As part of the customer development work for our new Stepsize product, I needed to understand the differences between software companies that have their tech debt under control and those that don't.

The tech lead was moving to another team for a long-term assignment, and I took over as the engineering manager/team lead. From the outside, the tech lead's job seemed doable, but I quickly realized I was getting in over my head.

You can find (just about) anything on Medium — apparently even a page that doesn’t exist.

Alignment, accountability and transparency are the building blocks of a successful team. They are must-haves to make everything else in this guide work. Let’s outline how communication actually happens on a high performing team. There are typically 2 processes for formal communication: