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The 'T' in TPM: Untangling Technical Challenges at Twitter
Boost your Technical Versatility with an understanding of data flows and system design.
James Dayhuff
October 10, 2023
(5 minute read)
👋 Hey TPM Craftsman, let’s get crafting.
This newsletter edition is focused on the Technical Versatility pillar.
What’s inside?
👨🏫 Learn: Getting Technical at Twitter, an illustrative example of Technical Versatility
🤝 People: Add a system design expert to your LinkedIn Network
📚 Resource: Up-level your Technical Versatility with a discount on this high-quality course bundle
Learn
👨🏫 Getting Technical at Twitter
In 2020, I joined Twitter as a Technical Program Manager, straight into the thick of a Data Privacy crisis. The objective? To secure the privacy of user data that were at risk due to years of accumulating tech debt.
😳 The Challenges
This wasn't just an "update the policy" kind of issue.
Technical Complexity: This was systemic. Emails and phone numbers were at risk across our entire tech stack, from the UI and APIs to storage and data-processing systems.
Organizational Complexity: To make matters more challenging, the initiative was struggling to get traction because of the sprawling impact across the company, which made it hard to find a reasonable owner to drive this through to success.
nervous! Giphy
🚀 Enter the TPM
Where other roles struggled due to the initiative’s breadth of impact, the role of TPM was positioned to shine. The initiative required someone to drive scaled execution of a strategically important initiative.
🤩 I was lucky enough to step into the driver’s seat. (or maybe not so lucky, depending on how you look at it, haha)
Because of my unique position as a TPM, I was able to:
Manage relationships across technical and non-technical stakeholders (ie legal, compliance, engineering, product)
Drive understanding on how personal user data flowed through the entire tech stake.
Create unified architectural diagrams that represented this complexity
Make a phased execution plan where each engineering team knew when they needed to be actively contributing.
As a result, we got the initiative back on track. It wasn’t an overnight change, but it was steady change to healthy execution.
(in the end…did we reach the program objective? The initiative was about 80% complete, and then Elon happened to Twitter and I was booted out. So the best answer I can give is “I hope so”.)
🎯 What are the take-aways?
The short story above is meant to be an illustrative example of one way the “T” in “TPM” can be seen in-practice. Here are a few suggested take-aways to boost your Technical Versatility:
Acknowledge Tech Debt: Never ignore it. Document it and make remediation plans.
Understand Data Flow: As a TPM, it’s crucial to grasp how data moves and transforms across systems. This knowledge is vital for managing complex projects like Data Privacy.
Architectural Diagrams: Be able to conceptualize and create diagrams that showcase how data interacts with various system components. This will help both in planning and communicating with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Master the SDLC: Understanding the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) equips you to synchronize various moving parts.
Take notes! Gif by abcnetwork on Giphy
(The recommended resource in today’s newsletter can help you up-skill in these areas. Check it out in the last section 👇)
People
🤝 You need to know this System Design Expert!
Since we’re talking about the “T” in “TPM”, you should really know Brij kishore Pandey.
Brij isn’t a TPM, he’s a principle software engineer. He regularly publishes System Design content on LinkedIn. To make it even better, his posts almost always include visuals!
Follow him, and you’ll level-up the “T” in your “TPM”.
Check out one of his popular posts on the topic of System Design:
Resources
📚 Up-level your Technical Versatility!
For today’s recommended resource, I’ve partnered with Zeeshan Syed (he’s definitely worth a follow on your Linkedin feed).
Do you ever feel like you’re not quite technical enough? Are the technical conversations of your engineering partners confusing you?
He has built two educational products to help you bridge the technical gap in your skillset:
Tech-Talk for Non-Developers (learn to easily understand technical jargon)
System Design. (how today's large-scale systems are built. The course is designed for anyone who never learned to code.)
💰 Because you subscribe to this newsletter, you get $20 off the two-course bundle. (discount code below 👇)
Don’t just believe my words, check out the Testimonials on his website. Here’s a sample of one testimonial…
This is a course that I've been needing since I started working in Tech Industry with no tech background, as it compiles not only the answers to the questions I had, but also the answers to the questions I didn't know I had.
Seriously, his courses will help you gain confidence in your engineering interactions and boost your impact as a technical program manager.
Bundle Course Discount Code: TPMCRAFT20
(Note: This discount is only for the two-course bundle, not the individual courses.)