Comment by calchris42

The article pretty much ignores factors external to the development team. In my experience at a larger company, a key role of tech lead is as a central communication point for other teams / disciplines / projects. It becomes infeasible for every person working on a product to have to know exactly who to talk to for every question. Instead with leads, if I have a sw question, an electrical question, a service question, I know who to go to. This doesn't mean the lead has to know everything themselves. Can always refer me to the expert. But ideally the lead is also someone with above average communication skills.