---
title: What is the role of team leads
slug: what-is-the-role-of-team-leads
description: "How we think about management and leadership at Resend."
humans: ["zeno-rocha"]
updated_at: "2026-03-06"
created_at: "2026-03-06"
---

## Principles

* Team Leads exist to increase leverage, **not to add hierarchy**.
* They are individual contributors with **player-coach** mentality.
* They take on more responsibility to help their **team move faster**.
* This is not a management career step. It's an **execution role**.
* This role is **intentionally lightweight**.
* Team Leads are **not managers**.

## Why Team Leads exist

As teams grow (around 4 people), two things start to break:
- Priorities become **unclear**
- Founders become a **bottleneck**

Team Leads solve this by:
- Creating **clarity**
- Protecting **quality**
- Reducing **escalation**

They do **not** exist to control people, add process, or slow decisions.

## Time allocation

Team Leads must spend **at least 80%** of their time as **individual contributors**.

If a Team Lead stops shipping work or talking to users, the role has become too heavy.

## How decisions are made

Teams still have the autonomy to **decide by default**.

Team Leads step in when:

- There's a **priority conflict**
- There's a **quality disagreement**

## What a Team Lead facilitates

### 1. Direction

- Translate company goals into clear team priorities.
- Keep focus tight for the current cycle.
- Make trade-offs explicit.

### 2. Quality bar

- Elevate the definition of “good enough.”
- Protect craft, usability, and correctness.
- Step in when quality is at risk.

### 3. People care

- Give clear, direct feedback.
- Help teammates get unblocked.

## What Team Leads are not

Team Leads do not:

- **Approve** every decision
- **Micromanage** execution
- **Own** compensation or promotions
- **Run** performance reviews

## Founder relationship

Founders:
- Still skip-level regularly
- Still review work occasionally

But:
- Are no longer the default escalation path
- Are not the sole source of truth for decisions

## Cadence

This is **minimal by design**.

- Quarterly check-in (Lead ↔ founders)
- Annual hiring planning discussion

No weekly status meetings.