Being a lead means never letting your ego get in the way of what’s
best for the project and the team.
Being a lead means you are constantly aware of the budget.
Being a lead means that you have a mental mind-map of the whole damn
thing. In your sleep. On Sunday. At 10:31 pm.
Being a lead means that you plan your weekends and vacations around
the project. You can hand it off. But you cannot just drop it.
Being a lead means that you constantly upsell. At Dojo4 this just
means looking for shit that needs or should be done, that we can
excellently do, that the client isn’t aware of. Sales at Dojo4 are
normally just exchanging ‘we can do’ for ‘you need to do’ in the
context of a running project. For Dojo4 sales this should should
always represent acting in the client’s best interest to see
in advance, what your personal professional capacity allows you to
see - that the client does not yet see.
Being a lead means cutting the hell out of internal waste. You
should fight, yell, and scream to reduce internal waste. We make
money by being excellent and shipping code. Look for waste from the
client’s perspective and kill it dead. if you can reduce a project’s
spending from 100k to 10k just do it. They’ll be back with other
awesome projects.
Being a lead means that you aggressively delegate and recruit when
you can’t do something yourself. You may have to fight for the
resources you need.
Being a lead means that you relish, and encourage, communication
with the client
whenever the client feels like it. Or, whenever and however you’ve
agreed and patiently trained the client to communicate.
Being a lead means that you identify with, care for, and empathize
with, our clients. Their checks feed our families. And their ideas
stimulate our own.
Being a lead means that, when the shit hits the fan, you are
responsible for making sure that the shit gets cleaned up and the
fan is running smoothly.
Being a lead means that you put it all into perspective: our
projects seldom have lives hanging in the balance - you must manage
your own relationship with the crises, real or perceived, that
always, always occur in the lifecycles of technology production.
Being a lead means setting the tone for the project and providing
kind, encouraging and consistent leadership to everyone on your
project team.
Not everyone wants to be a project lead.
Project leads don’t want to captain every project they’re involved with.
We need all kinds at Dojo4.
If you feel remotely uncomfortable being thrust into a ‘lead’ role on a
project, or desperately desire that role on another project, talk with
your team and adjust.