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

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

#221

Post by unlinked_dll »

fsloth wrote: post #217
unlinked_dll wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is if you're at a startup you probably don't know what your product is, because you don't know who your customers are. My last startup died because we committed too hard to the product and the business model, which while innovative and one that I still believe could have succeeded - we utterly failed because we didn't understand our customers and we didn't pivot fast enough, ran out of runway and then eve…

If I may function as the devil's advocate - One can read the above as a claim that because you didn't have a good business guy engineers should have worked faster? Would a faster product iteration worked if the business acumen would still have been missing?

It might have. Part of it was arrogance and bad advice from VCs, not lack of business acumen. There was a rejection for industry practice because we were different and doing something different, but it wasn't actually different and couldn't monetize because we focused on users that couldn't pay us real money, while working in an industry that doesn't value innovation.

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

#222

Post by unlinked_dll »

hanspeter wrote: post #219
fsloth wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I may function as the devil's advocate - One can read the above as a claim that because you didn't have a good business guy engineers should have worked faster? Would a faster product iteration worked if the business acumen would still have been missing?

I don't think the argument is that engineers should work faster. It's that they should be willing to skip some of the stuff you would normally say is good practice in order to ship features super agile and make any necessary pivot easier.

It wasn't a lack of features so much as a lack of talking to people that had purchasing discretion. Never focus on users in B2B, focus on people who have the ability to approve a purchase order.

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

#223

Post by ltbarcly3 »

You're going to mess up and people will try to manipulate you. Trust yourself, be respectful and professional, and just keep showing up. You'll get good at this, but only if you keep trying.

If you don't know what to say or are feeling angry, don't say something just to have a response. Its super rare that you need to commit on the spot. If you get negative feedback from your boss, wait a day before you try to start panic-changing things on the team. Bosses are flighty and under pressure, try to keep it constructive.

Your main job is to keep the team productive. If you do this, you can leverage having a team that delivers into raises for yourself and your team -- eventually.

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

#224

Post by navyad »

sub7 wrote: post #66
jaspal747 wrote: post #11

Few things I would like to say: It will no longer be about you. It will all be about your team. Make sure you create a great team, nurture them, train them, teach them how to think critically (in doing so yourself). Ask your team to write out everything they plan to do before they actually do it. Reason with them on what they wrote and what approach decisions they plan to take. Teach them to think long term. Writing…

Respectfully disagree on the "write it out first" advice. I'd argue "think it out first" or "talk it out first" is sufficient. I found while scaling my team tended to bury themselves in miles of docs that really did not serve the customer or the company. A janky kind of working prototype of a solution is worth a ton more than a well thought out doc.

I would like to disagree here. Got into a team which has working prototype but not a single word on document. Which makes this hard to follow up with prototype.

Being tech lead in current position, I am stressing "document-first" approch it is either for client or tech team.

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

#225

Post by peterjussi »

jon-wood wrote: post #143
smilekzs wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that "tech lead" as a role in Big Tech is more of a gateway position to bridge the gap between IC and management roles, a transition for a well-performing engineer who otherwise has no experience managing a team to "bootstrap" and gain that experience. During this, coding expectations for said engineer naturally lowers, and is shifted towards the total productivity of the emerging "subtree".

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…

This sounds like a Product Owner to me. Indeed, all these types of roles are pretty much interchangeable depending on the exact structure of your teams.

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

#226

Post by q-base »

stackzero wrote: post #149

- 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

- "You can't lead a team further than you have been yourself"

I respectfully disagree. A good leader hires, nurtures and grows individuals that are better than himself. The goal of course always is to have the team be more than the sum of its parts. In doing so it should be the goal of taking it much further than the leader could ever have gone alone.

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

#227

Post by Xelbair »

derekchiang wrote: post #169
jaspal747 wrote: post #11

Few things I would like to say: It will no longer be about you. It will all be about your team. Make sure you create a great team, nurture them, train them, teach them how to think critically (in doing so yourself). Ask your team to write out everything they plan to do before they actually do it. Reason with them on what they wrote and what approach decisions they plan to take. Teach them to think long term. Writing…

I think your advice is great for tech leads at big companies, but for tech leads at startups, I have to disagree with the point about "Work for your product - not your company." At a startup, the business objective has to come first and the engineering team has to keep the bigger picture in mind. "Long-term stability and robustness" won't matter if your company is dead. Build for the short-term and build fast while y…

That only works if tech team is evaluated and measured with the same objectives as business teams.

I've heard so many times "think of bigger picture".. but when we did the tech team got kicked down - as we didn't achieve our own objectives because we sacrificed them for "bigger picture".

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

#228

Post by akuji1993 »

otobrglez wrote: post #126

Get the O'reilly's book "The Manager's Path - A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change" and READ IT. 1) You will not need to trust others to write better code/systems then you and that you will very likely be unable to code anymore. 2) Establish a good relationship with your team members. Seek for people who you can delegate to and trust. Trust and reliable people are really hard to find. When shit hits…

#9 is insanely important. I've had this in the last two companies I work for and it makes a huge difference. You won't get the details you need in an all hands meeting. In a 1-on-1 people will spill their guts, will tell you what exactly is going wrong in their opinion and how it might get better.

It's also very important to know more about your employees on a personal level. Are they going through a tough time, do they feel unchallenged or bored? Do you have issues between team members that need resolving? All this can come out in these 1-on-1s.

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

#229

Post by molteanu »

abraxas wrote: post #203
itronitron wrote: post #141

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…

Yes tech lead in my experience is a BS non title invented to keep the most productive rank and file developers feel like their careers are going somewhere. It's extra responsibility and expectations with no additional empowerment

The most honest answer in the whole thread.

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

#230

Post by otobrglez »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #202
otobrglez wrote: post #126

Get the O'reilly's book "The Manager's Path - A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change" and READ IT. 1) You will not need to trust others to write better code/systems then you and that you will very likely be unable to code anymore. 2) Establish a good relationship with your team members. Seek for people who you can delegate to and trust. Trust and reliable people are really hard to find. When shit hits…

Should #1 start, "You will now" instead of "You will not"?

You are absolutely right! Thanks.
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