Responsibilities of a Tech Lead

It's not a promotion. It's a role change.

July 01, 2021 - 413 words - 3 mins Found a typo? Edit me
tech-lead people software teams

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The Trident Career Model by Patrick Kua has three tracks. Each track represents where people spend most of their time or energy.

Archetypal Story

Individual Contributor

70–80% time spent on “Executing, doing”.
Designing. Testing. Coding.

Management

70–80% time spent on “Managing the system”.
Planning. Organizing. Supporting. Budgeting.

Technical Leader

70–80% time spent on “Leading Technical Topics & Teams”.
Aligning Team. Technical Vision. Growing Tech Knowledge. Tech Risk & Tech Debt Management.

What is a Tech Lead?

“A Tech Lead is a software engineer, responsible for leading a development team, and responsible for the quality of its technical deliverables.” (source)

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A Tech Lead is a Developer who is a Leader

A good leader is making sure that the team is moving in the same direction. The team moves further altogether, rather than simply people who are working “together”.

Leadership skills to invest in

Empathy
Self-Awareness
Motivation
Conflict Resolution
Communication
Coaching
Feedback
Influencing
Delegation

The Tech Lead role is a leadership position, not necessarily a management position.

Surprises & Struggle

Feeling Alone: “Outsider”. Different role. Shield/Filter.
Uncertainty: No right answer. Binary habit. Imperfect information.
People are puzzling: Unique. Different Strengths. Archetypes.

A Great Tech Lead

A great Tech Leader is really focusing on developing others, so the team will get better capabilities.

Tell or Delegate?

The goal is to reach a complete delegation, step by step. It’s about starting to shift responsibilities to other people, so they grow as well. It can also depend on the skills, motivations, and urgency of the task.