📌 The One Skill Separating Top TPMs from the Rest (and How to Build It)

issue #2 | date: 05/07/2025

Editors Note

First off, THANK YOU for subscribing! I'm thrilled you're here and can't wait to dive into all things delivery with you.

I love the fact that all of you are passionate about "getting stuff done"!

What kind of folks are we seeing subscribe?

Project & Program Managers – From Technical PMs to digital leaders to event organizers and construction project leads. The most obvious participants in this community, and yes, I might have a special soft spot for fellow TPMs because, well, that was me for years!

Implementation Managers – The unsung heroes making sure clients actually succeed with new software/hardware. You're juggling technical requirements, stakeholder expectations, and tight timelines while making it look easy. There was a time in my life when I installed physical hardware at colleges and university food halls (think kiosks/cash registers) and hooked up all the payment stuff on the backend. I got you.

Product Ops – The new kids on the block, creating the systems and processes that help product teams ship better stuff faster. This role is exploding right now as companies realize that execution matters as much as vision.

Service Delivery Managers – IT services, telecom, or consulting, you're translating complex solutions into real customer value. Not always glamorous, but absolutely critical. We see you, Deloitte.

PMO Leads & Portfolio Managers – The strategic thinkers scaling delivery practices across organizations. I'll be sharing plenty on leadership challenges and organizational design that I think you'll find useful. As a former head of PMO, I have tons of lessons learned.

Change Managers – Because delivery without adoption is just expensive waste! Your focus on the human side of implementation deserves more attention than it gets.

Project Schedulers, Controllers, & Engineers – The technical specialists who turn delivery frameworks into reality. Your specialized expertise often flies under the radar but makes or breaks complex initiatives.

And hey - shout out to the engineers, product managers, designers, testers & other cross-functional roles who care about delivery excellence!

In this issue

• Job Openings for the week

• Why Deborah Liu Is Changing Tech Leadership As We Know It

• Weekly Recommendations from the community

• Why Technical Understanding Makes or Breaks Your TPM Career

• And lots of ways to join us, support us, and give feedback

See you all next week!

Phedra Arthur Iruke

Editor in Chief

Now Hiring

Featured Job Listings

🏆 Top 3 Picks of the Week (Hand-Picked, High-Impact Roles)

Role: VP Global Head of Program Management, CDMO

Company: Fujifilm | Leadership 

Location: Remote
Why it’s great: This is a rare opportunity to lead global program management at the forefront of biopharmaceutical innovation, driving end-to-end delivery across a rapidly growing CDMO business within FUJIFILM. You'll shape strategic partnerships and operational excellence on a global scale in a highly visible executive role.
Apply here: [Direct Job Link]

Recruiter Contact: Rachel Savitt, https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-savitt-bb6bb12/

Role: Director of Program Management

Company: SkyGrid, a Boeing Company | Leadership 

Location: Remote
Why it’s great: SkyGrid, a joint venture between Boeing and SparkCognition, is revolutionizing autonomous aviation with cutting-edge AI and airspace management technology. As Director of Program Management, you’ll play a pivotal role in delivering next-gen aviation solutions while leading high-impact, cross-functional programs at the forefront of aerospace innovation.
Apply here: [Direct Job Link]
Recruiter Contact: Jennifer Moreno, https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifervmoreno/

Role: Vice President, Delivery Excellence

Company: Portage Point Partners | Leadership

Location: Hybrid (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, LA, NY, Philadelphia)
Why it’s great: Portage Point Partners is a dynamic advisory firm recognized for its transformative work in turnaround, performance improvement, and complex transactions across diverse industries. As Vice President of Delivery Excellence, you'll drive strategic program execution and operational rigor, shaping the firm’s ability to deliver high-impact outcomes for its clients.
Apply here: [Direct Job Link]
Recruiter Contact: Elyse Murphy, https://www.linkedin.com/in/murphyelyse/

📌 More Hiring Now

Visionary Voices 

📝 Weekly Spotlight: Why Deborah Liu Is Changing Tech Leadership As We Know It

Deborah Liu instantly comes to mind when I think of pioneers reshaping leadership in Silicon Valley. As Ancestry's CEO and author of "Take Back Your Power," she's not just another tech executive—she's redefining what leadership looks like, especially for those of us who've rarely seen ourselves reflected in boardrooms.

