TPM Mentoring
Feels like I am wasting a lot of time moving data between Jira and Excel and other tools, then manually writing reports/decks in Confluence and/or PowerPoint. Also chasing folks for updates in Slack and Jira comments. I’ve written my own Python-based tools to help but it’s a fragile stack and so far hasn’t paid off the time investment yet. Any TPMs work where this isn’t normal? I’ve been in two roles over four years and seems like there’s no great unified tooling for us. Don’t really know where to look for help as there aren’t courses or training available like with Product Management roles. (Even had to post in PM on Blind). (Would be amazing if a senior TPM (at FAANG or other bigtech) was available to mentor on Zoom or async messaging, but we’re all very busy) Edit: forgot Blind Tax: 200K
Do they let you be involved in technical discussions? Were you an engineer before a TPM? At GM we have TPMs that do it all, they're usually engineers turned TPMs so they participate in arch discussions, req reviews, process updates, meetings with leadership, conduct planning events, manage Jira and other workflows (but that's only 25% of what they do).
No, it’s not. Even when TPM’s are doing all the strategy stuff, execution is our main gig. So much of the role is hidden work IC’s don’t see. The reason we have valuable feedback in all the places you mentioned is because we are intimately familiar with the execution of all the programs in the portfolio buy nagging IC’s to provide updates, then getting those updates, unblocking issues, and synthesizing that info into the broader discussion be it technical or business. But IC’s get annoyed at “providing status” so we spend so much time just getting that info. Managing workflows may “only” be 25% of the job, but it actually takes 50% of our time, which means we either put in an extra 25% of your own time to get all the reporting stuff done, and still engage in all of the technical and business decisions. To the OP- I’ve worked everywhere from local gov to FAANG and it’s the same exact issue. G is the worst in terms of tooling. I custom built a whole TPM stack for a local gov with no money, and then they immediately bought an enterprise portfolio solution that my program executions stack couldn’t integrate with and was left to still move data from one place to another. The ROI was completely blown at that point. Happy to consult with you, but I don’t have a good solution.
Wasn't an SWE but have technical background (DevOps). I participate in much of the extra events and technical discussions to gather context and surface important things.
There’s also an opportunity to take a step back and figure out how moving data between Jira/Excel is or isn’t adding value to your org. Is there past data showing when these things did or didn’t happen it moved the needle for the program? I find it helps to ask 5 whys on anything I do. Why are you moving data between Jira/Excel? Whatever your answer, ask why on that too. Once you start getting to the root of those whys, start scanning for opportunities to make improvements. Help your eng teams be more efficient and effective. Don’t implement processes just for the sake of having a process or Jira cleanliness. And if I get stuck I find it helpful to think, what are the outcomes I want here? Use past data to show major or near misses. Use those to develop problem statements. Then propose hypotheses. “If we do action X, I expect we will see improvement Y”. Then prioritize, define owners, and ways to monitor progress.
Technical Program Managers or Technical Product managers ? What you describe sounds like the hell between water fall SDLC and Agile and a poor organizational culture. I could be totally wrong of-course :) Are you unhappy with your job or with your career path? If it’s a portion of the job - every job has crap one has to deal with. If it’s a career path, maybe consider reframing the problem statement so you can find something that you enjoy and make money. Happy to help.
FWIW your experience sounds pretty much like every TPM I’ve worked with.
But to be a bit more helpful: I think instead of looking for a mentor one thing you could do to show impact in your org is figure out specifically what the pain points are in your process / stack, come up with solutions, and advocate for them - even if it means leadership buying in to a new product.
This is helpful. I've fixed many of the pain points (was brought on as 1st TPM at my current role) but seem to be spinning my wheels the past few months as new process gets introduced faster than I'm able to to simplify and reduce existing process.