Notes on being a technical lead — people, delivery, and architecture.
Technical
- Architecture, microservices, software patterns
- Cross-functional requirements (reliability, resilience, security, observability)
- Trade-off decisions, Architectural Decision Records
- See Microservices, System Design
Delivery
- Estimation — t-shirt sizes, story points, tickets
- OKRs and roadmaps
- Deadlines — communicate the why, the business value, and the challenge
- Track outcomes, not just output — see DORA or Four Key Metrics
People
- One-to-ones
- Autonomy, purpose, mastery (Dan Pink)
- Build up low performers — clarity, support, pairing
- Praise publicly, give feedback privately