TPM Knowledge
The TPM Operating System Behind Large-Scale Program Execution
How a technical program manager actually runs a large program, from the first funding conversation to the hundredth status update.
TPM Knowledge
Leading Without Authority: The Operating System of a Technical Program Manager
Every technical program manager eventually runs into the same uncomfortable fact: you are accountable for outcomes you cannot command. The engineers do not report to you. The architects do not need your sign-off. The executive who set the deadline will not write a line of the code that meets
TPM Knowledge
PM, TPM, and EM: A Practical Framework for Technical Leadership Roles
For years, the question “TPM vs PM vs EM” quietly stressed me out. Not in a theoretical way, but in a very real “I have no idea what I actually want to be” way. Not because I was overthinking titles, but because my early career created a lot of mixed
TPM Knowledge
How to Build a Program Roadmap
A program roadmap is a shared decision about where you are going, not a list of dates. Most program roadmaps are a wall of bars on a timeline. Features down the left, months across the top, colored rectangles in the middle. It looks like a plan. It is really a
TPM Knowledge
Escalation Without Burning Bridges.
Escalate the problem, not the person Escalation is one of the most misunderstood tools a technical program manager has. Done wrong, it reads as an accusation: you went over someone's head, you made them look bad, you imported a fight. Done right, it is the fastest, cleanest way
TPM Knowledge
Managing Dependencies Across Teams
Make every dependency explicit, tracked, and owned Unmanaged dependencies are the number-one cause of preventable program slips. Not technical complexity, not headcount, not changing requirements. Dependencies. And here is the frustrating part: they are also the most predictable risk in any large program. A dependency that slips rarely surprises
TPM Knowledge
Leading 200 Teams Without Managing a Single One
Centralize the information, decentralize the work When I joined the a major tech company in 2022, reliability worked the way it does at a lot of places that copied the early Google model: a large site reliability engineering organization, with SREs embedded across every product. The split was simple on
TPM Knowledge
Building Trust With Engineering Teams
You have no authority over them. Trust is the only currency you actually have. A technical program manager runs work through people who do not report to them. No one on the engineering teams has to do what I ask. They have their own managers, their own roadmaps, their own