Why Dev Leads Struggle With Decisions
You’ve earned your stripes. You write clean code. You debug in minutes. You can smell technical debt from a mile away. But now that you’re a dev lead, the hardest part isn’t solving problems—it’s deciding which ones to solve, when, and how.
Suddenly, you’re making calls that affect people, product direction, architecture, delivery timelines, and even business outcomes. The stakes are higher. The visibility is wider. The margin for error feels smaller.
Relying on gut instinct—what once worked when you were deep in the code—is no longer enough. You need clarity. Repeatability. A system.
Welcome to the leadership layer, where decision-making is no longer a byproduct of good instincts but a critical skill that must be consciously developed.
Not All Decisions Are Equal (So Stop Treating Them That Way)
One of the first unlocks for a dev lead? Understanding that not all decisions carry the same weight—or require the same rigor.
Jeff Bezos famously described decisions as either one-way doors or two-way doors:
- One-way doors are hard to reverse. These are decisions that come with high risk, long-term consequences, or high visibility. Think: migrating your codebase to a new language, choosing a foundational architecture, or sunsetting a core feature.
- Two-way doors are easy to reverse. These are decisions where experimentation is safe, stakes are low, and rollback is cheap. Think: changing the order of standups, trying a new linter, or testing a different sprint format.
The danger? Treating two-way doors like one-way doors leads to paralysis. It wastes time, erodes autonomy, and signals to your team that every call needs perfection.
Pro tip: when in doubt, label the decision type upfront. “This is a two-way door—we can test and course correct.”
The 4 Decision Modes (And When to Use Them)
Great dev leads know that how a decision is made matters as much as what gets decided. Here are four modes every dev lead should master:
- Command — You decide alone, quickly.
- ✅ Best for: emergencies, high-context situations, high-speed needs
- ❌ Avoid when: context is shared and input would improve quality
- Example: A production outage needs triage—now isn’t the time to open a Slack poll.
- Consult — You gather opinions, then make the call.
- ✅ Best for: technical trade-offs, design reviews, product questions
- ❌ Avoid when: you’re pretending to consult but already decided
- Example: Choosing between two message queue systems—your team provides insight, but you own the decision.
- Consensus — The group decides together.
- ✅ Best for: cultural norms, team-wide shifts, values-driven policies
- ❌ Avoid when: the need for speed outweighs the need for buy-in
- Example: Deciding whether to adopt a 4-day workweek or change retro formats
- Delegate — Someone else decides, fully.
- ✅ Best for: empowering ownership, building autonomy, upskilling others
- ❌ Avoid when: the person lacks context, authority, or support
- Example: Letting a senior engineer lead sprint planning or tool evaluation
In-depth mode usage isn’t just about clarity. It’s about trust. When your team knows the rules of the game, they engage more fully—and more productively.
Mental Models for Smarter Tech Decisions
Mental models aren’t fluff. They’re cognitive shortcuts that help leaders cut through noise. Here are foundational ones every dev lead should start using:
- 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle):
- 80% of outcomes stem from 20% of inputs.
- ✅ Use it to prioritize which bugs, tests, or stakeholders matter most.
- 🧠 Example: Don’t optimize edge cases if 80% of user pain comes from onboarding friction.
- Bezos’ Door Types:
- Described earlier—frame decisions by reversibility.
- ✅ Helps calibrate speed vs. rigor.
- Eisenhower Matrix:
- Urgent vs. Important.
- ✅ Use to sort work that feels hot vs. work that actually matters.
- 🧠 Example: Code review pings every hour feel urgent. Hiring your next senior dev is important.
- Weighted Scoring:
- Evaluate options across criteria (impact, effort, risk, velocity).
- ✅ Use for framework choices, roadmap debates, or staffing plans.
- 🧠 Example: You’re torn between two ticketing tools. Score them on scalability, cost, UX, and ecosystem.
- Inversion:
- Ask: “What would make this fail?”
- ✅ Helps spot blind spots and mitigate risk.
- 🧠 Example: Before launching a beta, ask, “What assumptions could break us?”
Each model helps de-bias your decisions, zoom out from tunnel vision, and build repeatable thinking patterns—critical for scalable leadership.
How to De-Risk Your Decisions (Without Overthinking)
The biggest danger isn’t just making the wrong call—it’s making no call.
To move with confidence, use these tools:
- Pre-mortem: Imagine the decision fails. What broke?
- Rubber ducking: Explain it to someone else—or an inanimate object—to expose weak logic.
- Minimum Viable Decision (MVD): What’s the smallest version of this decision you can try?
- 🧠 Example: Want to change your CI/CD tool? Try it on a low-risk service first.
Decisions are rarely binary. Framing them as experiments removes fear—and accelerates learning.
You Don’t Have to Be Right—You Have to Be Clear
Dev leads often avoid making calls out of fear they’ll be wrong. But your job isn’t perfection. It’s clarity with accountability.
Make your thinking visible:
- Share what trade-offs you weighed
- Name your assumptions
- Explain what you’ll monitor post-decision
Your team doesn’t need a crystal ball. They need a compass. Clarity creates trust—even when you’re still learning.
When to Involve the Team (and When Not To)
Collaboration is powerful. But over-democratizing slows teams to a crawl.
✅ Involve the team when:
- The decision affects their day-to-day
- There’s strong distributed context
- You want buy-in more than speed
❌ Decide solo or with a small group when:
- There’s a tight deadline
- You have high personal context
- You’re coaching someone through the choice
Pro tip: even when you decide alone, show your reasoning. That’s how you teach decision-making, not just decisions.
The Hidden ROI of a Shared Decision Framework
Imagine this: your team knows how decisions get made. They’ve seen the models. They understand when to contribute—and how.
The results?
- Less churn in meetings
- More confidence in execution
- Better, faster onboarding
- Culture of empowered problem-solvers
A shared decision framework creates shared leadership literacy. And that’s how you build a resilient, autonomous team that scales.
Final Word: Make Better Calls, Not More Control
You’re not here to have all the answers. You’re here to create movement, reduce friction, and model clarity under uncertainty.
The best dev leads don’t just get things done. They teach others how to think. How to choose. How to decide.
So take the pressure off being perfect. Instead, focus on being intentional, transparent, and coachable.
Because great leadership isn’t about avoiding mistakes. It’s about building systems that help you—and your team—learn faster with every decision you make.
Lead with intention. Decide like a dev lead.