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Tech Lead Q&A and Videos

About Tech Lead

Becoming a tech lead is the most common growth path for software engineers as they grow to senior and staff levels.

How to lead a successful call with CTO of a Series F startup I am joining? Any advice for a to-be Tech Lead at a startup in India?

Senior Software Engineer [G4] at Taro Community profile pic
Senior Software Engineer [G4] at Taro Community

Context

I have secured a job offer as a Tech Lead at Zepto - a series F startup based out of India.

The company is operating in quick commerce space which is like e-commerce in 10 minutes using Demand Prediction and Dark Stores in a certain region.


Career Aspirations

I have aspirations for career growth as an IC and the HR were rolling out offer for Staff as well, but stuck with Lead Software Engineer for now, so as to establish myself better first and then move towards staff role.

The Hiring Manager mentioned that it is possible to quickly progress to staff role in 4-5 months, which is a pure IC based role while Lead Software Engineer involved some level of team task prioritisation/planning etc. also

I had been trying to move ahead to Lead Software Engineer position in my previous company for a lot of years and did not get enough support.

Thus, I am really grateful to this offer and just want to give my best.

Would love any hear your thoughts on how to succeed as a Tech Lead.


Introductory call with CTO

With the context setup, The introductory calls are being scheduled now each coming week.

The first call being with the Company CTO.

I want to be able to have good learning and career growth at the company.

What are some of the questions I can ask as a to be Tech Lead at Zepto so as to make the best use of my call with him?

I was thinking about the following:

  • What are some of the focus areas for us at Zepto in 2024?
  • Does this translate to some high level focus areas for engineering teams? - such as building abstractions or a platform using which we can enable business better?
  • Are there some technical hindrances that are being faced to achieve the focus areas for the business? or What could be some reasons to not be able to achieve above focus areas? And how are we planning to preempt them?
  • Are there some areas of improvement you are seeing from an operational perspective in Tech & Product teams? Are we doing anything towards that?

Would love to hear your thoughts on the above. And hear more about the things I can discuss in the call.

My goal is to succeed as a Tech Lead for my team at Zepto, contribute as much as I can in terms of impact and learn from the experience.


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Posted 4 months ago
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8 Comments

Seeking input on Forming a Healthy On-Call Rotation

Tech Lead at Taro Community profile pic
Tech Lead at Taro Community

My new manager, my old manager, and the broader team have been managing the on-call rotation for the platform of my company's flagship product, which we launched two years ago. Initially, the rotation included just 3 engineers, but after discussions with my directors and acknowledgment from the rest of the organization, we increased it to 8 engineers to form a healthier on-call rotation.

Despite having 8 engineers, I've noticed that many team members, including our principal and staff engineers, are still not familiar with the on-call procedures. I have compiled a support run-book log documenting the steps for handling each issue/alert, so the on-call team understands the severity and business impact of different issues. The issues can range from low priority to business-critical.

However, the support run-book documentation is not entirely reliable as the ultimate source of truth because our production system support behaves more like triage than a debug system.

Additionally, the nature of the on-call rotation can vary from simply acknowledging alerts and following documented steps to collaborating with business owners. Sometimes, issues are caused by other teams or third-party vendors, making them unsolvable by the on-call engineer alone. I noticed that Production Issue happened almost daily, and the on-call issues have impacts to company's revenues and customer facing experience..

I am interested in learning more about how others view a healthy on-call rotation.

What are the key factors to consider when forming a healthy on-call rotation?

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Posted 4 months ago
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2 Comments

First time working on a project with non technical work as well.

Mid-Level Software Engineer at Taro Community profile pic
Mid-Level Software Engineer at Taro Community

I'm starting an API migration project due to a licensing issue and am the primary point of contact for stakeholders.

I earned this responsibility by building a relationship with the downstream legacy team and leveraging their solution with ours, using our framework in a novel way. My manager quote said “not that you can you should own the xfn”.

This is my first time doing non-technical work. Here’s what I've done so far:

  • Created a step-by-step plan and design document, captured requirements with due dates, and integrated tasks into Agile sprints.
  • Maintain a living document for future technical challenges, and note taking for all steps I outlined.
  • Outlined the battle plan to the po, my manager, and the senior engineer who all gave sign off.
  • Plan to give updates and assist with troubleshooting for client teams.
  • Set a goal to thoroughly test the solution, ensuring an adequate test suite is in place, aiming for it to work on the first try.

Questions:

  • For cross-functional alignment, what steps should I take for communication and updates? We have a Slack group with all clients. If there’s a communication template that worked well for similar projects, it would be helpful.
  • If there was one thing you'd challenge me to do in my execution of this project, what would it be? For context, I’m probably mid-level with an interest in learning how to grow.
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Posted 5 months ago
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5 Comments

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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