Technical Influence For Technical Product Managers

A high-level overview of technical influence for technical managers and how one can earn it.

A technical product manager needs to influence the technical decision-making of the engineers. But does she need an engineering degree or experience? Image by Christina Morillo, available in Pexels.

A product manager for a digital product, e.g., a mobile app, an enterprise platform, etc., is often called a Technical Program Manager (TPM). In my opinion, a TPM neither needs a bachelor's degree in computer science nor to be a software engineer to build a digital product. Having a degree or experience helps, but they are not mandatory.

A TPM needs to partner with engineers in the product team for an effective roadmap. The partnership includes a buy-in of the product features, an agreement on the tech stack to back the roadmap, and awareness of engineering tradeoffs that will influence the experience of the features. The question is how can a product manager gets that partnership effectively without the degree or the experience.

The answer is technical influence. Technical influence is a soft skill of a TPM backed by an understanding of technology. It allows a TPM to cause a change in engineers' mindset on technical matters without the authority. It also means engineers trust the TPM to be accountable for the decisions and feel comfortable with ideation, development, operations, and the way of working to realize the product roadmap.