So, you’re looking to hire a technical product manager (TPM)?
Knowing what skill set to look for in potential candidates is critical to finding the right fit for your team.
A TPM plays a key role in bridging the gap between business objectives and technical execution. Bridging that gap however depends heavily on the team you have and the tech stack you're working with.
So know what required skills you are looking for with a TPM. That way your product is developed efficiently and aligned with market needs.
In this article, we’ll dive into the essential skills and competencies that make a great TPM should have to help you in making the right choice.
Core competencies of a technical product manager
While somewhat similar to a product manager, a technical product manager operates at the intersection of business strategy and technology execution. TPMs must possess a deep understanding of product strategy while also communicating effectively with technical and non-technical teams. Below are the core competencies that define a successful technical product manager.
Understanding product strategy and vision
Market research and user empathy: Understand the target market by analyzing trends and customer behavior.
Defining product goals and success metrics: Defining the product’s purpose and key success metrics is critical for guiding development and measuring impact after launch.
Prioritization of features and roadmap management: Make decisions on what features to prioritize. Balance business impact and technical feasibility to manage the product roadmap.
“Know how to work with pressure: understand what are the most important points based on the client's request and how to prioritize them. That is an essential skill of a TPM”—Vitor Carnello, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
Product lifecycle management: Oversee the entire product lifecycle and ensure that the product evolves in line with market demands.
Creating and maintaining a product vision: Define and maintain a clear vision of the product that aligns with business objectives and customer needs.
Technical expertise and communication
Understanding software architecture and development processes: A foundational knowledge of how software systems are designed and developed is a must.
Communicating technical requirements to non-technical stakeholders: Ability to translate complex technical concepts into language that non-technical stakeholders can understand.
Technical decision-making: Evaluate different technical solutions and assess trade-offs to make decisions that balance speed, scalability, and cost.
Bridging business and technical teams
One of the key roles of a TPM is maintaining alignment between the business and technical teams. This alignment keeps development efforts focused on delivering value to customers while meeting business objectives.
Translating business requirements into technical specifications
Gathering and documenting requirements: Work closely with stakeholders to gather detailed business requirements and translate into clear, actionable technical specifications for the development team.
Maintaining a shared understanding of product goals: Keep business and technical teams aligned with a unified understanding of the product’s goals.
Balancing business goals with technical feasibility: Assess how well business goals align with what is technically feasible and make corrective decisions.
Defining key performance indicators (KPIs): Establish KPIs that align with both technical execution and business success.
Aligning product development with business goals
Continuous feedback loops with stakeholders: Create ongoing feedback loops between technical teams and business stakeholders.
Tracking product performance and business impact: Monitor product performance metrics to ensure that it delivers the intended business impact.
Adapting the roadmap based on market changes: Provide adjustments to the product roadmap in response to market conditions or feedback from users.
Risk management and mitigation: Proactively identify potential risks in both technical and business domains. Create plans to mitigate these risks while keeping development on track.
Collaboration and stakeholder management
A TPM must have the interpersonal skills necessary to work effectively with a variety of stakeholders to maintain alignment and smooth product delivery. Their role often includes managing cross-functional collaboration, communication, and keeping all teams aligned on product goals and progress.
Facilitating cross-functional team communication
Building strong relationships with cross-functional teams: Build trust and strong relationships with development, marketing, sales, and support teams. Foster collaboration across departments to work toward shared product goals.
Establishing clear communication channels: Effective communication is key to avoiding misunderstandings and project delays.
Conflict resolution and mediation: Resolve conflicts and mediate solutions to maintain progress and keep teams focused on their objectives.
Clarifying roles and responsibilities: Clearly define and communicate the roles and responsibilities of each team member within the product development process.
Managing interdepartmental dependencies: Monitor and manage dependencies between teams and minimize bottlenecks.
“Manage team and priorities is an absolute must for a TPM.”—Vitor Carnello, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
Managing stakeholder expectations and feedback
Setting clear expectations with stakeholders: Set clear, realistic expectations for product delivery, timelines, and outcomes.
Collecting and incorporating feedback from stakeholders: Gather feedback from stakeholders throughout the product development process, analyze it, and incorporate it into the product strategy or roadmap.
Balancing competing priorities from stakeholders: Different stakeholders often have conflicting priorities and the ability to balance these priorities is vital.
“ Also, they must have soft-skills such as emotional intelligence, negotiation skills and management skills to manage not only the project but the customer expectations in a realistic way.”—Mayron Alves de Araujo, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
Managing post-launch feedback loops: Keeping the feedback loop alive after launch maintains a relevant product that users want.
