TPM Blog

In January, I shared some tips on how to set goals for meaningful impact. In this post, I want to go in depth on the best ways to achieve impact as a TPM - results that count as a win-win for you and the team/org. At Facebook, there is a lot of focus on impact and rightfully so because the results you can achieve are more important than the effort you put in. You can spend hours on some activity, but if the output doesn’t have desired results, your effort is wasted. For exam

TPMs are not always well understood. I have come across countless myths about this role. The TPM role can be broad and fuzzy which often...

Happy New Year! It is a brand new year and a perfect time to retrospect and set goals for the year. As a TPM, you often have project/program goals that you are working towards. We need to apply some of the same principles to personal and professional goals. In order to reach your goals, you have to be intentional. It is like mapping out your route before you get into the car. Setting goals helps you be more strategic and protects you from getting bogged down by day to day fir

The most common mistake I have seen TPMs make is not understanding the difference between doing work and achieving meaningful impact. As a TPM, checking off a list of tasks seems fulfilling and we often naively think of it as achieving results. Every TPM spends some amount of their time doing tactical work such as jira backlog grooming, writing status reports or creating timelines. However, in order to grow and learn how to achieve excellence as a TPM, you need to demonstrate

I have received many requests from folks who want to transition to the TPM role from engineering roles. I often ask them about the motivation - what is it about the Engineering to TPM role transition that they like. Collaborating with people or ability to see the big picture are common reasons. My own career started out as a software engineer and I distinctly remember the project where I ended up wearing multiple hats and loved it. I also saw very strong program managers who

The “T” in TPM is very crucial and differentiates TPMs from other types of program managers. TPM is a technical role where individuals work with multiple technical teams. The technical skills form the foundation of the TPM core skills. If you come from an engineering background, it is often easier to transition into a TPM role. The audience for this article are primarily folks who are coming from non-technical backgrounds, hold non-technical roles in the tech industry or have

Today, I wanted to take a different angle and share some tips for teams and organizations who are starting to hire TPMs, to help them scale and be more efficient. However, many times teams and orgs make the mistake of thinking of TPM as someone who can help scale another individual like an engineering manager or do the tasks you don’t have the time for or don’t want to do. Think of a TPM as a strategic partner, someone who will make your vision come to life. Top Strategies to

Are you the first and only TPM on a team? Are you overwhelmed and don’t know where to start? Are you facing a lot of pushback? I hope this post will help you figure out the best path forward. Firstly, congratulations on being the first TPM on a team. This challenge is actually a huge opportunity if you can stay focused and carve the path forward. You will have the ability to define the role of TPM and influence the set up the TPM function. You may get the opportunity to lead

This is the last part in the Demystifying TPM Responsibilities series. You can read Part 1 and Part 2. In this last part, I will focus on TPM Collaboration Responsibilities and Alignment aspects. A TPM’s role involves a lot of influencing without authority and therefore aligning with your stakeholders becomes crucial to a program’s success. Creating alignment, influencing peers and persuading leadership often requires a TPM to have sharp soft skills :-). I consider it the m

This post is a continuation of my previous post on Demystifying TPM Responsibilities where I focused on the program management aspects of the role. As I mentioned previously, good program management and planning is required for setting up a solid foundation upon which you can execute. A robust communication strategy is integral to the program execution strategy, comprising various communication responsibilities essential for success. Manage communication within the organizati

If you are looking to find a new TPM opportunity, you have probably looked at many TPM job descriptions posted on LinkedIn and other similar sites. Often they list out a set of responsibilities expected from the role. If you want to have a successful TPM career then you must have the required program management skills to accomplish your goals. The core responsibilities in every TPM job description fall under the following categories. Program planning and tracking Communicatio

A Technical Program Manager (TPM) is a special type of program management role often found in the tech field. The definition of TPM largely varies from company to company or even team to team. You have most likely heard of the titles Technical Project Manager and Technical Product Manager, both of which can be abbreviated to ‘TPM’. However, for this topic, I will focus on TPM as in Technical Program Manager. To get an understanding of the TPM role, let’s start with the basics