
Show HN: Team Lead 101 – Manage and Grow Engineering Teams in Small Startups - shvetsovdm
https://dmitryshvetsov.com/team-lead-101/
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shvetsovdm
Hi HN,

Team Lead 101 is a book for software engineers who have been entrusted to lead
their teams but haven’t received a guide on how to do this. It’s perfect for
engineering teams of 3-8 people in small startups, where the structure of
startups is flat with at most 3 levels: developers, leads, and C-level
executives.

Right now the book is 50% off (at $14) until August 9.

Sample Chapters:

* [https://dmitryshvetsov.com/what-a-good-team-lead-does-and-do...](https://dmitryshvetsov.com/what-a-good-team-lead-does-and-does-not-do/)

* [https://dmitryshvetsov.com/one-on-one-meetings-the-most-impo...](https://dmitryshvetsov.com/one-on-one-meetings-the-most-important-tool-for-engineering-team-leader/)

* [https://dmitryshvetsov.com/how-to-speed-up-code-review-proce...](https://dmitryshvetsov.com/how-to-speed-up-code-review-process-and-improve-the-code-review-process/)

Thank you for checking out my book! I'll be around to answer any questions.

~~~
eberkund
Why should I take your advice? As someone who has never heard of you before,
this is information I was looking for. Not to say you don't have some good
advice to give, but with so many articles and books like this out there I want
to know what your background is, what motivated you to write this book, and
what mistakes you made or witnessed that shaped your idea of what a good team
lead is.

Please don't take this as an insult, just some constructive criticism from a
potential reader.

~~~
shvetsovdm
Fair point! I would not take advice from someone I don’t know too or with whom
I would not want to change places.

Let me introduce myself and let you judge if you want to take advice from me.

I'm Dmitry. 12 years in IT, 7 of them as a software developer. I was a Head of
the Security department at a branch of a state telecom company in Russia (let
than 1 year). Lead developer at small consulting Ruby On Rails shop also in
Russia (about 4 years). Last March I joined a Silicon Valley startup and in
October I become a Team Lead one of four teams.

One of my mistakes was to think that leadership should be shown. Another
mistake was trying to think that everyone would follow my advice because I
have more experience than others. There were also mistakes that destroyed the
teams in which I worked: the imposition of decisions, the desire that
everything was done "right", lack of trust in the team members. I also went to
the other extreme and protected the team from tough deadlines and pressure.

I made many mistakes and learned from experienced people with whom I am
fortunate to work. I like to try, experiment and see what gives results. I am
writing a blog and newsletter about soft skills
[https://dmitryshvetsov.com/articles/](https://dmitryshvetsov.com/articles/),
142 subscribers at the moment, stated this March.

I have shared my thoughts on how best to hire developers, how to get rid of
the routine and other concepts from this book with friends and colleagues, and
have often found a positive response. To shape my thoughts into clear ideas
and approaches, I decided to write a book on the basics that will help a
budding team lead.

