<story><title>Ask HN: How to Be a Good Technical Lead?</title><text>Dear HN,&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;ve been a source of great information before, and I&amp;#x27;m sure I won&amp;#x27;t be disappointed by your advice.&lt;p&gt;I worked as a Software Developer all my career (more than 15 years now), but now I&amp;#x27;m interviewing for a Technical Lead position. I have almost two weeks before the interview.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m interested in resources and advice on how to be a good Tech Lead, regarding both technology and people skills. Of course I&amp;#x27;ve seen and taken note on how other leads work, but still feels like a big step for me.&lt;p&gt;The development environment is Microsoft.NET. The main product is a complex software. The main goal would be to develop it so that it is &amp;quot;loosely&amp;quot; built, split into separate modules so that each one can be modified without touching the others.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>dorfsmay</author><text>- you&amp;#x27;re going to be part of a lot of meetings, email list etc... Make sure you flow information down to your team, every day.&lt;p&gt;- your main job will be to:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    - unblock your tam members

    - bring them back on track
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
- consensus is great, but sometimes it doesn&amp;#x27;t work. Know when you need to make a decision even if not popular.&lt;p&gt;- praise publicly, criticize in private&lt;p&gt;- give people a chance (give warnings)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>curun1r</author><text>Also:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  - Be explicit about your expectations for each of the team members. This is a
    discussion, not a declaration.

  - Give feedback early and often, both constructive and kudos.

  - Your first priority is the productivity of your team, not your individual
    productivity. This means taking the time to help team members that are
    struggling, even at the expense of closing out your own stories on time.

  - Don&amp;#x27;t be afraid to be vulnerable, admit your own failings or tell your team
    that you don&amp;#x27;t know. Allowing your team to see the decision making process
    when you go through it can be very valuable and is much better than just being
    the guy who has an answer to everything. As a plus, showing your own
    vulnerability will lead to your team showing their vulnerability more readily.

  - Even if you&amp;#x27;ve got the answer, sometimes it makes sense to let your team make
    the decision. There are often many right answers. Remember, your job isn&amp;#x27;t to
    choose a right answer, it&amp;#x27;s to ensure that the team doesn&amp;#x27;t choose a wrong
    answer.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How to Be a Good Technical Lead?</title><text>Dear HN,&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;ve been a source of great information before, and I&amp;#x27;m sure I won&amp;#x27;t be disappointed by your advice.&lt;p&gt;I worked as a Software Developer all my career (more than 15 years now), but now I&amp;#x27;m interviewing for a Technical Lead position. I have almost two weeks before the interview.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m interested in resources and advice on how to be a good Tech Lead, regarding both technology and people skills. Of course I&amp;#x27;ve seen and taken note on how other leads work, but still feels like a big step for me.&lt;p&gt;The development environment is Microsoft.NET. The main product is a complex software. The main goal would be to develop it so that it is &amp;quot;loosely&amp;quot; built, split into separate modules so that each one can be modified without touching the others.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>dorfsmay</author><text>- you&amp;#x27;re going to be part of a lot of meetings, email list etc... Make sure you flow information down to your team, every day.&lt;p&gt;- your main job will be to:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    - unblock your tam members

    - bring them back on track
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
- consensus is great, but sometimes it doesn&amp;#x27;t work. Know when you need to make a decision even if not popular.&lt;p&gt;- praise publicly, criticize in private&lt;p&gt;- give people a chance (give warnings)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chetanahuja</author><text>&lt;i&gt;your main job will be to:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;- unblock your tam members&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;- bring them back on track&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ditto. Note that the unblocking&amp;#x2F;course-correcting role is the real job. Depending on the size of the team, you may or may not want to be involved in architecture&amp;#x2F;design of minor projects that crop up all the time (things that might take a week or two to develop). Your team should trust and rely on your advise&amp;#x2F;insight around technical issues. Writing code yourself would be a secondary role though if it&amp;#x27;s a smaller team (2-3) people, you&amp;#x27;d be advised to pull your weight there as well.&lt;p&gt;And yes, that set of responsibilities means that this would be more than a full-time job. You should know that going in. If you&amp;#x27;re more inclined to a strict 40 hour week, you&amp;#x27;d probably better off declining this offer.</text></comment>