I met Deborah during her Facebook (now Meta) days when Women in Product was just taking shape. I was scraping by & couldn't swing a ticket to the live event in San Francisco when her team released a handful of sponsored spots so that folks like me could attend. That single opportunity changed everything for me.

Suddenly, I was rubbing shoulders with industry titans:

• Cheryl Contee taught me to stop apologizing for my accomplishments.

• Megan Quinn emphasized how kindness compounds like interest.

• Connie Chan showed how a global perspective creates an innovation advantage.

• Jess Lee demonstrated how well-crafted feedback transforms careers.

• Selina Tobaccowala reinforced the invaluable nature of our professional relationships.

Deborah's business acumen in scaling platforms like Facebook Marketplace makes her exceptional. It's how she approaches leadership through empathy and strategic clarity.

Her book offers more than inspiration; it provides tactical guidance for claiming your rightful place at the table. As she puts it:

For anyone looking to lead authentically while making lasting impact, Deborah's approach is the masterclass we've been waiting for.

Personal Development

📚 Why Technical Understanding Makes or Breaks Your TPM Career

I've interviewed hundreds of project and program managers over the years, and there's a pattern that concerns me: many struggle to articulate the actual problems their projects solved. Even more concerning? A surprising number can't explain the underlying technology that made their solution better, faster, or cheaper than alternatives.

Imagine applying to work on Google Maps without understanding stream processing. Or leading a machine learning deployment without grasping how model training works. Technical context isn't just "nice to have" – it's the difference between being respected as a partner versus being seen as just another meeting scheduler.

Why TPMs Must Understand the Tech Behind the Work

Technical Program Managers aren't just coordinators, they're the connective tissue between engineering, product, and business strategy. To lead effectively, TPMs need to understand the systems they're helping to deliver. Here’s a quick and dirty list of relevant technologies being used in everyday products and services. There’s no time like the present to dive into YouTube University.

1. System Design: DBs, Caches, Queues, and Design Tradeoffs

Understanding how systems are architected — from choosing between SQL and NoSQL databases, to implementing cache layers (like Redis) or message queues (like Kafka) — helps TPMs guide tradeoff conversations around latency, scalability, and reliability. Without this context, it's easy to misalign scope, underestimate risk, or miscommunicate feasibility to stakeholders.

2. Batch Processing Systems

Batch systems (e.g., payroll processing, nightly ETL jobs) are often the backbone of large-scale platforms. A TPM who understands dependency graphs, job orchestration, and failure recovery can better prioritize releases and communicate timing expectations with precision — especially when downtime or reprocessing carries real business cost.

3. Stream Processing Systems

From Netflix's recommendation engine to real-time traffic updates in Google Maps, modern applications increasingly rely on stream processing. TPMs need to grasp how data flows through systems like Apache Flink or Kafka Streams to unblock engineers, shape scalable solutions, and evaluate the cost/benefit of "real-time" vs "near-time" decisions.

4. Monetization & Business Architecture

Technical systems don't exist in a vacuum — they drive business models. TPMs who understand monetization levers (e.g., ad placement logic, conversion funnels, billing systems) can align teams around what matters most: value delivery. Whether optimizing payments or ad auctions, context is key.

5. AI & Machine Learning (LLMs, NLP, Deep Learning)

With AI increasingly embedded in modern products, TPMs must understand the building blocks of LLMs (Large Language Models), deep learning, and natural language processing — not to build models, but to align data scientists, manage experimentation cycles, and assess how ML systems integrate with product pipelines. Knowing when to apply supervised vs unsupervised learning or how model drift impacts performance can make or break delivery timelines.

6. Emerging Technologies

From edge computing and quantum encryption to Web3 and spatial computing, emerging technologies are reshaping product delivery. Great TPMs stay curious — tracking trends, understanding how tech like AR/VR or blockchain intersect with user needs, and preparing teams to prototype, test, and adapt. Staying ahead of the curve means you're not just reacting to innovation — you're orchestrating it.

Bottom line: The best TPMs aren't expected to code — but they are expected to think like engineers, speak like product managers, and deliver like business leaders.

Technical depth isn't a nice-to-have. It's your job. 🙂

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