Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?

I recommend getting clear guidance from your supervisor on what 'tech lead' means to them. A lot of the commenters here think tech lead is a management position however you shouldn't assume that your employer has that same view. It doesn't sound like you are a 'team lead' otherwise your position would be called 'team lead' and not 'tech lead'. Therefore you don't have any real control over what anyone does, you can't make people do things, and you will be responsible for leading the tech, so you can't really delegate that away to individual contributors. Good luck.

I think there are probably almost as many definitions of tech lead as there are companies. In my case the tech leads in the company are responsible for turning high level requirements from the rest of the company into actual actionable work, and feeding back up to senior management places where we could improve the existing product by refactoring/introducing new features. Alongside that we do line management for the people on our team, and generally act as a point of contact to try and reduce the level of interruptions to developers.

It’s very much not an IC role - we might throw together the odd prototype, and we’re all very capable of rolling our sleeves up and helping out if a project needs an extra person for a bit, but the general rule is that if we’re on the critical path for implementing a project something has gone wrong.

Remember that the programming is the easy part. Planning and collaboration doesn’t come as naturally for most engineers, and becomes increasingly important the higher level that you go. This is because large software isn’t built by one person that goes all Superman and codes it in isolation; larger software is done in collaboration.

1. Collaboration is key:

1a. When there are differences in opinion on how to implement something, your desired outcome is that the right thing happens for the company, and that everyone feels like their opinion was heard and legitimately considered. You don’t want to alienate even the most junior engineers even if you have absolute power over them.

1b. You need a good relationship with your business partners/customers, with your boss, and with your direct reports. Make this a top priority. Productivity improves drastically when the customer loves you. You need the upward, downward, and lateral relationships healthy because it’s crucial that you and your people feel safe to talk about the truth and work on solutions together. Counter example: people don’t want to ask for help or talk about what they’re feeling uncomfortable about because they think they’ll be judged as incompetent or a problem child. It’s important that you don’t feel that way when talking to your customers or boss, and that your people don’t feel that way when talking with you and each other. Foster a culture of love, respect, and acceptance to help with this.

1c. Pick your battles. Figure out for example when a design decision really matters strategically and when it can go either way. Give your people as much latitude as you can to give them a chance to learn from their mistakes.

I drone on here about collaboration because some of my larger failures in the last few years are because of running afoul of these ideas. Forgetting these ideas often leads to winning the battle but losing the war.

2. Constantly work to empower your people And figure out how they need to grow. Figure out their target growth areas, keep notes on those, give them opportunities to grow and learn in those areas. Watch how they do, and give them feedback every chance you get about what they did well and how they can do better. Never miss an opportunity to show them how pleased you are with positive things.

Sorry, wrong thread... :(

- You can't lead a team further than you have been yourself There is a constant need to spend time up-skilling, performing tech spikes, thinking ahead - 20% of people do 80% of the work. You should be in the 20% and also invest time with the people in your team that are in the 20% - Genuinely care about the people you lead and help them get better at whatever their goals are