Leading a Small Tech Team

Stepping into a tech lead role for a small team of three developers is both exciting and daunting. You're not just writing code anymore - you're responsible for the growth, productivity, and well-being of your team while still contributing technically. Here's what I've learned about making this transition successful.

The Unique Challenges of Leading a Small Team

A team of three sits in a sweet spot: small enough to be agile, yet large enough to tackle meaningful projects. But this size comes with specific challenges:

• Every person matters - When someone is out sick, you lose 33% of your capacity
• No hiding - Individual performance is highly visible
• Wearing multiple hats - You're often the architect, mentor, and project manager
• Limited specialization - Everyone needs to be somewhat full-stack

The flip side? You can move fast, make decisions quickly, and build incredibly tight-knit teams.

Structuring Your Week as a Tech Lead

Here's how I structure a typical week to balance leadership responsibilities with hands-on coding:

Monday: Setting the Stage

Morning: Planning and Priorities

Start the week by reviewing:

• Outstanding pull requests
• Sprint progress and blockers
• Upcoming deadlines and dependencies
• Any urgent issues from the weekend

I spend 30 minutes reviewing our project board and adjusting priorities before standup. This preparation makes the Monday standup more focused and actionable.

Standup Focus

Monday standups should answer:

• What did we accomplish last week?
• What's the biggest risk to this week's goals?
• Does anyone need pairing time or help?

Tuesday-Thursday: Deep Work and Collaboration

Protect Deep Work Time

Block 2-3 hours of uninterrupted coding time. For small teams, the tech lead needs to remain hands-on. I aim for 60% coding, 40% leadership activities.

Example Daily Block Schedule:
 
- 9:00-9:30 - Standup + quick syncs
- 9:30-12:00 - Deep work (coding/architecture)
- 12:00-13:00 - Lunch
- 13:00-14:00 - Code reviews + async communication
- 14:00-16:00 - Deep work or pairing sessions
- 16:00-17:00 - Admin, planning, documentation

Code Reviews

With three developers, code review becomes a powerful learning tool:

• Review every PR within 4 hours during work hours
• Use reviews as teaching moments, not just gatekeeping
• Rotate who reviews whose code to share knowledge

Friday: Reflection and Growth

Weekly Retrospective (30 mins)

Even with a small team, regular retros matter:

• What went well this week?
• What could we improve?
• What's one thing we'll try differently next week?

Keep it lightweight but consistent.

Documentation Day

Friday afternoons are for documentation, README updates, and knowledge sharing. This habit pays dividends when onboarding new team members or when someone goes on holiday.

The Power of Effective 1:1s

1:1 meetings are the most important tool in your tech lead toolkit. For a team of three, I recommend:

Cadence and Duration

• Weekly 1:1s - 30 minutes each
• Total time investment - 1.5 hours per week
• Same time, same place - Consistency builds trust

What to Cover

Career Development (Monthly Deep Dives)

Questions to explore:
 
- Where do you see yourself in 1-2 years?
- What skills do you want to develop?
- What kind of work energizes you?
- Is there anything blocking your growth?

Weekly Check-ins

• How are you feeling about your current work?
• Any blockers or frustrations?
• What feedback do you have for me?
• Is there anything you need that you're not getting?

The 90/10 Rule

Your 1:1s should be 90% about them, 10% about you. Resist the urge to use this time for status updates - that's what standups are for.

Sprint Planning for Small Teams

Traditional scrum can feel heavyweight for a team of three. Here's a lightweight approach:

Two-Week Sprints

Two weeks provides enough time for meaningful work without losing urgency:

Sprint Planning (60-90 minutes)

1. Review capacity - Account for holidays, meetings, and realistic coding hours
2. Prioritize backlog - Pick 6-8 stories that align with sprint goals
3. Break down work - Ensure no story exceeds 3 days
4. Identify dependencies - What needs to happen in what order?

Story Point Philosophy

For small teams, I prefer t-shirt sizing (S, M, L) over numerical points:

• Small - Half day to one day
• Medium - 2-3 days
• Large - Break it down further

This removes the false precision of story points while still enabling capacity planning.

Daily Standups (15 minutes max)

Keep them tight:

Each person answers:
 
1. What I'm working on today
2. Any blockers?
3. Do I need help from anyone?
 
That's it. No status reports, no project updates.

Building Team Culture

With only three people, culture is personal. Every interaction shapes it.

Psychological Safety

Create an environment where people can:

• Admit mistakes without fear
• Ask "stupid" questions
• Challenge ideas respectfully
• Experiment and fail

How to build it:

• Share your own mistakes openly
• Thank people for flagging problems
• Never blame in public
• Celebrate learning over perfection

Knowledge Sharing

In a small team, bus factor is a real risk. Mitigate it through:

Pair Programming Sessions

Schedule regular pairing time. Not every day, but enough to spread knowledge:

Weekly Pairing Schedule:
 
- Tuesday: Person A + Person B (2 hours)
- Thursday: Person B + Person C (2 hours)
- Friday: Person C + Person A (1 hour)

Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)

Document significant technical decisions:

# ADR-001: Use PostgreSQL for Primary Database
 
## Status
 
Accepted
 
## Context
 
We need a reliable database for our user management system.
 
