Every developer lead has been there. You’re mid-phone call with a client who is experiencing an outage or chaos in the system. She’s stressed out, balancing feedback from stakeholders across her organization, weighing the potential impacts of the issue, and relying on you for advice and solutions.
In these pivotal moments, I’m often hit with a sudden sense of déjà vu from when I was 16, working as a hairdresser in my first full-time job, facing a customer whose hair color was left on too long and oxidizing, causing the microscopic outer layer of hair follicles to peel back and release green color pigments.