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Tech companies need tech leads not managers, or managers with a solid technical background. Otherwise it ends up in a mediocre show of power and power games suc

Tech companies need tech leads not managers, or managers with a solid technical background. Otherwise it ends up in a mediocre show of power and power games such as those described by the author. Sitting on your bottom and holding meetings all day long and discussing processes for the sake of processes has no place in tech. Tech companies need to understand that.

swiftcoder 3y ago
You can't be an effective tech lead in most (large) companies without at least passable ability to manage all of your dev team, your counterparts in product, and your management chain in general. As a result, a lot of tech leads are engineer->management conversions who just haven't made the leap yet.
- gumballindie 3y ago
  > As a result, a lot of tech leads are engineer->management conversions who just haven't made the leap yet. And thats how it should be - folks with a technical background doing the management of technical people and work. How can you even manage that which you dont understand? Ticking boxes and measuring output is not management, that can be delegated to a script and graph charts. To manage the delivery of a technical project you need to understand the technology behind it - in an equal amount to how well you understand communicating with business stakeholders and balancing business and tech needs. And no, taking a udemy course in programming python doesnt mean you have tech experience, equally taking a udemy course in agile doesnt make you a manager.
  - jt2190 3y ago
    > How can you even manage that which you dont understand? Unless you’re an expert at literally everything, there is something in your life that you have to manage that you have no expertise in. The typical way these things are managed is through measuring outcomes rather than focusing on how the work is performed. Tools include setting goals and milestones, auditing, cost bidding, reputation, etc.
    - philwelch 3y ago
      The best managers are the ones who do develop expertise in everything they have to manage. For example, the US Navy requires anyone commanding a nuclear-powered ship to be trained as nuclear engineers.
      - jt2190 3y ago
        Even on a nuclear submarine, there is a ton of stuff that isn’t “the reactor and propulsion system”, and there are a lot of activities that must be managed, starting with extremely basic things like “Do we have sufficient food and water?”
        philwelch 3y ago
        Yes, and that's expected to be something that's fully understood by any naval commander. My point is that, contrary to the MBA mentality of expecting managers to be intellectual mediocrities and never expecting them to gain expertise in anything hard or technical, the Navy actually does require hard technical expertise from commanding officers. Nuclear reactors are a lot more complicated than being able to count how much food and fresh water you have. This nonsense about "measuring outcomes rather than focusing on how the work is performed" is cope for incompetent leadership.
        deleted 3y ago
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        jt2190 3y ago
        > This nonsense about "measuring outcomes rather than focusing on how the work is performed" is cope for incompetent leadership. So your assertion is that every leader who is not expert in literally every function performed in their organization is “incompetent”. And measuring outcomes is “cope”. So, say, if I need to consult a physician I’m incompetent because I should be an expert at managing my health. If I feel better after visiting a physician that’s “cope”. This seems unnecessarily limiting. There are so many things I’m not an expert in yet I’m responsible for. I can’t just resign from having my house repaired because I’m “incompetent”.
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swiftcoder 3y ago

You can't be an effective tech lead in most (large) companies without at least passable ability to manage all of your dev team, your counterparts in product, and your management chain in general. As a result, a lot of tech leads are engineer->management conversions who just haven't made the leap yet.

gumballindie 3y ago
> As a result, a lot of tech leads are engineer->management conversions who just haven't made the leap yet. And thats how it should be - folks with a technical background doing the management of technical people and work. How can you even manage that which you dont understand? Ticking boxes and measuring output is not management, that can be delegated to a script and graph charts. To manage the delivery of a technical project you need to understand the technology behind it - in an equal amount to how well you understand communicating with business stakeholders and balancing business and tech needs. And no, taking a udemy course in programming python doesnt mean you have tech experience, equally taking a udemy course in agile doesnt make you a manager.
- jt2190 3y ago
  > How can you even manage that which you dont understand? Unless you’re an expert at literally everything, there is something in your life that you have to manage that you have no expertise in. The typical way these things are managed is through measuring outcomes rather than focusing on how the work is performed. Tools include setting goals and milestones, auditing, cost bidding, reputation, etc.
  - philwelch 3y ago
    The best managers are the ones who do develop expertise in everything they have to manage. For example, the US Navy requires anyone commanding a nuclear-powered ship to be trained as nuclear engineers.
    - jt2190 3y ago
      Even on a nuclear submarine, there is a ton of stuff that isn’t “the reactor and propulsion system”, and there are a lot of activities that must be managed, starting with extremely basic things like “Do we have sufficient food and water?”
      - philwelch 3y ago
        Yes, and that's expected to be something that's fully understood by any naval commander. My point is that, contrary to the MBA mentality of expecting managers to be intellectual mediocrities and never expecting them to gain expertise in anything hard or technical, the Navy actually does require hard technical expertise from commanding officers. Nuclear reactors are a lot more complicated than being able to count how much food and fresh water you have. This nonsense about "measuring outcomes rather than focusing on how the work is performed" is cope for incompetent leadership.
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        jt2190 3y ago
        > This nonsense about "measuring outcomes rather than focusing on how the work is performed" is cope for incompetent leadership. So your assertion is that every leader who is not expert in literally every function performed in their organization is “incompetent”. And measuring outcomes is “cope”. So, say, if I need to consult a physician I’m incompetent because I should be an expert at managing my health. If I feel better after visiting a physician that’s “cope”. This seems unnecessarily limiting. There are so many things I’m not an expert in yet I’m responsible for. I can’t just resign from having my house repaired because I’m “incompetent”.

deleted 3y ago

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