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Being a "tech lead" at Google is nothing like commanding a spaceship. It's more like being partially responsible for a team of 3-5 mid-20s engineers building th

Being a "tech lead" at Google is nothing like commanding a spaceship. It's more like being partially responsible for a team of 3-5 mid-20s engineers building the dashboard and reporting for space shuttle wind tunnel test results (or whatever they do with space shuttles). Personally, I was a tech lead at Google pretty consistently from the ages of 26-35. I got better at it, and responsible for more, over time. It was a good learning experience for me and even when I was inexperienced at it, I was saving someone else some time.

wincy 4y ago
Any advice for someone who just started as a tech lead at a new company? One of the devs interviewed for the spot but didn’t get it and is ten years older than me. It’s mostly younger Junior devs but I want to do a good job. Oh and it’s remote right now. My plan so far is to take every engineer who is local out to lunch individually to get to know them, and encourage them to use the yearly education/convention stipend to get us all at a convention together later this year.
- suzzer99 4y ago
  The main leap imo is you need to think about the project as a whole, not just your piece. You need to "see around corners" to identify anything (even if it's not technically under your purview) that could block the project, then raise the biggest stink necessary to fix it before it becomes a problem. Some lead devs do this naturally, some never seem to be able to. Do not let your first project with a new company fail. You won't recover from that, even if it's not your fault in any way. Succeed and you will become known as a person who gets things done. Also be a mentor to the other devs. But I assume you're already doing that if they hired you as a lead and based on your ideas.
- endtime 4y ago
  I always did weekly 1:1s with everyone I was TLing, even when we were all in the office together 5 days a week. I never felt it was a waste of time. I'd let them set the agenda, and if they didn't have anything on their minds (rare), we'd just chat about whatever was going on in the broader team, their lives, whatever. Figuring out people's strengths, interests, and where they need to grow is key. You want to give people projects that are going to help them grow by pushing them a little bit out of their comfort zone, but not too much, because you also want them to succeed. Someone on the team needs to work on presentation skills? Giving a presentation to 10 people is a good opportunity to learn from mistakes. But if the audience is 100, maybe don't set them up for that kind of failure. Someone wants to grow into a TL role? Encourage them to host an intern. Etc. You also need to understand people's career goals. You might be an (in Google terms) L5 TL with two other L5s on the team and a couple L3-4s. Who wants to get promoted on which timeline? Should the high-impact, interesting L5 project go to the L4 who wants to get promoted, or to the L5 who doesn't care about getting promoted but just wants the most interesting project? A lot of that sounds like manager stuff, I know. When you're a TL, your manager is your partner as well as your boss, because the two of you are working together to keep the team happy, productive, and successful. And you'll both have information and perspective the other doesn't. Google has a great viral slide deck about how to take credit for things as a TL. It works better visually but I'll try anyway. Basically, if the project is to deliver a big square, the TL's job is to cut differently shaped pieces out for teammates to do based on their skill, interest, what will be a good growth challenge for them, etc. Then, as a TL, you do whatever scraps are left over (imagine cutting a big circle, a rectangle, and a smaller square out of a square). So the IC work you do might seem like weird odds and ends, but if you get the whole thing done and everyone on the team was happy and productive, you succeeded as a TL.

wincy 4y ago

Any advice for someone who just started as a tech lead at a new company? One of the devs interviewed for the spot but didn’t get it and is ten years older than me. It’s mostly younger Junior devs but I want to do a good job. Oh and it’s remote right now. My plan so far is to take every engineer who is local out to lunch individually to get to know them, and encourage them to use the yearly education/convention stipend to get us all at a convention together later this year.

suzzer99 4y ago
The main leap imo is you need to think about the project as a whole, not just your piece. You need to "see around corners" to identify anything (even if it's not technically under your purview) that could block the project, then raise the biggest stink necessary to fix it before it becomes a problem. Some lead devs do this naturally, some never seem to be able to. Do not let your first project with a new company fail. You won't recover from that, even if it's not your fault in any way. Succeed and you will become known as a person who gets things done. Also be a mentor to the other devs. But I assume you're already doing that if they hired you as a lead and based on your ideas.
endtime 4y ago
I always did weekly 1:1s with everyone I was TLing, even when we were all in the office together 5 days a week. I never felt it was a waste of time. I'd let them set the agenda, and if they didn't have anything on their minds (rare), we'd just chat about whatever was going on in the broader team, their lives, whatever. Figuring out people's strengths, interests, and where they need to grow is key. You want to give people projects that are going to help them grow by pushing them a little bit out of their comfort zone, but not too much, because you also want them to succeed. Someone on the team needs to work on presentation skills? Giving a presentation to 10 people is a good opportunity to learn from mistakes. But if the audience is 100, maybe don't set them up for that kind of failure. Someone wants to grow into a TL role? Encourage them to host an intern. Etc. You also need to understand people's career goals. You might be an (in Google terms) L5 TL with two other L5s on the team and a couple L3-4s. Who wants to get promoted on which timeline? Should the high-impact, interesting L5 project go to the L4 who wants to get promoted, or to the L5 who doesn't care about getting promoted but just wants the most interesting project? A lot of that sounds like manager stuff, I know. When you're a TL, your manager is your partner as well as your boss, because the two of you are working together to keep the team happy, productive, and successful. And you'll both have information and perspective the other doesn't. Google has a great viral slide deck about how to take credit for things as a TL. It works better visually but I'll try anyway. Basically, if the project is to deliver a big square, the TL's job is to cut differently shaped pieces out for teammates to do based on their skill, interest, what will be a good growth challenge for them, etc. Then, as a TL, you do whatever scraps are left over (imagine cutting a big circle, a rectangle, and a smaller square out of a square). So the IC work you do might seem like weird odds and ends, but if you get the whole thing done and everyone on the team was happy and productive, you succeeded as a TL.