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I got promoted to tech lead. Now what? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Now have direct reports under me. No idea wtf I'm doing, I guess I did a good job? Any advice you have for me?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You need to understand very soon that you can no longer have projects assigned to you. Everything your management asks you to do is actually something that they want you to ensure gets finished- you are not supposed to do it yourself. Delegate, follow up, and guide someone else to do it.

The moment you take a project on by yourself, you’ve become a huge bottleneck for your entire team’s productivity. Your team needs your guidance and help, and you can’t offer that if you’re designing, coding, and debugging a project on your own.

98% of coding for you should be paired programming from here on out, where you are not the developer at the keyboard. You are providing suggestions and guidance so that experience can transfer to your junior team members.

Edit: You are not just a “tech lead,” you are a manager if you have direct reports.