Leveling Up as a Tech Lead

Chapter 7. Building and Scaling Tech Teams

Besides building relationships, running one-on-ones, providing feedback, and growing people through delegation, which are the foundational responsibilities of a tech lead to ensure smooth day-to-day team operations, you’ll also take on broader team-building responsibilities. These include recruiting new team members, onboarding them effectively, and conducting performance reviews, all while shaping the team’s culture and supporting its growth.

In this chapter, scaling doesn’t just refer to growing your team in size; it’s also about taking your team to the next level in terms of capability, structure, and effectiveness.

I’ll share practical guidance on these aspects of the role, drawn from my own experience. You might face these responsibilities sooner than you expect, and being unprepared can slow down your team’s momentum or lead to avoidable friction.

I’ll also cover three key challenges that often come up when building and scaling tech teams: building an onboarding process from scratch, enabling effective collaboration, and addressing underperformance when it arises.

These challenges are complex, but they’re also solvable, with the right mindset, tools, and systems in place. This chapter aims to give you a starting point to tackle them confidently and proactively as your team grows.

Recruiting and Onboarding Developers

The amount of effort you’ll need to invest in recruiting and onboarding depends on factors such as the size of your ...