## Decision
 
We will use PostgreSQL over MySQL/MongoDB.
 
## Consequences
 
- Strong ACID compliance
- Team has existing PostgreSQL experience
- Requires managed hosting setup

Celebrating Wins

Small teams can feel invisible within larger organizations. Make sure to:

• Celebrate shipped features
• Recognize individual contributions
• Share team wins with stakeholders
• Mark milestones, however small

Managing Technical Debt

With a small team, technical debt can quickly become paralyzing. Here's how to manage it:

The 20% Rule

Reserve 20% of sprint capacity for tech debt, tooling, and improvements. This prevents debt from accumulating while keeping momentum on features.

Tech Debt Backlog

Maintain a separate backlog for technical improvements:

Priority 1: Security issues, performance blockers
Priority 2: Developer experience improvements
Priority 3: Code cleanup, refactoring
Priority 4: Nice-to-haves

Review this backlog monthly and promote items to sprint planning.

Handling Conflict and Difficult Conversations

Small teams mean conflicts can't be avoided - they must be addressed:

Performance Issues

Address problems early and directly:

1. Document specific examples - Not "you're slow," but "The last three features took 2x estimated time"
2. Have private conversations - Never embarrass team members publicly
3. Create improvement plans together - Collaborative, not dictatorial
4. Follow up consistently - Weekly check-ins during improvement periods

Technical Disagreements

When the team disagrees on technical approaches:

1. Timebox the discussion - 30 minutes max
2. Use data when possible - Performance benchmarks, research
3. Make a decision - Someone needs to break ties (often you)
4. Document the reasoning - ADRs help here
5. Move forward unified - No "I told you so" if it doesn't work out

Balancing Coding and Leading

The hardest part of tech leading a small team is staying technical while fulfilling leadership duties.

Time Allocation

Aim for this balance:

• 60% hands-on coding - You need to stay sharp and contribute
• 25% code review and pairing - Multiplying your impact
• 15% meetings and admin - Necessary but minimize

Take the Right Work

As tech lead, take on:

• Architecture and system design work
• Complex debugging that others are stuck on
• Proof of concepts for new technologies
• Infrastructure and tooling improvements

Avoid:

• Critical path features with hard deadlines (you'll get interrupted)
• Tasks requiring prolonged focus when you have meetings scheduled

Know When to Hand Off

Sometimes you need to step back from coding entirely:

• During crunch times (your job is to remove blockers)
• When onboarding new team members
• During performance review cycles
• When there's organizational uncertainty

Tools and Processes That Scale

Keep your tooling simple but effective:

Communication

• Slack/Teams channel - For async updates and quick questions
• Shared document - Running team notes, decisions, and context
• Project board - Jira, Linear, or even GitHub Projects

Documentation

• README files - Every repo should be self-documenting
• Architecture diagrams - Keep them updated monthly
• Runbooks - For common operations and debugging
• Onboarding guide - Even for a team of 3

Automation

Automate everything you can:

• CI/CD pipelines
• Linting and formatting
• Test coverage reporting
• Deployment processes

This frees your small team to focus on building, not maintaining.

Growing Your Team Members

Your success is measured by your team's success:

Stretch Assignments

Give each person opportunities to grow:

• Let them lead a feature end-to-end
• Include them in stakeholder meetings
• Have them present technical decisions
• Encourage conference talks or blog posts

Feedback Loops

Create multiple channels for feedback:

• Weekly 1:1s - Private, personal feedback
• Sprint retros - Team-level process feedback
• Quarterly reviews - Formal career conversations
• Real-time praise - Public recognition of good work

Succession Planning

The best tech leads make themselves replaceable:

• Document your processes
• Delegate decision-making progressively
• Mentor potential future leads
• Share context and organizational knowledge

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Micromanaging

With only three people, it's tempting to be involved in everything. Resist this:

• Set clear expectations, then step back
• Review outcomes, not processes
• Trust your team to find their own approaches

Being the Hero

Don't swoop in to "save" every situation:

• Let people struggle and learn
• Offer guidance, not solutions
• Share credit generously

Neglecting Yourself

Leadership is draining. Protect your own:

• Energy - Take real breaks
• Growth - Have your own mentor or coach
• Boundaries - Model healthy work-life balance

Wrapping Up

Leading a small team of three developers is one of the most rewarding roles in tech. You get to build something meaningful with people you know well, move fast, and see the direct impact of your leadership.

The key principles:

1. Structure your week - Balance deep work with leadership duties
2. Prioritize 1:1s - They're your most powerful tool
3. Keep processes lightweight - Don't over-engineer management
4. Build psychological safety - Small teams need trust
5. Stay technical - Your credibility depends on it
6. Grow your people - Their success is your success

What challenges have you faced leading small teams? I'd love to hear your experiences and strategies that have worked for you.