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<title>Tech lead: delegate - Thomas Loiret - Random thoughts</title>
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<h1 itemprop="name">Tech lead: delegate</h1>
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Thomas Loiret
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<span class="meta__date" itemprop="datePublished" content="2022-06-01">
<span class="glyphicon glyphicon-calendar"></span> Wed 01 June 2022
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<p><strong>TL;DR:</strong> As a tech lead, don't be on the critical path unless it is for a very short period of time.</p>
<h1>Once upon a time...</h1>
<p>Imagine, your team sprint is ongoing and so far everything is smooth. Expectations are met, developers ship and everyone is happy. Everyone? Well, not exactly. One of the developers starts to be a bit worried, something is off. After some investigations they found that one task will be way more difficult than expected. It can jeopardize the whole sprint. As a tech lead, you start to analyze the issue and determine that you can probably tackle it. After all, you cannot abandon your team in an uncomfortable position. Sure it will take some time, but there is still one week left before the end of the sprint and you can probably move some stuff around to free some time.</p>
<p>Now, jump to the last day of the sprint. You are probably on a rush trying to finish that task, if not overwhelmed by it.</p>
<p>There are two scenarii here:</p>
<ol>
<li>You are happy because you managed to finish the sprint and handle that task, but tired because you had to work way more than usual.</li>
<li>You are disappointed because you did not manage to finish the task.</li>
</ol>
<p>Either way, this is not satisfying, in the first case, you might feel burned out and in the second case it might create some frustrations.</p>
<h1>Being a tech lead</h1>
<p>Quite often a tech lead is a developer who has been promoted to this position because of their seniority and/or experience. We expect from them to participe in some meetings (about architecture, product, etc), helping the team and keeping some free time for random solicitation by other people outside the team.</p>
<p>The schedule is not exactly defined ahead, and that's OK. All the technical problems cannot be planned. However, when one happens it is important to ask yourself one important question: Can someone in the team handle it?</p>
<p>It is tempting as a tech lead to be brave and take a difficult task to "save" the team from that burden. But at that point you switched from being as asset that can be available to the whole team whenever they need it to a developer with a deadline and therefore little to no time for your teammates.</p>
<p>You are putting yourself in a difficult position because you need to deliver some code in addition to your other attributions. In addition, the whole team might suffer from it because you are not as much available as needed and everything goes a bit slower, or worst in the wrong direction.</p>
<h1>What can I do about it?</h1>
<blockquote>
<p>It is important to remember that being a good leader means being good at delegating.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Quote from "The Manager's path" by Camille Fournier)</p>
<p>When a new problem arises, first thing first, communicate. Maybe your PM will tell you that you can avoid it because this is actually not a priority.</p>
<p>If that obstacle is in the critical path, then it is for the team to handle it. They are those who focus on delivering the value. If it is indeed technically complex, as a tech lead you should follow them closely and make sure they are going to right direction. You should not be owner of it as you might be taken at any moment by another matter.</p>
<p>When you delegate this is the occasion to transfer your knowledge to the team and develop their skills. This is also an occasion to <a href="https://jacobian.org/2021/jul/19/give-away-your-toys/">give away your toys</a> if this is something enjoyable to do.</p>
<h1>Notable exception</h1>
<p>If the task is well scoped and can be done in a very limited amount of time (less than a day) you can take it. That should stay occasional.</p>
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