I recently realized a little thing about leading a technical team.

As a fairly senior technical guy, I’m comfortable trying to build a complete widget myself. When time is scarce and manpower less so, it makes sense to put a team together to share the work. The job of the “tech(nical) lead(er)” then becomes a mixture of doing the work and telling/helping others to do the work.

One can, and I have, erred on the side of being too vague with the subdivision of labour. Particularly, a tech lead may offload the parts that seem the least interesting or complicated, which leads to much trouble if the interface specifications leave too much unsaid. But this problem is fixable after the fact – an inferior subcontracted part can be gradually repaired/replaced. At least it exists.

A worse trap occurs if the tech lead hoards the most complicated parts. He may not want to admit how big it really is. Worse: he may shirk the duty of detailed design, imagining that since he’s the only one working on that part, the design will take care of itself. But what if it doesn’t — if the central chunk is big enough to intimidate piecemeal approaches of a split-time tech lead? Then he’s stuck. Guess how I found out.

A partial solution to this is to give away the central, most complicated bits to his cow-orkers. That forces the lead to think through the issues well enough to make sure that the pieces fit — and that they make sense. This time, he has to convince not just his feebleminded self, but potentially skeptical colleagues. The standard is higher, for they will demand a rational design.

The costs? Yes, the central piece may end up being built differently than originally (but only very approximately) imagined. Its pieces may need some subsequent chiseling and rework. It’s often more effort to help & teach others to do the work than to do it oneself. But, oh, the benefits! The work gets done!

So, fellow fallible tech leads, if you picked a prize piece too big to swallow, delegate it. Resign yourself to coding the periphery and interfaces, reorganizing and mentoring. It will be better overall.