Jocelin Ho

Being a good tech lead is incredibly hard. While many tech leads don't do much more than ask *"Is it done yet?"* every week, good tech leads must add value to the engineers they're leading while getting an immense amount of work done themselves.

If you have earned the trust of your team and achieved the role of tech lead, you must take that responsibility *incredibly* seriously and strive to be a good tech lead. Because if you don't, people struggle.

This is what this course is here to help you with. After going through it, you will know:

- 💡  The **full definition** of an effective tech lead

- 💻  What **technological** skills tech leads must possess

- 🙌  How tech leads demonstrate true **leadership**

- ✅  **Practical tips** to start acting as a tech lead

As a tech lead, you don't have the formal authority that a manager does. Despite this, you need to exercise an equivalent amount of influence (often times more) on engineering decisions. In a nutshell, this course will empower you to be a true leader despite not being a boss.

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead

Overview

Mastering The Technology

Effective Leadership

Conclusion

System Design Discussions

How This Course Works

Why Most Tech Leads Suck

What Makes A Good Tech Lead

Go Deep, Not Broad

Think High-Level, Plan Long-Term

Be The Code Guardian

Foster Technical Innovation

It's All About The Team

Be An Excellent Communicator

Set The Direction

Foster Trust

Leverage The Power Of Feedback

Manage Expectations

Unite The Non-Engineers (XFN)

Be Visible

Go Deeper: Follow Through

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 7] - System Design Discussions

In order to build high-quality software, you need to go through the process of system design. As a tech lead, you are expected to play a major role in this process. This lesson teaches you:

- What to avoid when participating in system design meetings (i.e. how to not add negative value)
- The overall principles to be helpful in system design discussions
- How to make yourself better at system design through relationship building
- Tactics to provide better input in system design discussions, even if you're not incredibly familiar with the underlying domain

To learn how to write a stellar tech review doc: [\[Course\] System Design Masterclass: Shipping Real Features To Production](https://www.jointaro.com/course/frontend-system-design-masterclass-building-playlists/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 1] - How This Course Works

As a software engineer, you need to eventually grow into a tech lead to pursue more senior levels. However, it's much easier being a bad tech lead instead of a good tech lead - This course is here to help you be the latter. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Jocelin Ho](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelinho/) walks you through her extensive 10+ year tech background as a Meta tech lead and the CTO/Cofounder of Cooby (Sequoia-backed startup), where she built engineering teams from scratch and mentored other tech leads

- You'll understand if this course is a good fit for you

- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will know:

  - 💡 The full definition of an effective tech lead

  - 💻 What technological skills tech leads must possess

  - 🙌 How tech leads demonstrate true leadership

  - ✅ Practical tips to start acting as a tech lead

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 2] - Why Most Tech Leads Suck

There are far more bad tech leads than good tech leads. But why is that? This lesson teaches you:

- How tech leads struggle when they have bad intentions
- How tech leads struggle when they have good intentions

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 3] - What Makes A Good Tech Lead

Good tech leads provide immense value to their teams through a large collection of ways. This lesson teaches you:

- What it means from a technical skills perspective to be a good tech lead
- How good tech leads exercise effective leadership
- The mindset tech leads must champion

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 4] - Go Deep, Not Broad

In order to become a tech lead, you need to have incredibly effective technical skills. So what does that mean?

- What it takes for your technical skills to be respected as an engineer
- Why depth is more important than breadth
- What it means to have true technical depth, shown with an in-depth example

To sharpen your technical depth, take our code quality course: [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 5] - Think High-Level, Plan Long-Term

As a software engineer, it's way too easy to get lost in the weeds, fixating on details that ultimately don't matter. As a tech lead, you need to avoid rabbit holes like the plague. This lesson teaches you:

- The overall mindset tech leads must have when planning through and executing a project
- What it actually means to see the forest, not just the trees, with a detailed example from Jocelin's past
- How to own the overarching goal behind a project or workstream
- How to thoroughly think through dependencies

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 6] - Be The Code Guardian

As a tech lead, you are ultimately responsible for all the code that is delivered. The tricky part is that you need to do this without simply writing all of it. This lesson teaches you:

- The role tech leads play when it comes to cleaning up the code and paying down tech debt
- A high-level, multiplicative lever tech leads should pull to enforce code quality
- The in-the-weeds tactic tech leads need to constantly use to keep code quality high

