From Developer to Tech Lead: What Really Changes

You're a good developer. Maybe one of the best on the team. Now the question arises: Become a Tech Lead? This guide shows you what to expect – without sugar-coating.

What Is a Tech Lead Actually?

Understanding the Role

A Tech Lead is NOT:

• A Senior Developer with a title
• The best coder on the team
• A manager in disguise

A Tech Lead IS:

• Technical decision-maker
• Multiplier for the team
• Bridge between business and engineering
• Coach for other developers

The Ratio: Coding vs. Leading

The uncomfortable truth: The bigger your team, the less you code.

The 5 Main Responsibilities of a Tech Lead

1. Making Technical Decisions

What this means:

• Architecture decisions
• Technology selection
• Weighing trade-offs
• Setting long-term direction

Typical decisions:

• Microservices vs. Monolith
• Build vs. Buy
• Which framework
• When to refactor, when to rebuild

The difference from Senior Dev: As a Senior, you give recommendations. As a Lead, you bear responsibility for the decision – and its consequences.

2. Ensuring Code Quality

What this means:

• Code reviews (or: establishing review culture)
• Defining standards
• Managing technical debt
• Testing strategy

Practically:

• Create review checklist
• Encourage pair programming
• Maintain architecture documentation
• Keep tech debt backlog

Important: You don't have to review every PR. You need to ensure THAT reviews happen and are high quality.

3. Maximizing Team Productivity

What this means:

• Removing blockers
• Optimizing processes
• Providing tools and infrastructure
• Protecting focus time

Typical blockers:

• Unclear requirements
• Missing access
• Technical debt
• Meeting overload

Your job: Remove these blockers BEFORE they slow down the team.

4. Communicating Technical Vision

What this means:

• Why are we building it THIS way?
• Where is the architecture heading?
• How does this fit the overall strategy?

Who to communicate with:

• Team: Context for decisions
• Product: Explain technical constraints
• Stakeholders: Risks and trade-offs

Skill: Being able to explain complex things simply – for different audiences.

5. Developing Talent

What this means:

• Mentoring
• Enabling growth
• Fostering strengths
• Giving feedback

Practically:

• 1:1s with team members
• Assigning stretch assignments
• Sharing knowledge (brown bags, docs)
• Leaving room for mistakes

The Biggest Mistakes of New Tech Leads

Mistake 1: Wanting to Do Everything Yourself

The problem: You see a bug. You could fix it in 5 minutes. So you do it yourself.

Why it hurts:

• You don't scale
• Team doesn't learn
• You burn out

The solution: Learn to delegate. Yes, it takes longer. Yes, it's sometimes frustrating. But it's the only way to scale a team.

The 70% rule: If someone else can do the task 70% as well as you, delegate.

Mistake 2: Not Coding Anymore

The problem: You're so busy with meetings that you don't know the code anymore.

Why it hurts:

• You lose technical credibility
• You make uninformed decisions
• You can't mentor anymore

The solution: Block "Coding Time" in your calendar. 2-3 focused hours per day, non-negotiable.

What to code:

• Prototypes for new features
• Critical infrastructure
• Code reviews
• Technical spikes

Mistake 3: Micromanagement

The problem: You review every commit, are in every discussion, give feedback on every detail.

Why it hurts:

• Team doesn't feel trusted
• Decisions pile up at you
• You become the bottleneck

The solution: Define outcomes, leave the path open. "The goal is X. How you get there, you decide."

Mistake 4: Avoiding Conflicts

The problem: Two team members disagree. You hope it resolves itself.

Why it hurts:

• Conflicts escalate
• Passive aggression
• Productivity drops

The solution: Address conflicts early. Don't judge, moderate. Find solutions together.

Mistake 5: Ignoring Stakeholders

The problem: You focus on the team and forget Product, Management, other teams.

Why it hurts:

• Surprising requirements
• Lack of understanding for tech work
• Resource conflicts

The solution: Regular sync meetings. Communicate proactively. Transparency about status and risks.

The Skills You Need to Develop

Technical Skills (Still Important)

• Architecture thinking: System design, not just code
• Breadth over depth: Overview of many technologies
• Technical communication: RFCs, ADRs, documentation

Soft Skills (Now Critical)

Communication:

• Listening (really listening)
• Giving feedback (constructive, concrete)
• Presenting (for different audiences)
• Writing (clarity, structure)

Leadership:

• Delegating
• Building trust
• Making decisions (even with incomplete info)
• Taking responsibility

Empathy:

• Changing perspective
• Understanding motivation
• Recognizing frustrations
• Considering individual needs

The Transition: The First 90 Days

Days 1-30: Observe and Understand

Goals:

• Get to know the team
• Understand processes
• Identify quick wins
• Build trust

Activities:

• 1:1s with all team members
• Work through the codebase
• Read architecture documentation (or realize none exists)
• Meet stakeholders

Don't do:

• Announce big changes
• "At my old job we did..."
• Want to rebuild everything immediately

Days 31-60: First Improvements

Goals:

• Remove first blockers
• Optimize processes
• Visible improvements

Activities:

• Solve one concrete problem
• Improve review process
• Start technical documentation
• Establish team rituals

Days 61-90: Long-term Direction

Goals:

• Develop technical vision
• Roadmap for technical improvements
• Plan team development

Activities:

• Tech strategy document
• Document architecture decisions
• Individual development plans
• Regular retros

Tools and Frameworks

For Architecture Decisions

Architecture Decision Records (ADRs):

# ADR-001: Using PostgreSQL as Primary Database

## Status
Accepted

## Context
We need a relational database for transaction data.

## Decision
We will use PostgreSQL.

## Consequences
+ Open source, no license costs
+ Team experience available
- No managed service in current stack

For 1:1s

Structure:

1. Check-in (5 min)
2. Their topics (15 min)
3. Your topics (10 min)
4. Career/development (10 min)
5. Action items (5 min)

Questions:

• "What's blocking you right now?"
• "What are you proud of?"
• "What would you change if you could?"
• "How can I help you better?"

For Prioritization

RICE Framework:

• Reach: How many users affected?
• Impact: How strong is the effect?
• Confidence: How sure are we?
• Effort: How complex?

Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Is Tech Lead Right for You?

Signs it fits:

• You enjoy helping others improve
• You think in systems, not just code
• You can explain complex things simply
• You like making decisions
• You can handle ambiguity

Signs it doesn't fit:

• You prefer coding undisturbed for 8 hours
• Meetings fundamentally frustrate you
• You don't want responsibility for others
• Politics and stakeholder management annoy you
• You define yourself by code output

The Alternative: Staff Engineer

Not everyone has to become a Lead. The Individual Contributor path:

• Senior → Staff → Principal → Distinguished Engineer
• More technical depth, less people management
• Influence through expertise, not hierarchy

Conclusion

Becoming a Tech Lead is a career change, not just a promotion. You trade part of your coding time for leadership tasks.

The reward: Greater impact. You scale through others. You shape not just code, but teams and cultures.

The challenge: New skills, new mistakes, new frustrations. Being the best coder isn't enough anymore.

If that sounds like it could fit you – try it. If not – that's completely okay. The world also needs excellent Individual Contributors.

Facing technical decisions like Build vs. Buy? Our Build vs. Buy Framework helps with systematic decision-making. For team collaboration: Mob Programming and Reverse Mentoring.