By Peter Eysermans ā€”

Scratching your maker's itch

Previously, I talked about shifting from builder to technical leader. How can you scratch your maker's itch while empowering your team?

šŸ«‚ Embracing Your New Role: Beyond Building

Your team is growing, and people management tasks are piling up. You're no longer concerned with how to build things yourself but with how to help others build the right things for your startup. This pivot from builder to team builder can be challenging, especially if you're a maker at heart.

Key points:

  • Building is no longer your primary job
  • Focus on enabling your team to build effectively
  • Embrace the shift from individual contributor to leader

šŸ—ļø Clearing the Path: Removing Obstacles for Your Team

As an engineering leader, your main responsibilities are:

  • Ensuring your team knows what to build
  • Enabling them to build it efficiently

Once they understand their tasks, step back and focus on clearing obstacles. Resist the urge to jump in and code features yourself ā€“ this will create more problems than it solves.

Remember:

  • Get out of your team's way
  • Clear roadblocks that hinder progress
  • Avoid creating new obstacles through hasty, solo coding
  • Do you still want to program? I get it. Then, focus on tasks that remove obstacles; building features yourself is no such task.

ā™Ÿļø Strategic Coding: Where to Focus Your Technical Skills

If you still want to code, focus on tasks that remove obstacles without interfering with your team's core work:

  1. Fix support issues
  2. Create small tools for customer requests
  3. Develop proofs of concept for new features

Benefits of this approach:

  • For your team: You handle tasks they might dread
  • For you: You gain valuable insights into product weaknesses and user - struggles
  • For the company: You contribute to the overall vision and strategy

When creating proofs of concept:

  • Use them to outline ideas and potential solutions
  • Never merge this code into the product
  • Let your team use it as inspiration to build the actual feature

šŸ§˜ Balancing Leadership and Technical Passion

Transitioning from a hands-on builder to a technical leader requires a shift in mindset and approach. By focusing on removing obstacles, strategically applying your technical skills, and enabling your team to succeed, you can satisfy your maker's instinct while excelling in your leadership role.

Your ultimate goal is to empower your team to build great products, not to build them yourself.