To get better at code reviews, particularly those outside of your immediate domain, read through this: ["How to give better code reviews without full business context?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/vio35mw1SYWM8AYojB2w/how-to-give-better-code-reviews-without-full-business-context/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 8] - Foster Technical Innovation

As a tech lead, your job isn't only to deliver what's on the table now but figure out what should be on the table in the future. This lesson teaches you:

- A classic mechanism to foster discussion around technical innovation
- The logistics behind brown bag sessions and how to run an effective one

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 9] - It's All About The Team

The best tech leads are selfless, not selfish. But what exactly does that mean? This lesson teaches you:

- The proper mindset to have as a tech **lead**
- A simple mental model to understand your overall goal as a tech leader
- How to divide up work as a tech lead
- What sort of tasks you should take on within a project as a tech lead

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 10] - Be An Excellent Communicator

One way to envision your role as a tech lead is that you're the "glue" that holds the team together. The core way that glue manifests is through your communication. This lesson teaches you:

- Why excellent communication is vital towards "conducting the orchestra"
- How to communicate empathetically
- How to communicate clearly
- The right amount to communicate (it's often higher than you think)

Turn yourself into a communication master with our course: [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 11] - Set The Direction

One of the crowning growth moments for software engineers is when they become less focused on *how* to get where they need to be and more focused on *where* they should be going to begin with. That direction component is a huge part of a tech lead's responsibilities. This lesson teaches you:

- What it means to define good direction for a project
- The components behind effective direction-setting for a project
- How to decompose a goal into actionable items
- The ingredients behind empowering your team to work cohesively

To dive deeper into project management: [\[Taro Top 10\] Project Management](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/4CtqCnUYwqedd0my2EEw/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 12] - Foster Trust

Trust or social capital is the primary currency you need to get anything done as a tech lead. This lesson teaches you:

- Why fostering trust is so important for team efficiency, explained through a simple example
- How to build up trust when things aren't going perfectly (which will inevitably happen to you as a tech lead)
- How to build up trust when things are going well, taking full advantage of positive momentum

Learn how to build deep relationships fast here: [\[Masterclass\] How To Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/tyaPFMXPoz2pmzB7OVzt/masterclass-how-to-build-deep-relationships-quickly-in-tech/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 13] - Leverage The Power Of Feedback

Feedback is the main fuel you need to improve as a software engineer. It's especially important for tech leads as they are responsible for the well-being and productivity of many other people. This lesson teaches you:

- The proper mentality to have when it comes to feedback
- The right medium to deliver feedback based on its contents
- How to deliver feedback in a healthy way that doesn't hurt people
- What to do after receiving/delivering feedback to guarantee that it actually creates value

To dive deeper into how feedback is a gift, read through our excellent explainer here: ["Can someone elaborate on "always treating feedback as a gift"?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/4DoEnMIq2ISadfAJuwp9/can-someone-elaborate-on-always-treating-feedback-as-a-gift/)

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 14] - Manage Expectations

As a tech lead, you will have a ton of things to do and not a ton of time. Because of this, you need to be crystal clear about what you're working on, why you're working on it, and when you're going to have that work done. This lesson teaches you:

- The danger and hugely negative consequences of mismanaging expectations
- Proactive mechanisms you can use to maintain alignment around expectations
- How to properly react and communicate when expectations are falling through

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 15] - Unite The Non-Engineers (XFN)

One of the most common traps engineers fall into is only caring about other engineers and engineering work. You cannot make this mistake as a tech lead. This lesson teaches you:

- The core non-engineering relationship you need to maintain in order to effectively lead projects
- Other examples of non-engineering (XFN, cross-functional) relationships to maintain
- Why earning trust across several organizational functions is so important for your role as a tech lead

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 16] - Be Visible

While you need to lead with selflessness and put the team first as a tech lead, this doesn't mean that you can't be selfish at all. As a tech lead, it's critical for you to get proper credit as well. This lesson teaches you:

- The main tool you have to boost your visibility and prove your depth of contributions
- How to be visible in general

How To Be An Effective Tech Lead [Part 17] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Congratulations on making it to the final lesson of the course! This lesson teaches you:

- The key takeaways of being an effective tech lead
- Technical items you can take on to start being a better tech lead
- Leadership items you can take on to start being a better tech lead

For further support, start career discussions in the Taro forum to get top-tier advice: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

You can also go deeper with our related courses:

- [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [\[Course\] System Design Masterclass: Shipping Real Features To Production](https://www.jointaro.com/course/frontend-system-design-masterclass-building-playlists/)
- [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)
- [\[Course\] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)