The logical career progression for many software engineers or UX designers is to work their way up to the team lead, sometimes followed by a manager role. Think of a team lead like management light. Some of the responsibilities without the title, pay, or HR headaches.
Since new team leads are often new to official leadership positions it’s common for people in these roles to succumb to comment pitfalls like focusing too much on doing the work they did previously instead of focusing on mentorship and support. Or focusing too much on their definition of right that easily leads to micromanaging their team.
This week, Derek and Jeremy chat with Adobe Sr Software Engineer and author, Tyler Hawkins about some lessons he’s learned as a technical lead, how to avoid micromanaging, and some common dysfunctions of software teams.
Topics:
• 05:41 – Tech lead is like management without the baggage
• 08:42 – The value of a tech lead is their experience
• 09:49 – What makes a good tech lead?
• 11:03 – Time management is a huge struggle for new tech leads
• 12:06 – Maker’s schedule vs Manager’s schedule
• 14:00 – What makes a bad tech lead?
• 18:23 – Don’t fall into the micromanagement trap
• 20:36 – Signs you’re micromanaging
• 22:31 – Overcoming the micromanager tendency
• 26:55 – 5 dysfunctions of a team
• 31:05 – How might we reverse this dysfunction?
Helpful Links:
• tylerhawkins.info
• The Five Dysfunctions of an Engineering Team
• Why We Micromanage
• Lessons From a Tech Lead: Roles, Responsibilities, and Words of Advice
• medium.com/@thawkin3
• dev.to/thawkin3
• Connect with Tyler on LinkeIn
• Follow Tyler on Twitter
• Developer Growth Summit 2022
About Tyler
Tyler is a senior software engineer at Adobe with a passion for learning, building, creating, and teaching. His main areas of expertise are JavaScript, React, HTML, and CSS. He’s passionate about web accessibility, testing, and building healthy engineering cultures.
Tyler has written over 80 articles with over one million views on Medium, Dev.to, Hacker Noon, DZone, and freeCodeCamp. He frequently presents in company-wide engineering training and conferences at Adobe. Teaching, presenting, and mentoring are things that he enjoys.
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Episode thumbnail by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
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