Are you looking to advance your career and don’t know where to start? If you are proficient in technical problem solving, have a background in computer science or engineering, and are great with data analysis, you might be a good fit for the role of technical product manager.
What is a technical product manager, and what kind of experience and education is required? Can you work from home as a technical product manager? What sort of salary do technical project managers make? Read on as we answer these questions and more to learn more about technical product manager jobs.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Technical Product Manager (TPM)?
- What Is the Typical Trajectory of a Technical Product Management Career?
- Technical Product Management: Skills and Qualifications for Success
- What Does the Future of Technical Product Management Look Like?
- Technical Product Manager Jobs
- What Is the Difference Between a PM and a TPM?
- Make Your Job as a Technical Product Manager Easier With Tools From AnnounceKit
What Is a Technical Product Manager (TPM)?
Technical product management is a multifaceted role that involves handling the technical portion of product management. Technical product managers represent a company resource for technological know-how, so it is expected that anyone in this role has a background in relevant technology in addition to management skills.
Technical product managers tackle complex, technical problems and often act as a conduit of information between engineering teams and business teams.
What Does a Technical Product Manager Do?
Technical product managers have a lot of responsibilities, including:
- Defining tech team requirements: A technical product manager has to know the technical needs of the company in and out. This includes being able to define the technological needs of the company
- Development of best practices and milestones: A tech product manager is responsible for outlining the tech team’s best practices, their course of action, and milestone deadlines for the product.
- General tech supervision: Technical product managers are, above all else, responsible for the product’s technical aspects. Technical product managers oversee the product’s tech aspects and ensure they align with current standards.
These are just a few general responsibilities of technical product managers. Keep in mind that the scope of any technological product manager’s responsibilities depends on the product itself. From apps to medical programs to delivery services — each tech product manager’s job will be as unique as the result.
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Technical Product Manager Day-To-Day Responsibilities
Descriptions of technical product manager positions can seem frustratingly vague. What are the day-to-day responsibilities of a technical product manager?
As always, it varies depending on the company and the product in question. However, here are a few examples of technical product manager responsibilities day-to-day:
- Review current products and make decisions on improvements and revisions.
- Analyze current market research and user feedback from products and implement this data to design tech changes.
- Design and conduct beta tests for the product.
- Meet with other members of the product team, including:
- Business team
- Development team
- Product engineering
- Quality assurance
- Software development
These meetings and sharing of information can be done via email and e-meetings, allowing many technical product managers to work from home. More on that later!
Why Are Technical Product Managers Important?
You know a technical product manager’s job description, but why are TPMs important to a company or organization?
Basically, technical product managers act as navigators for the product, as well as the nexus of information for various teams working towards different goals.
Technical managers act as problem solvers and help navigate the roadmap of the product. Without them, it would be difficult to collaborate with engineering teams and product designers and integrate customer feedback.
What Is the Typical Trajectory of a Technical Product Management Career?
Where should you start if you want to become a technical product manager, and where can a TPM role take you?
Technical product management is a problem-solving and design-based role, so it helps to have a lot of experience in the technical realm as well as management experience. Many TPMs start out in roles such as:
- Business Systems Analyst: This role already combines business with technical know-how, which is a great transition to a TPM role.
- Software Development and Design: A technical product manager needs to know everything about the product they are creating and its design. A background in software development and engineering is helpful for this.
- IT Management: Technical product management is all about solving problems on a technical level — it’s right there in the name! Therefore experience in IT, especially IT management, can set you up for a TPM career.
- Data Analyst: The technical product manager is responsible for collecting and interpreting data relevant to their product and how it works. This can be customer feedback, stats on how quickly the program works, etc. Someone with data analyst experience will be equipped to transition to a TPM role.
After someone enters a TPM role, they may be able to climb the corporate ladder to other positions. A technical product manager role can lead to senior positions such as senior product manager or senior IT/Data Analyst roles.
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Manage your product announcements from a single place and easily distribute them
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Technical Product Management: Skills and Qualifications for Success
Education and Other Prerequisites
There are certain educational and experience qualifications to become a technical product manager. While there is no one specific educational background required, generally a TPM has:
- At least a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field aka computer science, IT, or engineering
- Two to five years in a technical role
- Team management and business experience
Qualifications to be a TPM include:
- Extensive background in software development and engineering with strong technical and software skills
- Leadership skills and experience
- Knowledge of software development roadmaps and procedure
Hard Skills
Hard skills are specific, teachable skills a person must be proficient in for a role. For a technical product manager, these hard skills include:
- Knowledge of data analyst software to interpret data on user experience, product speed, competitor products, etc.
