From Full-Stack Developer to Tech Lead: Lessons I Learned the Hard Way
Stepping into a leadership role can feel surreal. When you’re early in your career, the transition from an individual contributor to a team lead is often unexpected and far more challenging than it looks from the outside.
My journey into engineering leadership began with confusion, a few painful missteps, and ultimately a powerful realization about what it truly means to own responsibility beyond just writing code.
Leadership Is Not Just Coding
I joined Ecomlytics as a full-stack developer alongside another engineer. Almost immediately, my teammate left the company. Overnight, I found myself stepping into a leadership role I hadn’t planned for.
At first, I did what felt natural: I focused harder on coding. I pushed myself to deliver features, interviewed potential hires, and casually assigned tasks to understand how others worked. In my mind, staying productive as a developer was leadership.
I was wrong.
The Wake-Up Call That Changed Everything
Things started to fall apart when my manager began asking questions like:
“When do you think this task will be completed?”
These weren’t questions about implementation details or architecture - they were about timelines, ownership, and accountability. I often didn’t have clear answers, and that resulted in missed deadlines and uncomfortable feedback.
That moment hit hard. I realized I was no longer evaluated solely on my code. I was now responsible for delivery, clarity, and team progress.
Learning to Lead Instead of Just Building
Once I accepted this shift, I consciously changed how I worked. I began embracing responsibilities I had previously avoided:
- Regular and timely pull request reviews
- Proactively tracking deadlines and progress
- Running weekly stand-up meetings
- Identifying blockers before they become problems
More importantly, I reframed how I saw my role. As a tech lead, my impact wasn’t just measured by lines of code—it was reflected in how effectively my team moved forward.
I wanted to create an environment where my teammates could rely on me, learn from me, and stay motivated. At the same time, I knew I still had a lot to learn myself.
To strike the right balance, I intentionally split my time:
- 50% on team and task management
- 50% on technical responsibilities like improving infrastructure, maintaining production systems, ensuring code quality, and reviewing pull requests
Plot Twist: Leadership Can Make You Lose Your Coding Edge
Here’s something no one warned me about - when you step into engineering leadership early, your hands-on coding skills can start to fade.
I noticed it happening. I was thinking more, typing less, and relying heavily on AI tools. While that improved productivity, it also triggered a quiet fear: Am I losing touch with real coding?
So I built a few habits to stay sharp.
1. Staying Technically Curious
I installed daily.dev and made it a habit to read about backend engineering, system design, scalability, big data, and generative AI. These are areas I actively use - or plan to use - in real production systems.
2. Coding Outside of Work
To fight developer FOMO, I spend at least 30 minutes a day coding on personal projects—manually. No shortcuts. This keeps my muscle memory alive and reminds me why I fell in love with building software in the first place.
3. Getting My Hands Dirty at Work
Whenever possible, I pick up small coding tasks within my team. It helps me stay connected to the codebase and better understand the challenges my teammates face daily.
Looking back, this transition taught me that tech leadership isn’t about authority - it’s about ownership. It’s about being accountable for people, progress, and outcomes.
I feel genuinely grateful to work with a team of incredibly talented developers and to be building something that creates real business impact. The journey from full-stack developer to tech lead hasn’t been smooth - but it’s been deeply rewarding.
And this is just the beginning.