How you can build your way to Tech Lead (Part 1)

Ascending to the role of a tech lead is a dream for almost every developer out there. It's a position that joins technical expertise with leadership qualities, guiding projects to success while mentoring a team of developers. Being a tech lead is one of the most difficult, rewarding and admired roles that you can have in your career. If you're aiming to build your way up to this position and if you’re up for the challenge, here are my steps and strategies to help you pave your path effectively.

In this first issue of a three-part series, we’ll explore the two most important areas of building your way to a tech lead.

Let’s dive in.

Understand the Role

Before you set out on this journey, it’s crucial to understand what being a tech lead entails.

Tech leads require several crucial skills. The “tech” part of the role speaks to your technical knowledge, your skillset and your ability to build systems. The “lead” part, for me, refers to your responsibilities outside of the technical aspects. Your ability to plan, strategize, communicate, coach, mentor and guide are all aspects of a great tech lead.

With this in mind, we can now begin to plan our steps towards becoming a tech lead.

Strengthen Your Technical Foundation

A tech lead must have a solid grasp of technical concepts and stay updated with the latest trends and technologies. That’s a non-negotiable.

I’m not saying that every tech lead has to be the best at everything (though it would help), but I’m rather saying that a tech lead needs to have a very strong understanding of all the technical aspects that a project is going to require. They’ll need to field questions from clients around why certain choices were made as well as guide the team to write better, more efficient code. This wouldn’t be possible without putting in the time to really consolidate your foundation.

Beyond just the stack that you’ll use on your project, a good tech lead understands various other stacks as well as their pros and cons. The reason for this is because you’ll often have to justify certain decisions. You can’t justify why one stack is better than another without the proper knowledge to be able to provide the reasons.

The best tech leads ensure that their technical knowledge, across the board, is as strong as possible.

Develop Leadership Skills

The sooner you start working on your leadership skills the better. It’s a crucial part of being a tech lead, but will also make you a better developer and team member for all the phases of your career before you reach tech lead.

For me, the most important skill is communication. Being able to communicate clearly and concisely with your team, clients and stakeholders is an invaluable skill.

Conflict resolution is another great skill, both for yourself and for others. Being able to identify when you’re in a conflict situation and then to find a resolution is incredibly valuable. Take this further by being able to navigate through conflict amongst others or with clients and you’ve set yourself up as a great leader.

My final piece of leadership skill that you should focus on is mentorship. Coaching other developers, sharing your knowledge and providing feedback is one of the most powerful yet rewarding things that you can do.

Becoming a tech lead is a journey that requires a blend of technical prowess, leadership skills, innovation and continuous learning. By understanding the role and strengthening your technical and leadership skills, you’re setting yourself up for success as a tech lead.

Next week, we’ll explore how to find the right opportunities to be a tech lead and what to do once you are one.

See you again next week.

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