The Technical Leader's Dilemma: Code or Document?

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

Being a technical leader shouldn't mean being the defacto Jira admin.

Yet I keep seeing engineering leads lose their coding time documenting meetings and decisions.

Their teams start drifting without consistent technical guidance, while documentation eats up the hours that should go to mentoring and architecture.

Decisions get delayed, junior devs miss crucial guidance, and coding takes a backseat.

The impact is subtle but significant:

🟣Missing early warning signs of tech debt.
🟣Team members guessing at technical direction.
🟣Fresh ideas getting lost in the daily grind.

Great engineering teams need their technical leaders doing what they do best: solving complex problems and mentoring team members.

Quick question for engineering leads though: how do you handle post-meeting documentation?