My Six Weeks as an Interim Tech Lead

How I Ended Up Here

When they asked me to step in as interim tech lead for six weeks, I'll be honest - I wasn't exactly jumping at the chance. I'd already turned down a permanent tech lead role before, so taking this on felt a bit mad. But something about the temporary nature of it made it feel more manageable, so I said yes.

Actually Quite Enjoying It

Once I got stuck in, I realised I was actually enjoying myself more than I'd expected. There's something quite satisfying about being the person who gets to make decisions instead of waiting around for someone else to make them.

I found myself using skills I didn't even know I had - running meetings, sorting out disagreements between team members, talking to stakeholders without wanting to hide under my desk. The team were brilliant and really supportive, which made a massive difference to my confidence.

When Everything Went Sideways

Two weeks in, our product owner decided to leave. So suddenly I'm trying to do both jobs whilst the client keeps changing their mind about what they actually want. With a smaller team than we should have had, it was getting a bit overwhelming.

I knew we were in trouble, so I had to speak up and ask for more help. Turns out that was the right call - we actually managed to hit our deadlines in the end. It taught me that sometimes you just have to be honest about when things aren't working.

What I Learned About Myself

Those six weeks taught me quite a lot, actually. I do seem to work well under pressure and I really enjoyed having the authority to make decisions and take ownership of things. But I also found my limits - trying to juggle everything whilst dealing with constant changes was properly stressful.

I also realised I need to get better at backend stuff if I'm going to lead from a frontend position. There were definitely gaps in my knowledge that became obvious when I needed to make technical decisions across the whole stack.

Would I Do It Again?

So would I take on another interim tech lead role? Probably, yeah. It was challenging but in a good way, and I learned loads about myself and what I'm capable of.

Would I take a permanent tech lead position? That's a bigger question. I enjoyed the responsibility and the decision-making, but the stress levels when everything went wrong were pretty intense. I think I'd want to make sure I had proper support structures in place and that my backend knowledge was stronger.

For now, I'm happy to keep developing as a frontend lead whilst staying open to the right leadership opportunity if it comes along. Those six weeks definitely gave me confidence that I could do it - whether I want to do it full-time is still up for debate.