TechnicalPeople Management

Can you explain the steps you would take to develop a tech lead and how would you approach it?

Engineering Manager

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Expert Answer

Anonymous

4.2Exceptional
I had a senior engineer who was technically very strong and showed interest in becoming a tech lead. The team was in need of a tech lead so I wanted to grow this senior engineer into a tech lead. 
A Tech Lead is more than just being technically strong. I first made sure the senior engineer is aware of what it means to be a tech lead for the team. Their technical responsibilities and how they will need to start working with XFN partners that are also non engineers when needed. Where this senior engineer was lacking to become a good tech lead was in communicating with non-eng XFN partners. The senior engineer was used to speaking with engineers who would understand their language. I started including the senior engineer into meetings and motivated him to run some meetings and discussion topics to get better a communication. After a few months, this senior engineer grew into a level where they were able to do a presentation in front of non-eng very effectively. After seeing the engineer can be an effective tech lead, I officially made him our tech lead but some of our stakeholders already thought he was the tech lead!

Anonymous

3.6Strong
At xyz, I would look out for people who would make the maximum impact - impact is not just shipping high quality code but also elevating others to higher standards. Would this person step in and help others fix the issues. For e.g. one of my directs - not only got up to speed on ELK and Kafka - she went above and beyond - setting up standards and creating a library so other teams can easily adopt to thier project. She become a SME and the impact was that she had on other teams was 10-15% increased velocity. 
My job was to enable this person to be in the front to help solve their issues all along making impact on the projects she was responsible. This paved way to be promoted to Tech Lead - which is what she aspired.

  • Can you describe your approach to mentoring and developing a tech lead within your organization?
  • Can you explain the steps you would take to develop a tech lead and how would you approach it?
  • What steps do you typically take to identify individuals with leadership potential within your team?
  • How do you create opportunities for tech leads to gain experience and take on additional responsibilities within your organization?
  • Can you discuss a specific instance where you successfully developed a tech lead into a strong and effective leader?
  • How do you provide constructive feedback to tech leads in order to help them improve and grow in their role?
  • What strategies do you find to be effective for fostering collaboration and communication between tech leads and other members of your team?
  • Can you discuss a time when you had to address a performance issue with a tech lead and how did you handle the situation?
  • How do you create an environment that supports the professional growth and development of tech leads within your organization?
  • Can you describe your approach to training and onboarding new tech leads within your team?
  • How do you ensure that tech leads have the necessary resources and support to succeed in their role?
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Interview question asked to Engineering Managers interviewing at The Muse, Squarespace, Amgen and others: Can you explain the steps you would take to develop a tech lead and how would you approach it?.