In this talk, Tatiana will take you on a journey from IC to Tech Lead. She had a lot of struggles and unknowns along the way for years, but she decided to share those experiences as well as the efficient way to go about the role. She will give actionable ideas and provide a reference point on how Tech Leading could look like in practice.
1. From IC to Tech Lead
by Tatiana Mukhutdinova
(kassalanche@gmail.com)
2. About me ● Yandex, Moscow, 2013 - 2015
● Teaching Assistant, HSE, 2014 - 2015
○ Programming
○ Algorithms and Data Structures
● Indeed, Tokyo, 2015 - now
○ Worked on Company pages
○ Indeed University, 3 months. Mentored 2 teams of
new grad joiners
○ Worked on Experimentation Platform
● University mentorship program
○ Mentor of 2 student teams, at 2020, spring
28. Create a system vision
● System vision answers “how
should it work if we have infinite
resources?”
● Define what problems are solved
by the system, and not solved.
● Clearly define interfaces between
the system and other systems.
29. System vision helps to drive tech direction and align the team
● Drives technical direction
● Aligns the team
30. “It’s the most important”
“You should have it right away”
31. System vision requires constant iterations
Reference point: it took a year to get a
crystal clear picture of how things
should [not] work.
● It’s different if your are working on
a new product or new team
44. Code review
● Review the code. I’m leaving
350-400 comments per quarter
● Have a checklist of what you
review.
● Tips for being a better reviewer:
“How to Do Code Reviews Like a
Human”
52. Defer what doesn’t matter to find treasures
In 2 quarters
closed/deferred 253 tickets
(almost half of all tickets).
● received many thanks
● and no complaints
53. Defer what doesn’t matter to find treasures
In 2 quarters I
closed/deferred 253 tickets
(almost half of all tickets).
● received many thanks
● and no complaints
54. Own tech backlog
● It’s important to have somebody
advocating for technical backlog
● Biweekly prioritize tech tickets.
● Regularly review and defer.
● I was a tech backlog owner for 2
years, before delegating it.
57. Value first hand experience
Try to do yourself the same tasks that your team
does:
● coding
● code review
● first responding
● design doc writing & reviewing
● deploying
● writing integration tests
● updating configs
● contributing in various codebases
etc.
59. Learn all the roles in your team
So, you can
● onboard a new person
● be a sounding board for anyone
● replace any teammate when they are on vacation
62. Repeat, repeat, repeat
● Learn all the roles in your team
● Value first hand experience
● Priorities:
○ Deadline
○ Strategic project
○ Everything else
● Create system vision and iterate
● Repeat your Big Idea
● Code (or design) review are good places to share Big Ideas
