Be firm yet be fair and consistent; there is a lot of room in-between, which you can figure out as you go along ─ don't get overwhelmed, as there is no blueprint.
Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
71–80 of 259 posts
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#721. get 2 mentors: a technical one and business one (doesn't need to be domain specific) 2. your job is transitioning from "doing" to "enabling". You'll be responsible for issues of governance AND operation. Learn the ropes equally. As you introduce successful operational concerns (bottom up) start to generalise them so they can be used as a top-down concern (i.e. i do devops -> we all do devops here, it's part of the…
Good advice with #1 - getting a business mentor is helpful in learning the business goals/concerns of the organization your product supports.
Interesting advice with #3 - have not considered this before. I like how your approach empowers dev A and, as you say, "ends in trust".
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#73Few 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…
This is about as comprehensive as you can get in terms of what really matters in a good tech lead broken down into a few paragraphs. Who needs a book?! :)
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#74For one scenario: if two members of your team disagree passionately on something technical and come to you for resolution do the following: tell them they must resolve the argument between themselves with you as a mediator (to make sure they stay civilised and focussed on the technical arguments). Tell them they must come to a consenses themselves. Do NOT pick a side unless the process breaks down. I made this mistak…
Never treat issues of incompetence, inexperience, or bad attitudes as interpersonal disputes. When one team member isn't following well-known processes, or is obviously wrong, you must pick a side quickly.
(Examples include things like magic numbers instead of #defines, use of strings instead of well-defined enums, pull requests with lots of commented out code. They can also go to deeper topics, like bad database schemas or poor data access patterns.)
Why must you pick a side quickly? If you treat incompetence or inexperience as an interpersonal dispute, you aren't managing. Instead, your team will quickly view you as appeasing incompetence, and this will quickly drain morale. This is especially the case if one person should be moved to a less-challenging role, or fired.
From personal experience: In these situations the technical lead fixed the code before merge, and management eventually pushed the other person out. But, it was a long slog while management tried to be diplomatic with someone who just wasn't willing, or able, to be professional.
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#75Top mistakes by new leads:
- Not delegating. New leads often feel that if they're not writing code (or doing whatever it means to be an individual contributor), they're slacking off. The definition of "work" has changed. It now means "helping your team succeed". If you try to be an individual contributor, you are doing your old job instead of your new one, and you'll get overwhelmed and sink.
- Not asking questions. New leads often think that being a lead means being an expert, so they're embarrassed to ask or consult someone else about their team's domain, for fear of looking inadequate. Your team and your peers are the experts— it is your job to ensure that expertise prevails, whether it's yours or someone else's. You'll look much more dumb if you're too insecure to admit what you don't know, or fail to ask basic questions that allow you to get the job done.
- Hiding problems. When things aren't going well (and often they don't), don't hide this from the leadership above you. They are there to help you and guide you, and can save you from crashing and burning. You will look much worse if a problem comes to light months after it could have been communicated and dealt with.
- Not communicating. Share what's going on with your team. Share what's going on in the big picture. Don't keep people in the dark, either above you or below you.
Some leads (moreso if they're prone to impostor syndrome) think they have to wait for permission to speak, or to be offered something that they need— don't do this. If you have something important to say/ask, it's your responsibility as a leader to say it and get what you need.
- Forgetting the big picture. As an individual contributor, you often only have to think about near-term or small-scope problems. It is an easy mistake to make as a new lead to spend priority on those things instead of keeping in mind what's necessary for the entire team to succeed at its high level goal.
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#761. get 2 mentors: a technical one and business one (doesn't need to be domain specific) 2. your job is transitioning from "doing" to "enabling". You'll be responsible for issues of governance AND operation. Learn the ropes equally. As you introduce successful operational concerns (bottom up) start to generalise them so they can be used as a top-down concern (i.e. i do devops -> we all do devops here, it's part of the…
Number 5 reads a bit like this: if an employee is not motivated enough, instead of trying to find the cause and mitigating, go on the hostile path and get HR involved.
In fairness, this could be a good advice for roles that are easy to hire for (e.g. minimum wage manual labour).
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#77fake it til you make it
- not kidding
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#78I would advise you to not take the position. It would be a disaster in my opinion to attempt to be a tech lead without years of experience at the senior level. Your high level engineers will catch whiff of your lack of experience. Your mid and associate levels will not accelerate as fast as they could have, and you will feel over your head. You will essentially be Peter Principaling yourself. If you are going to do i…
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Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#79A good leader doesn't compete with others- they bring out the best in others. They assume the best of others. They lead by example. They are a facilitate as much as they delegate, and they don't lose sight of the fact that you can't lead from the trenches. A good leader remains objective when it's hard to do so, and doesn't take it personally when somebody disagrees with them. A good leader is kind, humble, and willi…
> you can't lead from the trenches
Not sure why this analogy is applied to software development. The best managers I've had lead from the trenches where we all work.
Re: Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead?
#80As it turns out, there's an entire YouTube channel dedicated to this topic from an ex-Google, ex-Facebook Tech Lead (as a millionaire)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xKdmAXFh4ACyhpiQ_3qBw/vid...
(more seriously, it's mostly just amusing)