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How would you define technical product management?

Vasanth Arunachalam
Meta Director, Technical Program Management | Formerly MicrosoftFebruary 3

I'll answer this question in combination with "How is the role of technical product manager different than other product managers?"

There is likely no formal definition of ‘technical product/program management’. Like I mentioned earlier, it is this fungibility aspect that makes this role a much sought after one in the industry right now. While a traditional product manager focuses on building products to solve consumer (or business) problems, a technical product manager takes it further to tackle highly complex technical problems in the pursuit of doing so.

Typically a technical product manager thrives in product areas with high technical complexity:

  • Platform/Infrastructure areas
  • Any product or program that requires massive cross-org/cross-company effort
  • Deep technical areas such as Integrity, AI/ML
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