As a Technical Program Manager (TPM), trust is your most valuable currency. It enables you to influence without authority, align diverse teams, and drive successful outcomes. But trust isn’t given—it’s earned. And unfortunately, it can be lost far more quickly than it...
Trust is the cornerstone of success for a technical program manager. Here, we will learn how to earn trust within an organization and how we, as TPMs, can build and sustain trust. As a TPM, your ability to uphold trust will define not only your success but also the...
Managing stakeholders as a Technical Program Manager (TPM) can feel like playing referee in a game where each player has different goals and rules—and sometimes, the rules change mid-game! Your ability to manage these dynamics while keeping the program on track is...
Innovation thrives when teams and individuals can make decisions and own their work. Without this freedom, creativity is stifled, and teams are left checking boxes instead of breaking new ground. When people are trusted to explore new ideas, test solutions, and fail...
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a powerful tool for leaders to drive focus, alignment, and measurable success across teams and technical programs. Whether you're a seasoned leader or exploring OKRs for the first time, mastering this framework can help transform...
One of the most understated qualities of a Technical Program Manager (TPM) is the ability to navigate and collaborate with difficult personalities. Whether managing strong-willed engineers, aligning stakeholders with differing priorities, or handling leadership's...
There are several reasons why I strongly encourage the TPMs I mentor to develop their personal TPM brand, particularly in today's highly competitive environment, where opportunities are often reserved for those who maintain visibility both within their organization...
Writing is a critical skill for Technical Program Managers (TPMs) and similar roles as it underpins many key responsibilities, including program management, stakeholder communication, and leadership. Documents are powerful communication tools for conveying ideas,...
As a Technical Program Manager (TPM), you are often faced with owning complex, ambiguous programs, tasked with unraveling details and learning on the job. The TPM role demands the ability to create and communicate a clear vision and strategy amid uncertainties....
After several TPM hiring drives and having hired and built large TPM teams where I have had to review several thousands of TPM resumes, here are my tips & checklists on what you need to keep in mind when re-writing and crafting a Technical Program Manager’s resume...
Over the last year and a half, I have been fortunate enough to serve as the ‘Chief of Staff’ (CoS) for a large technical organization. I have also been able to shadow various Chiefs of Staff within my company as well as at other tech organizations to understand their...
I was talking to a friend who is working at Amazon a few years ago, and he was telling me that he recently took up the role of a “Single Threaded Leader(STL)". After my conversation with him, I was left enlightened. It was Amazon that brought Technical Program...
As TPMs, use the authority that comes with our role. At other times, we indirectly use the authority…
One of the most frequently asked questions I get asked is, "Can you describe a day in the life of a TPM?". This question is quite challenging because numerous factors are involved, and the answers may vary accordingly. The truth is, no two days are the same, and...
This post is going to focus on a couple of methodologies and thought process on how to “Take It To The Next Level As A TPM”. We will focus on three types of methodologies to get promoted. I believe if you keep in mind these methods it will help you analyze where you...
Over the past years, I have bookmarked interesting TPM resources I came across. And now we have built it as a central repository of everything TPM. You will find links to blogs, youtube videos, engineering articles, community links, etc. The goal is that you do no...
In this post we are going to talk about the differences between Technical Program Managers vs Product Managers vs Product Managers - Technical vs Engineering Managers. Before we start going into the details of what each role does, it is probably good to call out that...
With quite the number of folks changing careers, starting off as TPMs, and even seasoned TPMs moving teams I thought it would be a good idea to put together a cheat sheet of what you should focus on “Your First 60 Days As A Technical Program Manager”. I have broken...
What is Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Scaled Agile Framework SAFe A proven, publicly available framework for applying Lean-Agile practices at enterprise scale and is the property of Scaled Agile, Inc. Every company big and small is following some variant of Agile....
Are there teams you have worked in that follow a flavor of an Agile implementation be it Scrum or TTD or Kanban to the letter? And if so do you do it because you feel the need to implement a method and all its guidelines or do you do it because it is what the team...
My previous post was about the components of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and their key indicators. To reiterate the 5 components of EQ are - Self-Awareness, Self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. As an individual EQ is a key skill. But if you think a...
When you talk to entrepreneurs or startups and organizations that are successful they all have one thing in common. They have been able to pivot from one strategy/idea to another and have a key culture to iterate through ideas. The more I look into this I have...
Emotional Intelligence has been around since 1964 but has gained significantly more popularity in the last 15 years. Emotional intelligence or EQ is the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others. Additionally, it is primarily the...
Depth vs Breadth vs SWAT Technical Program Managers. At all my previous roles I have been working as an embedded TPM. I have now been at my current gig for nearly a year where I have been a breath TPM. It's been an eye-opening experience, on how similar yet different...
A New Kind of Program Manager. A new role emerges at organizations where technology is at the core of products. As more organizations seek to build the latest and greatest tech advances, many of them are seeking a new type of program manager: a technical program...
The Technical Program Manager Career Path and growth is one of the most often asked questions. In this post, I will go into details of what I believe are the career paths to becoming a Technical Program Manager (TPM) and I will also share my personal journey on how I...
"The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results" This book is a quick and fantastic read. The synopsis here is about the author putting forward facts, stories, situations and techniques on why one must focus only on one thing at a time and...
Mute mapping is a variant of affinity mapping where no one speaks! Does that not sound interesting? This really helps when you have a team suffering from conflict or morale issues. It's a great way pull in and understand all the underlying tensions, issues, bottled...
This post is about the various roles and responsibilities that are most commonly used in the Project Management world and how they are similar and what the differences are. This post is also to set the ground rules for the following post on the detailed analysis of...
Continuous delivery is the implementation of the developing, compiling, deploying, testing, and releasing software in an automated fashion with an aim to compress the time to release. Continuous delivery or continuous integration aims to have a quick and automated...
A quick recap of the Agile Manifesto Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan. That is, while there is value in...
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