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Laurent Dumas
Laurent Dumas

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TechLead or DevLead ?

Hi,

Sometimes i read post about techlead but often oriented to the technical stuff, best practice etc. I think that Leading role can be separate in 2, the tech for one et and well "dev" for the other. In fact, i think the other is more about soft skill. Because being a great developer tech-wise doesn't not necessarily means that you can teach, give some advice with the right word.
I think that Leading demands skill like Patience, Empathy, because you need to deal with different personnalities, and it's not always easy.

What do you think? Do you make that difference, or see that Leading is like 2 jobs in one ?

Top comments (2)

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dianale profile image
Diana Le

I agree. I think technical lead and dev lead should be two completely different positions. The terminology can vary by the company, but essentially there should be a difference between someone who prefers to advance their career by continuing to advance their technical skills, and someone who prefers to shift into management (after having a strong development background).

In my opinion, there is no way that one person can do both of those roles. The technical lead should be focused on improving the software or product, and should act like the architect in terms of making sure everyone who works on that software follows best practices and standards. The dev lead should be focused on growing the rest of the team, making sure the team runs efficiently, resolving conflicts and other leadership tasks. I think a huge problem is when companies decide to make the technical lead also act as the manager, when the person either has no desire or is just not good at the role.

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laurentld79 profile image
Laurent Dumas

Thanks for sharing. Yes, i often found myself in these 2 spots at the same time, and it's kind of overwhelming. Because i'm more on the lead side than tech side, it's really hard to have time for reviewing, analyse some use case to do better code. It's really frustrating, yet I am really interested by the tech part, and i want to do it, but that's like 2 days in one :)