The Pursuit of Happiness – For TPMs

No matter where you are or what you do, at the end of the day, all of us are travelers in the journey of life inching towards the very own quest of our Pursuit of Happiness. How we get there equates to the decisions we make along the way.

Having said that, this is my take on understanding the fundamental pieces that make up a Technical Program Manager’s pursuit of happiness in his career and work. Though this is geared towards TPMs  I believe it’s quite reusable, by Devs, Designers, or whatever your role might be.

I believe individual happiness at work can be affected by one of the below five factors.

Happiness  Factors:-

1. Alignment with the Manager. 
2. Interest in the product or feature team.
3. Organization / Company Culture.
4. Salary.
5.  Or you want to do something entirely different!

Alignment with the Manager

It’s often said that people do not leave organizations but they leave managers. Managers are your role models, your mentors, and your guides. They are someone you are entrusting your career and well-being with.  If you have a misalignment with your manager and don’t see eye to eye on the most critical things then it’s going to be tough.

I always tell candidates who have received offers to have a sit down with the manager to see if they see themselves enjoying their time working with their new manager and can establish a good rapport.  The thing is if you don’t really click with your manager you are already off to a rocky start.

I believe over the years tech organizations have downplayed what a Functional Manager needs to be doing and the fact that he needs to grow and mentor every individual who is reporting to him.

For a Technical Program Manager, it is imperative that their manager enables them to:-

1. Understand the TPMs skill gaps.
2. Enable, on job learning by creating a learning plan.
3. Expand the impact of the TPM.
4. Get feedback from the teams & people the TPM is interacting with.

As humans, we all grow and our needs change as well. What my career needs were 5 years ago are not my needs now. As an individual, we need to dig deep down to understand what our needs are and have open conversations with our managers to understand how they can fulfill our needs. It’s important to note that at times he/she may not be able to fulfill your needs and if not they point you to the right mentors in your organization who could help you.

Finding the right  Product or Feature team

Much of what a Technical Program Manager’s career path looks like is in direct relation to what he is tasked to do. It is important to fully understand the product team you are supporting.  What stage of the product life-cycle is your team at? Are they building out a POC ? or are taking a lot of traffic? Is the main responsibility of the team you are part of to “keep things running”? Where in the customer lifecycle does your team actually come in? Answering these types of questions helps you foresee the type of work you will be doing.

Sometimes you might not be interested in certain products of features. I was once responsible for the Search feature. It was very interesting but it was not something I really enjoyed. You might be a TPM for a data analytics team but you might be more inclined to do something creative like a Front End TPM. So it’s important to understand what you like and what you are tasked to do.

Organization / Company Culture

I wont name names 🙂 but there are places that are very relaxed vs organizations that are known to move at the speed of light. There are so many aspects of the company culture that you need to consider before joining an organization. Sometimes you would also need to consider a team’s culture and outlook. Some teams are so much fun to work with while others might be drowning with tech debt. Therefore understanding the culture of the team and organization are key.

Salary

This would be one of the key reasons most people are unhappy. The salary/pay has most certainly become a key issue of contention and a reason employees become unhappy and demotivated. When he believes that he is not being compensated on par with industry standards or if he feels undervalued he becomes disinterested and resentful. So bottom line the paycheck matters for most of us !! 

See also – A detailed blog on TPM Salary

You want to do something entirely different!

Yes, this is a possibility. There are a good number of people who don’t want to do what they are doing. They don’t really like the corporate life,  nor do they like working for someone else. Whatever it is that you want to do plan for it and go ahead and do it.

Regrets later, Take action, You do not need permission from anyone to go do it. Its your dreams and its entirely in your hands don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Whatever excuse you tell yourself it’s just an excuse that is impeding you from executing on it.

Is it easy .. hell no

Conclusion  

It all comes down to what makes YOU happy. You need to ask yourself that question. Its only you who can answer it.

The thing is, that at the end of the day your life is entirely in your hands to make it happen. “Its never too late to be what you might have been” – George Elliot

I always tell people if you are unhappy understand why you are unhappy and move on to find a new team, organization, or manager.  It is never good to sit a mope about things that you are not in control.  So pick yourself up and move on !

Mario Gerard