaders must ensure that blue sky thinking survives the operational realities of delivery. Even the most promising ideas can stall when teams cannot bridge the gap between creative vision and execution. “Alignment is not about getting everyone to agree, but about giving teams a shared lens so ideas can move from abstract to actionable,” Coto says.
He works with teams to translate abstract concepts into executable roadmaps while protecting the spark that made the idea compelling in the first place. Through his work at Fauntleroy Partners, Corey helps organizations use lightweight, high-signal check-ins and AI synthesis to surface patterns, sentiment, and operational insight—delivered as concise narrative intelligence leaders can act on, without drowning teams in dashboards. By converting raw feedback into clear stories that leaders can act on, the product shows how shared understanding helps turn ambiguity into alignment and supports faster, more confident execution.
The Call to Lead With Bold Ideas and Practical Rigor
Coto shares that his approach to leadership is shaped by his personal journey. As the son of a Cuban refugee and an American homesteader, he grew up with a “deep appreciation for resilience, curiosity, and the power of opportunity.” Those values continue to influence how he leads and how he thinks about the role of technology in shaping meaningful outcomes.
For him, leadership is about building systems that deliver measurable results, and creativity is often the element that makes that possible. Software gives organizations the ability to scale ideas into impact, and leaders who understand that will shape the next decade of enterprise performance. “When we use software to bring bold ideas to life, we do more than build products. We scale human potential.”
