@iamada@tech.lgbt
Dear Fediverse, I am about to step up into my first role as a tech lead (*context in follow-up post) and would like to ask some questions to help me prepare & improve:
Groups:
Technical: Devs, DevOps, Infra
Product: Marketing, UX/Design, etc
Business: HR, management C-roles.
Questions:
- What are your initial thoughts when you hear you'll be getting a new tech lead?
- What are your hopes & expectations for them?
- What are your concerns when a new "tech lead" is hired?
- What changes do you hope for, or expect?
Please add your colour to your reply & poll.
Lastly, if you have other advice for someone who wishes to be the best possible tech lead of their teams.
@iamadaThank you all for the feedback so far, I appriciate it 
@iamada Hi Ada, I'm a startup executive (VP Engineering level) and would be happy to provide constructive input from my perspective - if helpful. I have been responsible for setting expectations for this role in my orgs. Other executives may vary! Let me know.
@iamada
Tech
1) wonder how stuck up they are
2) being laser focused on outcomes, pushing back on sloppy work (gently), make decisions based on hard facts rather than hype
3) them being a resume driven developer
4) none
@iamada 1.will they actually help, or just disrupt things?
2. Hoping they’re competent and not just another manager who talks but doesn’t deliver.
3. Concerned they’ll micromanage, ignore existing workflows, or make things harder for the team.
4. Expecting unnecessary changes, but hoping at least some improvements come out of it.
@iamada everything from here is communication, transparency, owning things, getting things done by influencing others rather than through an authority... Which is a big shift in behaviours from the level prior.
If I could give myself a bit of advice back when I went through this, it would be to radically own the outcome, and to be very kind and lovely to all in bringing about the outcome.
Everything is so much easier when people align themselves with you to help you succeed... That's the "lead" part.
An oft unwritten part of being a tech lead is also protecting the ability of the team to get things done, by saying no to things that don't align with the team, i.e. don't write new code when you can reuse existing, don't create a new thing for the team to own by setting precedent accidentally by saying yes to something... A tech lead protects a teams future velocity, by saying no and challenging the approaches being taken... In addition to helping drive outcomes through consensus.
The Tech Lead owns the context for the team... what's important for the business, the health of the team (on-call, pages, tech debt), the vision the team has... and through that context the tech lead shepherds the team to a continuous flow of outcomes.
@sashag@anarres.family@dee @iamada All of this. And for your relationship with your team members, trust is the thing. When you earn someone's trust, alignment and conversations are so much easier.
Trust is created by openness (as Dee said) and vulnerability. Saying that I messed something up means I don't hide it and other people don't need to do so too. The common term for this is psychological safety.
At company retreats I often offer "fireside chats" (like open discussions, I start and others can contribute) that I call "fuckup nights". Like did you know that I once took down the whole Oracle database of the SAP system of the Düsseldorf airport with one SQL statement? 
@iamada and to your specific questions, from a Business perspective:
- What are your initial thoughts when you hear you'll be getting a new tech lead?
For us to hire this rather than grow this... it's overdue, and is a critical hire. It can't be a bad hire, but that means I'll pay attention to the probation period and will want to have confidence as early as possible that this was a good hire.
Evidence of success in hiring a tech lead is that they are very quick to build relationships beyond their team, they are highly curious and gather as much context as possible, that they're listening a lot, have started being actively involved in design docs, PR reviews, and steering the team, and may have already found a way to accelerate a team (by not doing something, or by doing something in a better way).
- What are your hopes & expectations for them?
Communication and transparency... tech leads fail when they go silent and inwards, they represent the team and their success is via relationship building.
If they can build relationships, and if they can acquire context, then most tech leads will ask the right questions that accelerate things.
Tech leads are shepherds... I'm looking for the whole team to become more effective through by the right tech lead being present.
- What are your concerns when a new "tech lead" is hired?
Bringing in a "this is how we did it" without regarding the new context and culture they're in. A tech lead can unintentionally sabotage a great deal, and destroy relationships as easy as they can create them.
- What changes do you hope for, or expect?
Increased velocity, improved morale, growth in individuals, more business outcomes.... but admittedly this is "over time", so I look for the energy and vibes of this in the probation period.
I personally prefer to grow tech leads rather than hire, as someone having being a tech lead somewhere else doesn't mean they'll be successful in another place... it's a behaviour more than a skill, and behaviours depends on the people around you.
@iamada
As a dev, the most important job a team lead has imo is protect me from corporate bullshit.
You are my representative with management. I want you to fight all unreasonable or damaging demands by the C class.
Back to office mandates? Work times? Even pay. I can't be on these meetings but you are. I expect you to do your darndest to buffer me from these shits so that I can do my fucking job in peace.
@iamada - as a Director of CX at my last company, I would have been involved in the interview process so I would be excited for the new tech lead to start
The biggest thing for me would be how will they balance their want for “hands on keyboard” work with tech lead work, ie: refining implementation strategy, streamlining roadmaps to best meet business needs, proactively identify and clear blockers for their team, understanding exec wants and turning those into realistic solves 1/x
@iamada 2/x - my biggest concern would be our existing mountain of tech debt, the constraints that forced upon us, and the fact that we have yet to get the approval to clear it because it isn’t causing enough “pain” to be worth the investment
This new lead will see it, and like everyone else want to fix it, and then see how bit it actually is and I worry they will either check out and half ass the job or leave because of it
@iamada@tech.lgbt I don't have that much experience with what a tech lead is supposed to do, but my first worry would be whether they come to boss me around and tell me I'm doing things wrong or are they guiding the team and explaining why a different approach would be better.
I'm pretty sure you would be able to quickly remove those worries, but still, that's my first worry. Good luck!
@iamada 3/x - My expectation, and this is for anyone new to a company, is to start by listening and asking lots of “dumb” questions. Being new is the one time it is socially ok to ask the things that *seem* self evident and it usually reveals a lot of internal assumptions, blind spots, and “that’s just how we’ve always done it” items
@iamada 4/4 - my only concern would be on how I could help the new tech lead with building rapport - both with the teams they are going to be leading and with the leadership team
Tech Leads, like UX and Product, have to say no a lot of they are doing their job well IMO. And tech leads have the added stress of needing to course correct dev teams when they get distracted by the new shiny thing
That foundation of trust is paramount to prevent it from feeling personal
@iamada I would expect a good tech lead to be capable of doing the work that their team does (not necessarily as fast or efficient, just enough to understand) even if that's not part of their role. Without this knowledge they can't fully advocate for them from the technical perspective. Ideally they'd be a people person too as that will make their own job easier. Being confident enough to push back (with your own team as well as management) when warranted is also important.
