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How to be an effective tech lead as team grows

Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Taro Community profile pic
Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Taro Community

Background: I joined my current team as E5 and I've spent past few months delivering large projects. I've proven my technical ability to the team and got very positive feedback from my peers and my manager. However, since I'm currently the only mobile engineer in the team, I don't have enough capacity to handle all the upcoming projects and my manager decided to hire more mobile engineers. My manager told me that they want me to take on a more leading role and help with different projects.

Before I join my current team, I was E4 at previous company and I only had 1:1 mentorship experience to help mentor other E3/E4 engineers (not at the same time). I got a few questions on my mind and any help would be appreciated.

  1. How to do better as a tech lead and mentor multiple engineers at the same time to help them grow?
  2. I'm delivering projects with good velocity and quality, but from my past experience I found it pretty hard to apply same standard to others, how should I change my mindset to help team move fast and improve quality instead of just being a good IC myself?
  3. I want to give new engineers (probably all E4s) chances to lead tech design. To what extent should I be helping with the designs? Should I delegate more and let them take full credit, or should I be handholding more?
  4. When I'm leading projects, how to make sure I get my part of credit while other mobile engineers also get their credits? Also related to this, how to better separate tasks on a project? I want to make sure they have chance to grow while I also get chance to grow.
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Posted 13 days ago
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Direct code contributions as a tech lead

Lead Software Engineer [L5] at Zepto profile pic
Lead Software Engineer [L5] at Zepto

I am taking Lalit Kundu's course on TL Blueprint on Taro right now. Thanks for creating it. :)

I had a question since I joined as a "first time tech lead" in my company. Before this, my official title was Senior Software Engineer.

It's been a month for me in my new company and I had the chance to contribute to multiple threads. But could not directly have as major code contributions as I previously did. Wanted to understand if this is normal as a tech lead. In fact, most of my time goes reviewing designs and code rather than coding myself.

Actively trying to seek out / create such opportunities now for myself, like a deployment freeze manager I am planning to create so that deployments can get blocked or go through an additional layer of approval during freeze.

But there are several other burning things like lack of proper observability etc. which may not directly need me to code.

Thus, would be helpful to get any related advice on how I should approach this. Below is a short pie chart I created for things I worked on in my first month of joining. Also, worried a bit since we have review cycles approaching. Planning to discuss this with my manager as well.

Link to the pie chart [relevant to this question] :

Edit:

There is an item that is high priority, needs code to be written which I am planning to pick up this week, so should be sorted atleast wrt some contribution in terms of code.

But, still would like to understand how important it is for tech leads and is it okay for Tech Leads to be able to code lesser than what I did as a Senior Software Engineer.

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Posted 2 months ago
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Learn About Tech Lead

A tech lead is a senior member of a software development team who not only has strong technical skills but also takes on a leadership role. Unlike a traditional manager, a tech lead focuses on guiding the technical direction of a project, ensuring alignment with business goals and fostering collaboration among team members. The role demands a delicate balance between technical proficiency and effective leadership.
One of the primary responsibilities of a tech lead is to provide technical guidance to the team. This involves making high-level technical decisions, ensuring the adoption of best practices, and overseeing the implementation of solutions that align with the project’s requirements.
A tech lead has a crucial role in fostering collaboration within the team. This involves facilitating effective communication, resolving conflicts, and promoting a positive team culture. A tech lead creates an environment where team members can share ideas and work together seamlessly.
They aren’t typically regarded as project managers, but tech leads are often involved in project management. This includes task allocation, timeline management, and ensuring that the team can meet all of a project’s milestones. Balancing technical objectives with project goals is one of the key responsibilities of a tech lead.
A tech lead has a responsibility to mentor their team members. They should guide junior software engineers with knowledge that they have gained during their career as a software engineer. They should be providing constructive feedback and creating opportunities for getting their team members promoted.
A skilled tech lead will influence the success of a project. Their technical abilities and leadership contribute to efficient project execution and ensure that a team delivers high quality software within an established timeline.
A deep understanding of an organization’s business goals, technical understanding behind a team’s stack, and a broad knowledge of the system architecture is essential to becoming a tech lead. They must constantly be aware of what is happening on their team as well as adjacent teams. They must also have a proven track record of success.
The impact of a tech lead extends beyond just coding. Their role is significant in driving the success of projects and teams. They are able to build software with a business context in mind. They know how to structure a project in a way to reduce risk and increase confidence in the project. Taro contains resources that can help you to become a more effective tech lead.
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