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Discussion on: Sure you want to be a tech lead?

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Vitaly Pushkar

Very well put, Kyle.

I've been struggling in my first years on this role and tried to learn from everything I could get my hands on.

It wasn't until I identified five main areas where I should focus: Leadership, Communication, Project management, Business thinking and analysis, System design and architecture and finally Software Engineering.
Notice how Software Engineering is the last in the list?.. That's because it's least helpful at being a good Tech Lead. It's expected that you are a good Software Engineer by that point, but it's not going to help you succeed as a Tech Lead. Took me a while to realize, though.

Anyways, after I identified those areas I then tried to find the best resources to improve each of the areas on my own.

Many books, articles and courses later I compiled a list of the most valuable and influential ones and kept returning to it when I felt I need to get better.

I shared it with a couple of friends over time and they found it useful, so I published it on a separate web page: techleadcompass.com/

Hope somebody finds it useful, too!

Best,
Vitaly