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👨‍🏫 Book Review: Technical Program Manager's Handbook

The TPM Handbook (2nd edition), written by Joshua Teter, should be on every TPM’s bookshelf.

It is exactly what it claims to be: A handbook to guide you through all aspects of the TPM role. It certainly is a resource I wish I had when I started my TPM journey, and it is a resource that is still beyond my own capability today to produce.

Joshua is operating at a whole different level as a TPM, as evident by his major contributions to the TPM Craft cutting across the industry.

For those of you who appreciate the structured, pragmatic approach of the PMP world, this book will feel like a perfect fit.

There are many fundamental skills covered in this book that are absolutely necessary to being a high-impact TPM (such as managing the program lifecycle, leadership, system design, etc). All of those are top quality.

But this review will focus on the sections that set this book apart from other TPM books. These sections prove that Joshua has years of experience to grasp the nuances of the role as well as his ability to stay relevant.

Here’s what we’ll look at:

• Emotional Intelligence for Technical Program Managers

• Driving Clarity as a central feature to everything for TPM’s

• Using Generative AI as a Technical Program Manager

Let’s dive in.

Emotional Intelligence for Technical Program Managers

I’m going to start with one of my favorite unique sections in his book: Emotional Intelligence.

Why do I love this section so much? Because Emotional Intelligence is one of the biggest underlying factors that sets up a person to be a high-impact TPM.

Joshua takes it a step further by breaking down EQ into 4 components:

1. Self-awareness

2. Self-regulation

3. Empathy

4. Social Skills

Each one builds on the previous, check it out: Without self-awareness, you cannot self-regulate. Without self-regulation, you cannot appreciate other people’s experiences and adjust accordingly, ie empathy. Without empathy, you cannot navigate social networks effectively to influence without authority.

The longer I’ve been in my career as a TPM, the more I become convinced that TPM’s are not only change agents, but we are leaders through changing environments. We can be the anchors to navigating challenging situations.

And EQ is at the very heart of being able to do that well.

Check out one of Joshua’s latest LinkedIn posts sharing some detail of this section of his book:

Driving Clarity as a central feature to everything for TPM’s

Joshua takes a full chapter to highlight the importance of driving clarity. It is a foundational skill, he says, that doesn’t necessarily apply to a single part of the role of a Technical Program Manager, but rather all throughout it.

As you progress through your TPM career, you’ll experience greater and greater levels of ambiguity. Driving clarity is a skill acting as a consistent thread or theme through each level, but grows in proportion with the ambiguity. (this topic actually relates heavily to one of my formers posts on ambiguity: The 5 Levels of Ambiguity).

What can happen when you don’t drive clarity early enough?

• Scope creep, which happens especially quickly when requirements are not well understood.

• Gold plating, or the continual addition of features or enhancements never asked for.

• Cross-org impacts, or when your project has conflicts with others across the company.

• Sneaky risks, or the lack of risk management early on causes chaos down the road.

Driving Clarity is one of the most foundational skills that a TPM must acquire and apply to all aspects of the job.

This chapter in The TPM Handbook does an excellent job expanding on what that looks like in practice. The fact that there’s a whole section dedicated to it

Using Generative AI as a Technical Program Manager

I imagine the future professional world that my kids will grow up in. Knowing how to effectively use Generative AI will be as common as today’s skills of excel, googling, and using google docs.

Luckily, this 2nd edition of The TPM Handbook has an entire chapter dedicated to the topic. This section on Generative AI for TPM’s is one of the major additions from Joshua that keeps this book on the bleeding edge of our craft.

I personally use Generative AI tooling for generic use cases on a weekly basis, so I was really excited to dive in.

This section goes beyond simple use cases applicable to TPM’s. Joshua reviews the fundamentals of Generative AI and how it relates to machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning.

Perhaps the most actionable portion of this chapter is focused on Prompt Engineering, which Joshua explains as “learning how to most effectively ask a question for a GenAI system to get the most accurate and detailed answer.

The next sections are focused on key use cases where GenAI can be applied as a TPM:

• Project Planning

• Dependency Mapping

• Risk Management

• Stakeholder Management and Communication

• Bridging Communication Gaps in Software Development

Perhaps most important in this section is the continual reminder that GenAI has fundamentally changed the landscape for software development and any associated roles, like ours.

A word of caution, though.

Most Generative AI tooling assumes you opt-in with data sharing back to the model. This can be dangerous if you begin sharing proprietary company information (such as code, financials, or strategic plans).

If you’re uncertain of how to proceed, do the following:

1. Check if your company has a GenAI Policy. If not, be extra cautious.

2. Always explore ways to turn off data sharing unless you’re using GenAI for personal reasons, which is then up to you on your data sharing preferences.

3. Stay generic in your prompt engineering efforts.

With proper safeguards, you can still take advantage of Generative AI to amplify your impact as a Technical Program Manager. 

Recap

The TPM Handbook (2nd edition) is comprehensive, methodical, and relevant. If you’re aspiring to grow your skills in The TPM Craft, then this book is a must.

It isn’t necessarily a “read it front to back” once you get it, though. I have found a ton of value treating it as a reference book, reviewing various aspects the TPM Craft as necessary.

For that reason, it will always have a spot on my bookshelf as a reliable reference to improve my skills within the TPM Craft.

Check out the link below to get your copy!

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Resources

📚 Grab your copy of The Technical Program Manager’s Handbook!

Without further explanation, grab your copy today! This isn’t a sponsored post, so I don’t have any valuable discount to offer. It really is just a valuable resource.