[jordan_clark]

My opinion is if you don't need a tech lead, great. But, most teams do. Someone needs to be there making a final decision. Also, it depends on the company and the type of team. If it is a government organization and the majority of the development team are contractors, a tech lead is most definitely needed to advocate in the best interests of the government entity. In this scenario, the tech lead would need to be a government employee.

[snarf21]

I also think it is hard enough to get the Tech Lead and Product Owner on the exact same page even with good requirements documents. If you give all team members the requirements and have them present them to each other in terms of vision and goal of the product, there is would be differences of understanding. I see the Tech Lead role as keeping everyone on the same vision and (in a lot of companies) organizing the team to be most effective.