The Unwritten Rules of TPM That Nobody Tells You
I didn’t graduate from college thinking that I would go into Technical Program Management. Heck, I didn’t even know what that was. I thought I would use my Electrical and Computer Engineering degree to go design circuits. (Wouldn’t that have been a completely different life if I had somehow gotten into NVIDIA on the ground floor?)
Like many TPMs, I fell into the role. I started in a service department that had me troubleshooting both hardware and software problems. After a few years, I joined a media company as an engineer. While I sometimes touched production code, I mainly managed contractors to do much of the heavy lifting.
And that’s where my life as a TPM began.
Over the years, I was able to level up while gradually taking on more and more scope. I moved companies a couple of times even through the midst of being laid off at the start of the pandemic.
And I wish I had future Marcel to share with me these unwritten rules.
TPM Hidden Truths
Here’s what nobody tells you about being a Technical Program Manager. Number 4 will shock you! (j/k I mean, I dunno, maybe it will.)
1. To drive change, you need authority and respect, and you often need to influence people who don’t directly report into you.
This is especially true when you’re just starting out as a fledgling TPM, but even Senior TPMs require this skill. Whether small or enterprise-scale, you will need to Konami code your stakeholder management. And for those unfamiliar, that means you’ll be managing Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, B, A, Start. (Ok, maybe not B, A, Start.)
Start getting good at this today. How, you ask? By building social credit in your sphere of influence and there’s many ways to go about this.
2. Tradeoffs don’t just happen in your programs. You also need to make them throughout your own day.
When you start getting into managing multiple projects at once, you need to start managing your time and energy just as much as you do your project resources.
Long gone are the days where I could comfortably answer every email, text message, and Teams message while clearing out my to do list on a daily basis. You’ll need to figure out what is most worth your time and effort… right now.
I go into this in more detail in a previous post. You might want to check it out - Hard things don’t get easier, you just get stronger.
And this is a good segue into the next unwritten rule…
3. As much as you want to, you can’t do it all. Learn to rely on your program team (and allies you make along the way).
None of us can be Superman or Wonder Woman. Not if we want to live a somewhat balanced life outside of work at least.
You’ll need the cooperation of your own Justice League. Yes, even Aquaman because even he had his specific skill set that added value to the team.
Figure out what your program team’s respective strengths are and leverage them for the best possible deliverables.
4. It’s ok to not know the answer. Be transparent about it, give a timeframe on when you’ll get back to them, and actually do it.
I can’t even count the numbers of times I’ve said “I don’t know” in meetings. Trust me; it’s OK to do it. But you must either find the answer or find someone who can. That’s one way you start building trust and credibility.
5. Your greatest strength is your ability to connect.
One of the biggest myths about being a great TPM is that you must have developer-level expertise.
No, the best TPMs are the best connectors.
You could be in a standup for one of your development teams and overhear a blocker that they’re not able to deploy an emergency hotfix for a client due to a change in release processes. And it just so happens that you had lunch with the release manager last week. You offer to connect your team to them and BOOM you’ve helped solve the crisis.
More to come
It takes years to figure these things out on your own. I hope you’ve found an unwritten rule or two that resonated with you.
Your Min-Max action this week is to pick one of these unwritten rules and apply it at work.
Let me know how it worked out for you. And if I’ve missed an unwritten rule that’s helped you level up, I’d love to hear it.
Look out for the next round of TPM unwritten rules in a future post.
On the big screen (and lots of little ones too)
Huge update for all of you Min-Maxers: I’ve started a YouTube channel where I dive deeper into my posts. Check out the first video here. And if it resonates with you, do all the things: Like, Subscribe, and Share.