team-lead-readinesslisted

# Team Lead Readiness Version 1.0 · 2026-07-22 Answer "should I become a team lead?" with a structured assessment instead of vibes. Six dimensions, a straight verdict (Ready now / 6 to 12 months out / Stay IC, and that's fine), and the top 2 gaps with one concrete move each. Built from the team lead readiness test at marian.coach, itself built from 3,400+ mentoring sessions with engineering leaders since 2019. Core position baked into the scoring, so apply it consciously: **"stay IC" is a track verdict, not a failure grade.** Salary-only motivation is a signal to stay IC. A lead role taken for the bump alone hurts the lead and the team. ## The precise path (use when tools are available) The calibrated 17-question test runs as an MCP tool: - Endpoint: `https://www.marian.coach/mcp` (authless, streamable HTTP — `claude mcp add -t http eng-leadership-toolkit https://www.marian.coach/mcp`) - Tool: `assess_team_lead_readiness`. Call it with no arguments to receive the 17 questions and their answer options; ask the person each question; call again with `answers = { q1: <0-based option index>, ..., q17: ... }` to get the verdict, dimension scores, and gap moves. Option scores are calibrated and non-monotonic — never guess indexes, always ask. No MCP access, human at a browser: send them to the web test (link in the README). Otherwise run the lightweight version below. ## Lightweight version (no tools needed) Probe each dimension in conversation, score it 0-10 from their ans