The highs and lows of the tech lead role. What can you achieve and learn?

Who is the tech lead?

The role of tech lead at Boldare is strongly connected to the product team. It is natural, therefore, that tech leads here are people who are eminently committed to the development, life, and performance of the team, and who are not afraid of being responsible for various areas of the team’s work.

What does a tech lead do?

If we were to encapsulate the wide range of tech lead responsibilities in a nutshell, we would say that the main duty of this role is to take care of standards. This includes both formulating them and adhering to them within the team and in the provision of all services to the client. The tech lead is a person who obtains such standards from the client, updates them, monitors them, develops new ones, and ensures that the entire product team understands and adheres to them.

Establishing documentation bases for code, diagrams, and architectures — this is all part of the day-to-day duties of a person in this position. The tech lead develops technological tactics for delivering value to the customer and ensures the embedding of team members in the business. They design all of this based on the client’s learned technology needs and expectations.

The tech lead also observes team members and, together with the Scrum master, reacts when tough situations arise (for example, if the team’s performance drops). The tech lead works quite closely with the Scrum master on a daily basis, but is not as close to the human aspects as they are. The tech lead is also responsible for introducing new members to the team.

Apart from these responsibilities, the tech lead is a kind of mentor for the team, passing on their knowledge to team members and teaching them how important documentation is to the product. So, what are the values developed in this broad and responsible role? Read on to learn more!

Value #1 Strategic thinking

Working as a tech lead can be compared to playing chess. At every step, they make decisions that affect the functionality and shape of the product. Even a seemingly insignificant move can cause an avalanche of consequences. The main task of the tech lead is to point out to the team the right solution, tailored to the circumstances. Experience and many years of practice allow this person to make significant and difficult decisions about building and developing a product — such as choice of architecture, programming language or database. The tech lead works closely with the delivery lead and co-creates the delivery plan for the client. They know when to bet on budget solutions and faster implementation, but still be efficient and deliver exactly what the customer needs in a given time. They also know when to focus on scaling and solutions that require more time to implement. This requires highly developed strategic thinking skills — which are probably impossible to learn better in any other role.

Value #2 Communications

In this role, one can develop communication skills and learn to manage the team well. The tech lead has a significant influence on the composition of the team, as they co-determine its composition and seniority. What is more, they work closely with each of its members on a daily basis. As product team members become tech leads at Boldare, it can certainly be a challenge to transition from the role of teammate to leader. Tech leads at Boldare are careful to show that their goal is not to limit or control experts in their areas in any way, but to support the entire team in making difficult decisions — ones that often no one wants to shoulder. Besides decision-making, the tech lead, with the support of the Scrum master, makes sure that communication within the teamis constantly evolving. It happens through regular, honest feedback, which can be both positive and negative, but is always constructive and motivating. Teaching people to give feedback and motivating them to have constant direct contact with the customer benefits not only the team members, but also the tech lead — building their interpersonal skills. The benefit ultimately accrues to the client as well. The product owner, in effect, gains from the visibility of all team members, who directly come to him with ideas and transparently present possible solution paths.

Value #3 Business orientation

In the role of tech lead, consistent and transparent communication with the client is the daily bread. Honesty in these interactions and putting the customer first help develop partnerships and are the way to gain valuable trust. Direct communication takes place on Slack, in phone calls, and in regular online meetings. Whenever the opportunity arises, teams also organize face-to-face meetings with customers in various locations around the world. Once a month, the tech lead, Scrum master, and delivery lead from Boldare meet for an operational meeting with the product owner on the client side. All operational, technical, and team issues are discussed there.

The multitude of channels and situations in which the tech lead directly communicates with the client develop business skills and business orientation in technical work. The tech lead doesn’t just make sure they know in detail the standards the client requires. They go a step further, talking to software developers on the client side and making sure that these standards are implemented on both sides of the business relationship — both for the Boldare team and for the client. Business thinking is part and parcel of daily work. Customer expectations often change. With new or changed functionality, the tech lead discusses with the product owner each time the rationale and implementation of new solutions, then optimizes the team’s backlog to meet the customer’s requirements within the specified time and budget.

Value #4 Decision-making

Making tough decisions and arguing solutions wisely — these are the challenges that the tech lead’s career path travels. The idea of building and implementing a solution is not enough. To make the client feel secure with it, a detailed analysis and explanation of the workflow is necessary. The right communication in this case is always transparent, supported by data, clear presentation, and logical arguments. The customer at each stage of building a solution should know what the advantages and disadvantages of the adopted course of action are. It is the duty of the tech lead to communicate and present a concrete delivery plan to the client, along with a discussion of any risks. Sometimes the tech lead has to admit to a bad decision. However, it is important that the partner knows all the risks from the beginning of the cooperation and knows what the decision entails and how to act in case of possible failure. Transparency and logical thinking are the means to build a sense of security in the customer.

So… How to start?

Stepping onto the tech lead path certainly requires going beyond your daily work. Do you aspire to this role? Look around and see what’s going on around the product. Does the customer have everything they need? Maybe the backlog of work requires a refresh? Or perhaps code coverage is very low, and it’s high time to plan a strategy to increase the number of tests in the application? There are many possibilities, but what should really drive you is attentiveness to the environment, openness to change, and an aptitude for leadership. A mindful attitude and leadership skills are the most important qualities for people in this position.

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