Why you should do a Tech Lead rotation in your engineering team
It has worked really well for me and my teams and I'll tell you why!
Intro
The best way to level up as an engineer is to start doing the responsibilities of the next level. You learn a lot and at the same time, you contribute more value to the company.
That’s how you develop a great reputation and ultimately, you will also get promoted.
I’ve set up this specific process in my teams which has enabled engineers of all levels to do that. The process is called: The Tech Lead rotation.
It has worked really well for my teams and I'll tell you all the details in this article!
This is an article for paid subscribers, and here is the full index:
- What is a Tech Lead and what do they do?
- What is a Tech Lead rotation?
🔒 How does a Tech Lead rotation work?
🔒 Why should you do a Tech Lead rotation vs having just 1 fixed Tech Lead?
🔒 1. People on the team feel like they are growing
🔒 2. Every project is different and one particular engineer may be better suited to lead a certain project
🔒 3. Knowledge is shared across the team and less chances for bottlenecks
🔒 This has worked really well for me and my teams
🔒 Last words
Resources mentioned in the article:
How to create great technical specifications (paid article)
I am not a fan of heroism in the engineering industry (paid article)
Let’s first start with the overview of the Tech Lead role.
What is a Tech Lead and what do they do?
Before we dive into the specifics of the Tech Lead rotation, it’s really important to understand what exactly a Tech Lead is and what the responsibilities are.
A Tech Lead is someone who is responsible for the technical implementation of the specific project.
They create a technical specification, they collaborate together with a product manager on the planning of the project and they manage expectations of the project with the stakeholders.
Normally, they also estimate the effort that is going to be needed and provide the specific timeline and also what are the specific iterations of deliverables going to be.
The first iteration is normally connected with how can we deliver value to our users in as least amount of time possible and then the second iteration is more nice-to-have features, etc.
I highly recommend taking a look at the MoSCoW method for prioritization. I’ve noted down details in the article below.
You can find more details on how to create a great technical specification here and you’ll also find a 🎁 Notion Template: Technical Specification there.
So, Tech Leads are basically the go-to people for the tech side of the project and they are responsible for ensuring everything goes well.
It’s a totally different role than the role of a Software Engineer → you do a lot less coding and you act as a multiplier for others. Unblocking and helping others to progress and move forward with their tasks is what becomes very important.
You have a lot of unstructured work and you need to transform it into structured work for others.
Now that we know what a Tech Lead is, let’s get into the Tech Lead rotation.
What is a Tech Lead rotation?
It's when we are rotating the person responsible for the technical implementation of a project -> creating the tech spec and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
The Tech Lead takes ownership and responsibility of that project and they are also accountable for the outcomes.
Normally the more difficult and impactful projects are led by engineers who have built great reputations and overall credibility (Senior+).
Other projects are the opportunity for mid+ engineers to try themselves as Tech Leads mentored by a Senior+ Engineer.