How To Be An Effective Tech Lead
Быть хорошим техлидом невероятно сложно. Многие техлиды просто спрашивают каждую неделю: «Готово ли?», но настоящий техлид должен приносить пользу команде инженеров и при этом эффективно справляться со своими задачами.
Если вы заработали доверие своей команды и получили роль техлида, важно воспринимать эту ответственность серьёзно, потому что, если этого не сделать, люди начнут сталкиваться с трудностями.
Этот курс поможет вам:
В отличие от менеджера, у техлида нет формальной власти, но при этом нужно оказывать не меньшее (а иногда и большее) влияние на инженерные решения. Этот курс поможет вам стать настоящим лидером, даже если вы не являетесь начальником.
Это пробный урок. Оформите подписку, чтобы получить доступ ко всем материалам курса. Премиум
Джоселин - выдающийся технологический лидер с глубоким опытом в разработке продуктов, инженерии и управлении. Она является соосновательницей и техническим директором стартапа Cooby, который поддерживается фондами Peak XV и Pear VC. Джоселин сыграла ключевую роль в создании продукта и инженерных команд, развивая культуру инноваций и роста. До этого она работала в Facebook и Instagram, где занимала технические руководящие должности. Её интересы вкл
- Selfishness
- Trying to do everything themselves
- Good tech lead
- lead a team
- build reliable product
- owner of the technology
- be responsible for everything
## Mastering the technology
---
- Go deep, not broad
- Example: Build Backend API expert
- become the go-to person
- focus on deep mastery rather than broad knowledge
- Think High-Level, Plan Long-Term
- example - when a glitch in app lead to changing a feature which increased the revenue
- focus on overarching goals and objectives, rather than getting lost in minutiae:
- Minutiae - this is how we should name the new video APIs
- Goals - over the next year, we need to extend the video player in the following ways to build these mission-critical features
- understand who you depends on and who depends on you
- Be the code guardian
- protect and enhance codebase
- refactoring legacy code
- make code guidelines
- review LOTS of code, as much as possible (quality assurance)
- better scalability
- stay up to date
- prioritize early PRs
- influence the team
- System design discussions
- be involved and helpful
- get involved in the early design to be influential on the whole outcome
- always be helpful - THIS IS NOT EASY!!!
- do not participate just for the sake of participation
- deeply understand before talking
- build relationships with sub-leads
- ML lead
- Backend lead
- Android Lead
- Frontend Lead
- etc
- Tips: How to be helpful in tech review
- throughly read the teach spec beforehand
- participate in async doc discussions
- ask clarifying questions in the meeting
- listen very intently (never zone out!)
- Foster technical innovation
## Effective Leadership
---
- It’s all about the team
- be the leader of the tech team who ‘conducts the orchestra’
- your team’s success is your success
- be an excellent communicator
- Bad tech “lead”
- Good tech lead
- how to be an excellent communicator
- have empathy
- let people know you care
- be a leader, not a boss
- communicate clearly
- always be writing
- paper trails are crucial for alignment
- overcommunicate
- overcommunication never really happens
- Don’t be shy. Speak up
- set the direction
- how to set the direction?
- maintain a clear vision for the project
- everyone should be able to envision the ideal end state before a single line of code is written
- empower your team to deliver cohesive outcomes
- timeline
- what is due when?
- division of labor
- who is responsible for each of the What’s?
- Foster Trust
- Why is fostering trust crucial?
- Enhance work efficiency
- less time wasted on contracts and bureaucracy
- higher motivation
- when people feel trusted, they also feel responsible
- it strengthens bonds within the team
- How do we foster trust?
- be transparent and genuine
- don’t hide your mistakes
- set the example to encourage honesty
- Show appreciation openly and often
- leverage every opportunity to add more positive energy to the team
- Leverage the power of feedback
- Be a feedback sponge
- feedback is a gift
- be open and make it clear that you welcome feedback
- tip: End your 1:1 meetings with a variant of “Do you have any feedback for me?”
- make the ask as specific as possible (e.g. “Any thoughts on how I drove the meeting?”)
- how to give it:
- Tip 1: Praise in public, criticize in private
- Tip 2: Always focus on the issue, not the person
- bad: you always jump to conclusions without thinking
- good: I think your comments in the meeting were premature because you didn’t hear the full explanation”
- Tip 3: List out action items after delivering your feedback
- the goal of feedback is to drive behavioral change
- Example: “try speaking up more in meetings”
- start going to every weekly team meeting
- pre-read meeting docs before going in
- ask at least 1 question per meeting
- Manage expectations
- Expectations are everywhere
- supervisor reports
- PM engineers
- tech lead junior engineers
- feeling frustrated by misunderstandings can lead to tension and conflict within the team
- tips for managing expectations
- regular project status updates
- be honest when things are falling behind
- capture all communications in writing
- Unite the non-engineers (XFN)
- become your product manager’s best friend, find that synergy
- unite all members - PM, Designer, Data Scientist, Data Engineer = TEAM
- Be visible
- claim credit appropriately
- spend significant time on documentation
- being a tech lead means walking that fine line between serving your team and making sure your efforts are recognized
## Key takeaways
Great Tech lead = Tech + Leadership
| Technology | Leadership |
| --- | --- |
| Go deep, not broad | It’s all about the team |
| Think high-level, plan long term | Set the direction |
| Be the code guardian | Forest trust |
| Participate in system design | Leverage the power of feedback |
| Foster technical innovation | Manage Expectation |
| | Unite the non-engineers |
## What to do next?
Tech:
- review 50% of your team’s PRs next week
- Write up code guidelines if your team doesn’t have it
- or make it better you already have one
- Hold a brown bag session discussion about AI this month
Leadership
- ask for feedback from 3 of your team members and list out your action items
- Give people for 3 of your team members, and work on action items with them
- Share written summary to the team after all meetings next week