Chapter 1 · Practice 2 of 4
Measure your success by what the team ships, not what you ship
From Define the role
Why it matters
As an individual contributor, your output was your code. As a tech lead, your output is the team's output. A week where you wrote little code but unblocked three people and settled a design question that had stalled for a month is a good week.
Google's re:Work research on team effectiveness found that how a team works together matters more than who is on it. It lists five dynamics of effective teams:
- Psychological safety: people feel safe taking interpersonal risks.
- Dependability: teammates deliver quality work on time.
- Structure and clarity: goals, roles and plans are clear.
- Meaning: the work matters personally to people.
- Impact: people believe their work makes a difference.
Much of a tech lead's job is building the middle three directly and protecting the first.
Do
- Track team delivery and blockers, not just your commits
Avoid
- Judging your week only by your own lines of code