Talking with Tech Leads Quotes

“The Tech Lead brings value by enabling everyone on the team to contribute code as much as possible; by avoiding rewrites due to people working in different ways; by managing technical debt to make it easier to add code, and by promoting relationships between the development group and business colleagues to ensure the code addresses business goals and delivers true value. As a leader, you enable others to do their work; you harmonise and thereby maximise the efforts of the entire group, not just an individual.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads: From Novices to Practitioners

“Fixler rule” (named after one of our directors, Eric Fixler). This rule dictates that you may politely exit when a meeting has ceased to yield value for you.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads

“I totally misunderstood that I had to give the team the freedom to design their work. I should have been acting as a shepherd, looking after them and steering them loosely in the right direction, rather than enforcing all my ideas.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads

“Accept that you are unlikely to remain the best coder on the team, purely because you will be coding less. Focus on what you need to know or learn for the context. You must still demonstrate passion about being technical because you may find yourself learning more in your own time.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads

“I think that the best thing to prepare for this role would have been a degree in psychology, with a focus on body language reading and non-verbal communication, and a solid poker face.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads

“A hard lesson for the Tech Lead is allowing people to fail, allowing them to make mistakes.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads

“When you, the developer, become a Tech Lead, you suddenly realise how lonely the role is.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads: From Novices to Practitioners

“The time you spend honing your development skills, such as seeing patterns in code, refactoring code to be easier to maintain or extend, and writing tests does little to prepare skills in resolving conflict, establishing a team culture, or communicating technology in ways that non-technical people can understand.”
― Patrick Kua, Talking with Tech Leads: From Novices to Practitioners