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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?

#231

Post by lukevdp »

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…

I agree with you that you have to work for the company objectives.

I think at a start-up the correct decision early on is to take on a bunch of tech debt, but then pay it down as the horizon of the company expands.

Early on, you need to iterate fast on a few key flows and make a product that people want, but once you get product market fit, things like scalability and reliability start mattering a lot more and you need to pay down the debt.

The issue comes when the company's objective is actually to build a reliable, stable, long term product, but it is still in startup mindset of "ship this feature by yesterday at all costs", and expects the rest to come for free.

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

#232

Post by hnuser123456 »

falcor84 wrote: post #206
rapfaria wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to think that a tech lead is someone that given infinite time, could deliver the project by himself.

I like to think that given infinite time, any average person could do anything that's physically possible. Alas, given the upcoming universe heat death, this is moot.

Total number of people who have ever lived is around 15 billion IIRC, so ~1500 billion years. Most stars live around 10b years, so one person would burn through 150 stars to accomplish everything done by all humanity up to this point.

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

#233

Post by esturk »

dnautics wrote: post #119

Just generally, as an employee, what I value in my manager is "someone who's got my back". I would say what that means is, internally, you run interference to shield your reports from management incompetence and thrash, you take responsibility for failures, and internally promote (in the "promoter" sense) them. And externally, proactively provide professional advice and support, even if that means losing someone impo…

I would say "provide 'actionable' professional advice". There's manager who keeps dropping advice thinking they're some fountain of knowledge and there's some manager who actually provide tailored made advice for said individual that can be acted upon.

General advice without a specific individual in mind is useless. That's like saying "do the right thing".

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

#234

Post by Quarrelsome »

alharith wrote: post #182
Quarrelsome wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't be a disaster as long as they're humble and willing to learn.

My direct report is humble and most willing to learn. That doesn't mean they aren't at the end of the day still a very green associate developer with 7 months of experience so far. Any talks about reaching senior developer status any time soon would be a huge disservice to their development. We need to first talk about what being an exceptional associate developer looks like, transitioning to being a mid level develo…

Really good coding/architecture skills or able to collaborate and seek opinion and input from others.

For me as long as people have one or the other I can work with it. I've often been in scenarios with people that aren't good and won't collaborate and THAT'S the hell.

Obviously both is best but the skill set is rare. I'll happily take someone that defers to me and trusts my judgement over the HELL. Its not ideal and doesn't result in the best outcomes but its still workable.

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

#235

Post by say_it_as_it_is »

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…

This isn't universally true. It only applies to a segment of "pioneering" startups. It will hurt a startup otherwise.

There are different types of startups. Not all startups are working on novel discoveries and exploring new frontiers. Zoom built a better video conferencing platform by not moving fast and breaking things.

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

#237

Post by tentam »

First ask yourself if you are the kind of person that enjoys serving others. Do you like to help the less experienced guys? Leading ain't about telling people what to do. So if you aim for that back off.

From my experience having kids helps a lot. Look into your past. Did you enjoy organizing stuff? Do you like to communicate with people? Do you have experience lobbing your ideas?

If you ain't scared of that then go and find yourself a mentor. Best would be if that is somebody you already respect.

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

#238

Post by nailer »

tentam wrote: post #237

First ask yourself if you are the kind of person that enjoys serving others. Do you like to help the less experienced guys? Leading ain't about telling people what to do. So if you aim for that back off. From my experience having kids helps a lot. Look into your past. Did you enjoy organizing stuff? Do you like to communicate with people? Do you have experience lobbing your ideas? If you ain't scared of that then go…

> First ask yourself if you are the kind of person that enjoys serving others. > Do you like to help the less experienced guys? Leading ain't about telling people what to do.

Sometimes telling people what to do is right. Sometimes it isn't.

We can bring up a thousand cases proving both.

I recommend the OP reads "The Dichotomy of Leadership" by Jocko Willink, which is about understanding where the balance lies.

https://www.amazon.com/Dichotomy-Leadership-Balancing-Challe...

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

#239

Post by vinniejames »

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…

Startups often only have 1 product, so the advice still holds true

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

#240

Post by geoffchan23 »

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…

Don't forget that each member of your team is a unique individual. Just like raising kids, there is not a one size fits all formmula. Get to know each member of your team on a personal level. This will go a long way in building trust and being able to lead them effectively.
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