What KPIs would you look at to evaluate the success of a technical PM program?

I’ll try to answer this first question along with the question of - “What metrics do technical product teams look at to define success, what do you find to be the most important?“ because they are similar.

KPIs or Metrics are essentially a way to measure how successful your program or product is. There are a few traits any ‘metric’ should possess - they should be explainable, able to move/influence by the team, able to test for impact, without any bias and more importantly tied to the business goal you are trying to accomplish.

The metrics you’d want to define and track will likely vary based on factors such as - what type of program/product you are building (Eg: External consumer focused Vs Internal scale focused)?, what stage in the lifecycle it is in (Eg: Prototype Vs Growth Vs Mature), what matters to you within that lifecycle phase (Eg: During growth - User Acquisition Vs Revenue). Generally speaking you’d want to have a set of business (Eg: User growth, Revenue) and technical metrics (Eg: Availability, Latency) to provide a more balanced view.

And don’t be afraid of (re)defining your success measures as your products/programs evolve. One of the common pitfalls I see is technical product/program managers having a myopic focus on legacy metrics that has far outlived its purpose.