“Tech Lead” is a leader of engineers in a team. If there is no team, there is no Tech-Lead.

What is a team?

• Team is a fundamental unit working together towards a defined problem statement.

Who all are part of the team?

• It is a composition of various individuals with skill set needed for the problem, thus making the unit as a whole armed with various powers.
• Different problem statements will require different mix of skill set, typically each skill set being “lead” by a person.

Who are the team leads? Lead dynamics?

• For a team to solve for its objectives, it is critical that all the “leads” for their respective skill sets work together as peers to each other
• Any imbalance or hierarchy in their relative standing in team can lead to skewed result which may hurt the long term survival of the team.
• For instance, too much focus on myopic product decisions can hurt long term engineering output, over optimisation of engineering can lead to minuscule output for end users.
• Team “leads” need to be empathetic and understanding towards other leads, thus collectively making prioritisation decisions.

Signs of a performing team ?

• Proven progress on problem statement
• Steady iteration in direction of problem statement
• Longevity of solutions
• Evolution of problem statement thus allow team evolving into several other problem focused teams.

Signs of under-performing team ?

• Lack of proven output for the problem statement
• Unable to explain how activities are in direction of problem statement
• Class system between leads
• Inability of various skill functions to work with each other
• Inability to grow new team “leads”
• Zero sum behaviour towards other teams

Who is “tech lead” ?

• Tech lead is the leader of the engineering function of a team.
• (S)he is typically reporting manager of the engineers in team.

What all roles a Tech Lead play ?

• Team lead
• Evolutionary Architect
• Engineer