- Experience designing and executing different product roadmaps, aka plans that carry the product from conception to reality
- Expansive knowledge of the company’s product
- Software development and design
- Experience with beta testing and analyzing user data.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are harder to define than hard skills. Soft skills impact how you work with others and manage your working time. These skills are harder to teach, as they tend to be general interpersonal skills. The soft skills required for a good technical product manager include:
- Team communication: A TPM is a conduit of information between technical, engineering, and business teams. Being able to effectively communicate between these teams in a way everyone can understand is a must for the role.
- Ability to set realistic time management goals: A technical product manager is paid not just for their skills, but also their expertise. A good TPM can tell you how long a product will take to develop as well as implement a roadmap that aligns with that timeline
- Taking and implementing feedback: A big part of the TPM role is analyzing customer data and implementing feedback. If you struggle to accept constructive feedback, you may not be a good fit for a TPM role
What Does the Future of Technical Product Management Look Like?
As the world evolves towards online commerce and app-based businesses become more popular, the roles of technical product managers will only increase. As of now, there are over 20,000 people employed in TPM roles, and that number is expected to grow as time goes on.
Technical product management and its prerequisite roles, such as IT and software development, are great career choices for long-term employment goals.
Technical Product Manager Jobs
Looking for a TPM job? Here are just a few household brand names that are hiring technical product managers right now:
- Project Manager, Technical – Mastercard
- Senior Technical Product Manager – Staples
- Principal Technical Product Manager – GE Healthcare
- Digital Product Manager III – 7-Eleven
Remote Technical Project Management Jobs
Remote working is the future, especially for digitally based jobs. If you are looking for a career in technical project management that allows you to work from home, you are in luck! Here are just a few:
- Technical Project Manager – Dice
- Technical Project Manager – Dynamo AI
- Technical Project Manager – Leverege
- Technical Project Manager – Splunk
TPM Jobs That Pay 100K+
One of the big benefits of technical project manager roles is the compensation. Here are a few TPM jobs that pay over 150K a year:
- Technical Project Manager – Logistics Management Institute
- Product Manager – Sown to Grow
- Technical Project Manager, Cloud – Telestream LLC
- Technical Project Manager – Powin
What Is the Difference Between a Project Manager and a Technical Project Manager?
What sets a technical product manager apart from a project manager? Well, the answer is both simple and complicated: the technical portion of the job.
Some companies use these titles interchangeably, and lots of “regular” project managers participate in the technical side. However, typically product managers focus more on the business portion of guiding a product. This includes things like:
- Marketing strategy
- Price research
- Sales strategy
- Business communications
This is opposed to a TPM. They are more focused on:
- What technology the product requires
- How that technology is implemented
- Acting as a conduit between engineering, software design, and business departments
- User data and fixing technological bugs
The key differences between a technical product manager and a project manager are:
- Skill set: Project managers typically act as diplomats between all business departments and require more communication soft skills. Technical project managers require more hard skills to tackle the technical issues on the job, such as engineering and software design.
- Product roadmap focus: a PM is focused on the business and user needs of the product, which can include everything from marketing to design to negotiations with stakeholders. A TPM is more focused on the tech roadmap, as in what kind of tech the product needs and how to fix bugs.
- Team interaction: Both a PM and a TPM are expected to work with everyone, but a PM focuses more on marketing, sales, and stakeholder teams (aka the “business” end) while a TPM works with engineering, IT, and software design teams.
Make Your Job as a Technical Product Manager Easier With Tools From AnnounceKit
Being a technical product manager is all about finding simple, technology-based solutions to complex problems. No one understands that more than AnnounceKit.
You work hard on your product updates and new features, and you want your customers to know about them ASAP. That is where AnnounceKit comes in. From instant product updates to direct feature requests, AnnounceKit allows technical product managers to interact with the customer base like never before!
Check out our website and learn how AnnounceKit can make your TPM job easier, faster, and better!
Quick Setup, Easy to Use, and Many Integrations
Manage your product announcements from a single place and easily distribute them
across multiple channels.
