Introduction to Technical Product Management

Introduction

Technical Product management is a dynamic, challenging role that requires you to be an expert in many different fields. For the last 15 years, I have worked as a Technical Product Management for various companies across industries. Because of the many skills involved, it can be hard to understand what makes a good technical product manager (TPM). In this blog post, I’ll take you through some of the key aspects of being a TPM and give you some tips on how to get started in this exciting field.

What do technical product managers do?

Technical product managers are responsible for the technical and business success of their product. They have a deep knowledge of the technical stack and the development process, which allows them to explore new features and suggest improvements. As an example, let’s say that you wanted to add a feature that would allow users in different countries to be able to pay with local currencies. A technical product manager would be able to help find this feature by collaborating with engineers who understand how payment systems work across multiple countries. In addition, they would understand how solution can and should integrate with the rest of the Tech stack.

Technical product managers can also act as bridges between business and engineering teams for alignment, when there are disagreements about how certain functionality should work or what technologies should be used in building it.

What is the difference between product management, software development, and technical product management?

Technical product management used to be a subset of product management and is an umbrella term used to describe the role of managing all aspects of software development. Most recently, I have experienced the rise of the TPM role at carious companies even before the PM role is hired. I believe the reason for this is because TPM are much more close to developers who, in Tech, are usually the first that need assistance building the product.

Technical Product Managers often have engineering backgrounds themselves or a deeper understanding of Tech, but they don’t necessarily need to be technical experts (although this certainly helps). I have often met people that are great TPM who have described themselves as “not technical enough to code, too technical to be a traditional product manager”. You should keep in mind that both Software Development and Technical Product Management require you to think critically about how users will interact with your products; however, only one focuses on coding solutions as opposed to analyzing user behavior patterns (i.e., what problems do our customers face?).

How do you explain technical product management to your business?

When you’re trying to explain technical product management, it can be difficult for business stakeholders who are used to working in a more structured environment. Developers might expect you, as the technical product manager (TPM), to know exactly what they need and when. They may also think that your role is all about managing people rather than managing products.

To help bridge this gap, here are some things you should keep in mind:

• Developers can often work with minimal guidance or supervision; however, they don’t usually have experience working within an organizational structure with multiple roles and responsibilities.
• Developers may not understand the process flow that goes on before and during development — and how important it is for them to follow those steps if we’re going to successfully ship new features! They also might not know how much input they’ll have into requirements gathering because they’ve never worked within such an environment before (or at least haven’t had any formal training around this yet).
• Business stockholders often don’t understand how involved it is to write code. They often expect everything done really quickly and a TPM should be there to shield her developers from the business pressures by setting the correct expectations.

How can I become a technical product manager?

If you’re interested in becoming a technical product manager, there are many ways for you to grow your career as one. A few of the most common paths include:

• Get a technical degree from an accredited university or college or?follow-me as I will be releasing a course on how to become a TPM
• Learn how to code and apply those skills as part of your job at a tech company.
• Take a course on product management that focuses on the unique challenges of working with products that solve technological problems.

How much does a technical product manager make?

How much does a technical product manager make?

A technical product manager makes an average annual salary of?$155,578?in the US according to Glassdoor, with the?top 25%?earning?over $200,000. According to Glassdoor’s report on “Best Paying Jobs in America” published in May 2019, tech professionals were listed as the highest paid employees with an annual salary range of $147,673-$268,927 depending on location and industry.

By comparison:

• An entry-level TPM makes about $119K?annually.
• An entry level product specialist (who isn’t necessarily technical) can expect to earn about $95k annually.

Technical Product management is a complex role with high impact and pay.

Technical Product Management is a complex role with high impact and pay. This is because a Technical Product Manager has to understand the technical side of their product, while also guiding its design and development. In order to do this effectively, they must have excellent communication skills and be able to work with both developers and designers.

There are many reasons why someone would want to go into technical product management:

• You might want more responsibility over your work than you get as an individual contributor (developer or designer).
• You like having control over what features get developed next in your company’s products.

Conclusion

The more you know about the technical product management role and how it can benefit your career, the better. Technical product management is a complex role that requires a deep understanding of both software development and business strategy. If this sounds like something you want to explore further, take some time to learn more about the role by taking my course (coming soon). You can also reach out directly to me so that I can help guide you along your journey! Thanks for reading my guide on becoming an expert in technical product management :)

Also on Medium: https://medium.com/@marinamalaguti/introduction-to-technical-product-management-6b4264491a63