Tech Lead Task List | Hacker News Reader

Tech Lead Task List

11 pointscjameskeller2 comments

I've been a tech lead in a couple different roles, oddly enough, as a contractor. But the environment differed significantly between the two, as did the team size. I'm starting with a new role as an FTE, on an existing (previously troubled) project and was hoping to get some further advice from others who are or have been in the trenches...

What does/did your day-to-day look like, and what would you consider reasonable quarterly goals/plans?

*Example daily "checklist"*:

* Check for anything in need of urgent triage with team * Assign focus blocks of the day to specific tasks * Check JIRA (comments, Status, Backlog, A/C & Validation scenarios) * Check Slack * Check Email * Check Repo (my PRs, others) * Actively seek out work, and get to know other teams & leadership * What is a valuable place to refactor, improve, help out other efforts, etc? * Help troubleshoot * What recurring issues do we face? * Help team members to grow (1:1s) * Demo, set up meetings, ensure visibility and external communication * Update team via JIRA, Slack, or email * Over-communicate! (Regular, Consistent, Clear, Contextual, Human) * Including meeting notes / new info * Daily status summary to communicate any key items needing follow-up * At minimum, send to yourself! * Schedule meetings for more complex/long/etc issues or questions * Build a positive "brand" within the company * Learn new skills, both soft and technical

*Other items may include*: Reviewing to ensure exactly what is in/out of release, validating in PROD with Product & QA, parking-lot discussion time after standup if needed, possibly pairing with someone when time allows, seeking recognition for team(members), ensuring everyone has proper access to repos & tools, reviewing stories in advance to clarify reqs and technical details ("BA" work), etc.

What else comes to mind? Or what thoughts do you have about the above?

Your list looks reasonably complete.

Personally, I've automated most of the tasks above in my calendar. Otherwise, I've added them into whatever task tracking tool we use for projects, which in my case would be template cards in Trello.

In the rare occassions that I'm idle at work, I just continue reading whatever nonfiction I have in my queue on my shelf.

Currently, I'm reading The First 90 Days. Might be something you'd find useful as well.

Recycling some replies. More context on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26182988:

Pick the ones relevant to your experience. Many of these are helpful to junior people as well. "If I disappear", "fractal communication", etc will be relevant to you.

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19924100 (understanding codebases, etc.)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26591067 (testing pipelines, scaffolding, issue templates)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22873103 (making the most out of meetings, leveraging your presence)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22827841 (product development)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20356222 (giving a damn)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25008223 (If I disappear, what will happen)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24972611 (about consulting and clients, but you can abstract that as "stakeholders", and understanding the problem your "client", who can be your manager, has.)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24209518 (on taking notes. When you're told something, or receive a remark, make sure to make a note and learn from it whether it's a mistake, or a colleague showing you something useful, or a task you must accomplish.. don't be told things twice or worse. Be on the ball and reliable).

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24503365 (product, architecture, and impact on the team)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22860716 (onboarding new hires to a codebase, what if it were you, improve code)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22710623 (being efficient learning from video, hacks. Subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22723586)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21598632 (communication with the team, and subsequent reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21614372)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21427886 (template for taking minutes of meetings to dispatch to the team. Notes are in GitHub/GitLab so the team can access them, especially if they haven't attended).

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24177646 (communication, alignment)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21808439 (useful things for the team and product that add leverage)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20323660 (more meeting notes. Reply to a person who had trouble talking in corporate meetings)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22715971 (management involvement as a spectrum)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25922120 (researching topics)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147502 (keeping up with a firehose of information)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123017 (fractal communication: communication that can penetrate several layers of management and be relevant to people with different profiles and skillsets)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26179539 (remote work, use existing tooling and build our own. Jitsi videos, record everything, give access to everyone so they can reference them and go back to them, meetings once a week or two weeks to align)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com