What Is a Good Tech Lead?

This post was originally created here


Tech Lead is a role frequently seen on development teams filled by a wide variety of people. Many times the Tech Lead is the most senior person of a technical nature on the team. By senior I mean the person who has the longest tenure. This is frequently a good choice, but not always the right one.

Most often, with age comes wisdom, but this isn't always the case. A long term employee of the same company with limited exposure to external environments is operating in an echo chamber. They lack a diverse experience to use as a sounding board for their ideas or the ideas of the people around them.

So to begin with I think a key characteristic of a Tech Lead is a breadth of experience. The more projects, situations, languages, products and managers a Tech Lead has had, the more likely they are to be good at what they do.

Tech Leads need to be calm and rational people. For any number of reasons projects can get crazy; people shout and threaten and cajole when things aren't going as planned. A good Tech Lead knows that nothing goes as planned and can calmly address issues knowing that most problems are solvable as long as you don't lose your head.

Tech Leads make lots of choices throughout the course of a project. Some have little or no consequences, some have major repercussions. A good Tech Lead knows the difference between these kinds of choices and therefore how much effort to invest in making them. In all cases, a Tech Lead should make those choices with confidence. Where they cannot make those choices confidently a good Tech Lead is open to suggestion and experimentation. In any case the Tech Lead understands the risks and costs associated with making a choice and can weigh the decision appropriately.

Tech Leads need to remain focused. It is important to have good technical depth and breadth, but it is also important to understand when you are out of your depth and have the humility to ask others for help. A Tech Lead should always be willing to delegate to others in order to remain focused on the primary goal of the project: delivering value to the business.

In order to remain focused it is important for a Tech Lead to be passionate. Not just about the objective of a project, but about the technology itself. A Tech Lead should strive for technical excellence in the solution. It isn't just about doing the Right Thing(tm) but also about doing it well.

In order to make this work a Tech Lead needs to have the right disposition. A Tech Lead needs to be simultaneously likable and aloof. Take a hard line on issues that are critical to success while remaining pliable on everything else. Logical and rational without becoming cold and unapproachable. A good Tech Lead should push a team to exceed its own expectations in the quality of their work without breaking their spirit at the same time.

A good Tech Lead should be the team's staunchest defender and biggest cheerleader; A mentor, guide, and leader who approaches every situation with calm rationality and a minimum of ego.