It took me four years to go from a new developer to a tech lead. Four years of learning, failing, growing, and figuring things out the hard way. But looking back, I can see the path much more clearly now — and I want to share what I’ve learned so your journey can be a little smoother than mine.
Before we dive in, let me be honest about something: defining what a tech lead actually is can feel like trying to catch a rainbow. The role looks different everywhere you go. For me, it’s primarily about mentorship — guiding and supporting my team to grow and excel. That means helping with design decisions, doing code reviews, and teaching people how to communicate effectively across teams.
Also worth noting: when I entered the industry 14 years ago, the only path forward I could see was management. But that’s changed. Today, there are real alternatives — tech lead, architect, and beyond. You don’t have to become a manager to level up.
So here are my seven tips for anyone ready to make the leap.
1. Get Your Fundamentals Right
With so many tutorials online, it’s tempting to jump straight into building apps or games without ever learning the basics. But understanding data structures, algorithms, and core programming concepts is what separates developers who plateau from those who keep growing.
Think of it like learning grammar. Once you understand the rules, you can pick up any language — coding or otherwise. Strong fundamentals make you adaptable, and adaptability is everything in this industry.
2. Put In the Time (At Least 2 Years)
There’s no shortcut here. To step into a tech lead role with any credibility, you need a minimum of two years of hands-on experience as a developer. Not because it’s an arbitrary number, but because that time gives you something you can’t get from courses or tutorials: real-world context.
You’ll have debugged things you didn’t understand, shipped features that broke in production, and learned how projects actually live and breathe. That experience is what allows you to lead others through the same mess with confidence.
3. Be the Person Who Takes Action
Every team has problems. Some people wait for someone else to fix them. Others pretend the problems don’t exist. Neither approach works.
The developers who become tech leads are the ones who take charge and tackle problems head-on. Being proactive — spotting issues before they blow up and doing something about them — is what makes you a key player on your team. It’s not always comfortable, but it’s always worth it.
4. Embrace Different Technologies
I’ve been lucky enough to work with a wide range of technologies and frameworks throughout my career, and each one has given me a broader perspective. If you lock yourself into a single stack, you limit your thinking.
The goal isn’t to be an expert in everything — it’s to understand the underlying concepts well enough that you can adapt when something new comes along. What you learn from one tech stack will always inform how you understand the next one.
5. Get Into the Room (Even When It’s Uncomfortable)
Sitting in meetings outside your immediate team isn’t a waste of time — it’s an investment. When you engage with other departments, you start to understand how the organization actually works, where your work fits into the bigger picture, and who the people are that you’ll one day need to collaborate with.
And yes, I know — most developers are introverts who’d rather be anywhere else. But if you want to lead, you have to break out of that comfort zone.
A book that genuinely helped me with this: Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It’s a short read (about 225 pages, split into 10 bite-sized chapters) and it completely changed how I thought about visibility and sharing your work. Kleon talks about the power of showing your creative journey — even the small stuff — and how storytelling connects you with others. Highly recommend it.
6. Build Relationships Across the Project
Technical leadership isn’t just about code — it’s about people. That means working closely with project managers, business analysts, and other stakeholders, not just other developers.
Every person involved in a project brings something valuable. The tech leads who stand out are the ones who take the time to understand each role and genuinely collaborate across them. Don’t just know what everyone does — learn how to work with them.
7. Lead Before You Have the Title
This might be the most important tip of all. Becoming a tech lead isn’t just a promotion — it’s a shift in how you show up every day. Effective communication, proactive problem-solving, and taking initiative are leadership qualities, and you can practice all of them right now, regardless of your current title.
That’s ultimately what earned me the role. Not a single moment, but a pattern of behaviour over time.
Final Thoughts
The path from developer to tech lead is rarely a straight line, but it’s absolutely achievable if you’re intentional about it. Master your fundamentals, accumulate real experience, take ownership of problems, broaden your technical perspective, show up beyond your immediate team, build relationships across the project, and start leading before anyone gives you permission to.
You’ve got this.
If you found this helpful, I also put together a video walking through the most important steps a tech lead should take in their first 100 days.