The Relationship and Barriers Between Product and Technical Roles in Digital Product Development

As a seasoned Tech Lead with nearly 8 years in the industry, I’ve witnessed firsthand the complex interplay between product management and technical leadership. While I’m adept at managing team logistics, balancing feature work, and leading agile ceremonies, the overwhelming load of non-technical tasks has encroached upon my ability to focus on the core responsibilities of technical strategy and code quality. This experience is shared by many technical leads who find themselves navigating a blurred line between product ownership and technical leadership.

The Barriers Between Product and Technical Roles

1. Role Overlap and Responsibility Creep: In many teams, Tech Leads end up managing non-technical tasks such as backlog prioritization, ticket shaping, and release planning. While these activities are crucial for a product’s success, they detract from time spent on architecture, mentoring, and technical oversight.
2. Communication Gaps: Relying solely on informal communication tools like Slack often leads to missed requirements and misaligned priorities. This is further compounded when technical leads handle product vision tasks, causing bottlenecks and frustration.
3. Opportunity Cost: The time spent on non-technical activities prevents Tech Leads from pursuing technical improvements, leading to accumulated technical debt. This delays enhancements in areas like developer experience (DevEx), platform resilience, and proactive problem detection.

Measuring the Impact

To understand the full impact of this misalignment, consider tracking:

• Time Analysis: Document how much time is spent on non-technical tasks versus technical activities.
• Communication Failures: Record instances where requirements were misunderstood or missed due to inadequate formal processes.
• Opportunity Cost Calculations: Highlight technical improvements postponed or abandoned due to time constraints.
• Industry Benchmarks: Compare your team’s structure to similar-sized companies to see if other teams experience the same overlap.

Presenting the Problem to Your Leadership

It’s essential to make the case to your management team that the current structure poses business risks and hinders growth:

• Business Risks: Emphasize that the current situation leads to delayed features, missed requirements, and technical debt accumulation. This creates long-term maintenance issues and reduced agility.
• Resource Allocation: Explain how spending 80% of your time on product-related tasks takes away from critical technical leadership responsibilities, affecting the overall quality and stability of the product.

Proposing a Clear Separation of Duties

A structured approach to responsibilities can help align team efforts:

• Product Owner (PO): Focus on product vision, user requirements, and backlog prioritization to ensure the product meets business goals.
• Scrum Master: Handle agile ceremonies, team processes, and impediment removal to keep the development team efficient.
• Tech Lead: Lead the technical strategy, oversee architecture and code quality, mentor developers, and improve the developer experience.

Interim Steps to Reduce Overload

While proposing long-term changes, here are some practical measures:

1. Formalize Requirement Processes: Implement structured requirement-gathering procedures to reduce reliance on real-time chat and prevent missed details.
2. Regular Stakeholder Meetings: Schedule consistent touchpoints to ensure alignment and minimize communication gaps.
3. Delegation of Leadership Tasks: Identify senior developers who could temporarily take on technical leadership tasks to free up time.
4. Evaluate Team Needs: Determine if a dedicated Scrum Master would be more beneficial to maintain team direction, allowing the Tech Lead to focus on technical oversight.

Final Thoughts

Being a Tech Lead is rewarding yet challenging, especially when responsibilities blur between product and technical domains. By quantifying time spent, highlighting business risks, and proposing structured role separations, you can shift back to focusing on what you do best: building a solid, maintainable platform and fostering a team that’s equipped to tackle complex technical challenges.