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Free course · 20 lessons · Intermediate

The Team Lead Handbook

A practical course for team leads: the move from engineer to lead, team charters and working agreements, effective 1:1s, feedback that lands, planning to real capacity, WIP limits and flow metrics, retrospectives that change things, support rotations, motivation, psychological safety, conflict, early underperformance, onboarding, managing up, saying no, remote and hybrid teams, and working with product and design — with scenarios, scripts, templates and runnable models.

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1. Becoming a Team Lead

The move from engineer to lead, team charters and working agreements, 1:1s that matter, and feedback that lands.

  1. From Engineer to Team Lead — What changes when you go from doing the work to leading the people who do it — and the traps most new team leads fall into in the first months.
  2. Team Charters and Working Agreements — Write down what the team is for and how it works together, so expectations stop living in people's heads.
  3. Effective 1:1s — Make 1:1s the most useful half-hour of the week for each person: their agenda, regular, and focused on growth and problems, not status.
  4. Feedback That Lands — Give specific, timely feedback — positive and corrective — using the Situation-Behavior-Impact model, and make it normal to receive feedback too.

2. Running the Team's Work

Planning that holds, limiting work in progress, flow metrics, retrospectives that change things, and handling interruptions and support.

  1. Planning That Holds — Plan from the team's real capacity instead of a wish list: account for support, meetings, leave and unplanned work, and commit to less so you deliver more.
  2. Limiting Work in Progress — Why starting less makes the team finish more, explained with Little's law and a small simulation — and how to set WIP limits that stick.
  3. Flow Metrics: Cycle Time and Throughput — Measure how work flows through the team — cycle time, throughput, WIP and work-item age — from a ticket log, and use them to find bottlenecks instead of judging people.
  4. Retrospectives That Change Things — Run retrospectives that produce one or two changes the team actually makes — instead of the same complaints every two weeks.
  5. Handling Interruptions and Support Rotations — Protect focus while still responding to support requests and incidents: a rotation that absorbs interruptions, with a model of how many the team can handle.

3. People

Motivation and engagement, psychological safety, resolving conflict, spotting and coaching underperformance early, and onboarding new hires.

  1. Motivation and Engagement — Understand what each person on your team needs to do their best work — and what quietly drains it — before it shows up as a resignation.
  2. Psychological Safety — Build a team where people admit mistakes, ask questions and challenge ideas — the dynamic Google's research found mattered most for team effectiveness.
  3. Resolving Conflict Between Team Members — Handle conflict early, separate positions from interests, and help people work it out — without taking sides or letting it fester.
  4. Spotting and Coaching Underperformance Early — Notice performance problems early, find the cause, and coach with clear expectations — before it becomes a formal process.
  5. Onboarding New Hires — Get new engineers productive and connected quickly with a structured first 90 days, a buddy and a first production change in week one.

4. Up and Across

Managing up, saying no and negotiating scope, leading remote and hybrid teams, and working well with product and design.

  1. Managing Up — Keep your manager informed, ask for what the team needs, and make it easy for them to help you — without surprises.
  2. Saying No and Negotiating Scope — Protect the team's focus by turning 'can you also...' into explicit trade-offs — without becoming the team that always says no.
  3. Leading Remote and Hybrid Teams — Make distributed teams work: write things down, design for time zones, keep meetings purposeful and make sure remote people aren't second-class.
  4. Working with Product and Design — Build a real partnership with product and design: shape problems together, share ownership of outcomes, and resolve disagreements early.

5. Capstone Case Studies

Repair a team after a missed launch, and plan a quarter when half the team's time goes to support.

  1. Capstone: A Team in Conflict After a Missed Launch — A launch slipped by five weeks and the team is blaming each other. Diagnose, repair trust and change how the team works.
  2. Capstone: Plan a Quarter With Half the Team on Support — A platform team spends half its time on requests and incidents. Plan a quarter that still delivers its most important goal.