Technical skills and tools
A solid technical foundation is as important for a TPM as the management. They must be proficient enough to understand and communicate, and be aware of the various tools needed for product development. This allows them to manage development processes effectively, make informed decisions, and ensure technical feasibility throughout the product lifecycle.
“A solid technical background is required, but also being humble enough to recognize the difficulties of business management, design, marketing, and all the other areas that surround a successful product.”—Nelson Pereira, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
Key technical knowledge and technologies
Understanding of software development methodologies: Yes, that means software development methodologies like Agile, Scrum, and Kanban.
Basic coding and development knowledge: While not always required to code, a basic understanding of programming languages and frameworks is a must.
API and system integration knowledge: Understand how APIs work and how different systems integrate with one another keeps product features integrating seamlessly within existing infrastructures.
Knowledge of cloud computing and infrastructure: Cloud applications are where everything is headed, especially in B2B SaaS.
Data management and database basics: A working knowledge of databases, data storage solutions, and how data flows through a product ensures the team can build scalable and efficient systems.
Familiarity with development tools and processes
Project management tools: Knowledge of tools like Jira, Trello, or Asana to manage product development, track progress, and assign tasks helps keep development on schedule and ensures transparency within the team.
Version control systems: Understanding version control tools like Git or GitHub is necessary to track code changes, monitor progress, and collaborate effectively with development teams.
“A technical product manager must know what is possible to get done with a coding language or framework and have an estimate for a task based on those things.”—Mayron Alves de Araujo, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
Monitoring and analytics tools: Tools such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or Datadog to monitor product performance and user behavior provides the insights for informed decision making.
Automated testing frameworks: Familiarity with automated testing tools like Selenium or Jenkins, and how testing fits into the development process generates reliable products.
Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines: Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines enables faster, more reliable deployment processes.
Product lifecycle management
A technical product manager oversees the entire product lifecycle, from concept to launch and beyond. Their role is to ensure that the product evolves to meet market demands, user needs, and business goals.
Driving the product from concept to launch
Defining the minimum viable product (MVP): Being able to establish a product's MVP is crucial.
Managing iterative development cycles: Understanding iterative development allows the product to continuously improve based on user feedback and testing.
Coordinating product testing and validation: Manage alpha and beta testing phases to implement product adjustments before the final release.
Orchestrating cross-functional teams during launch: A TPM is the conductor of product launch.
Managing iterative product development in Agile environments
Backlog prioritization and refinement: Knowledge of refining the product backlog so the most valuable features are developed first and aligned with business priorities is imperative.
Sprint planning and execution: They have to know how to plan and oversee sprints, and keep the development team focused.
Monitoring velocity and adjusting timelines: This is important for adjusting timelines and priorities based on actual production..
Continuous user feedback collection: A TPM has to know how to collect feedback continuously.
Product roadmap adjustments based on user data: The ability to pivot keeps is paramount.
Data-driven decision making
Data is what a TPM relies on to guide product decisions. By leveraging analytics and KPIs, they ensure that their decisions are backed by objective insights. This leads to better product outcomes and business value.
Leveraging analytics to guide product decisions
Defining and tracking KPIs: Understanding the right KPIs for a product is as important as tracking them.
User behavior analysis: Understanding analytics tools to track user behavior and identify patterns helps refine the product and improve user experience.
A/B testing for feature validation: A solid A/B test to evaluate the effectiveness of new features or design changes is really important.
Identifying product-market fit through data: Examining key metrics like user acquisition, engagement, and retention helps refine the product to better meet market demands.
Measuring product success through key metrics
Customer retention and churn analysis: Knowing how to track customer retention rates and analyze churn data helps identify areas where the product needs improvement.
Monitoring conversion rates and user acquisition: Analyzing acquisition channels and conversion rates allows for the optimization of the user journey and onboarding process.
Performance benchmarking: Being able to compare the product’s performance against industry benchmarks and competitor offerings keeps the product competitive.
Using cohort analysis to track feature impact: Utilizing cohort analysis to track how different user segments respond to product features over time helps assess the long-term impact of features on user engagement.
Revenue and profitability tracking: Monitor the financial impact of the product by tracking revenue, profitability, and overall return on investment (ROI) to help guide decisions about future investment and scaling.
An alternative route to hiring a TPM
“Essential skills for a successful TPM include a strong technical background, effective communication, project management, and a customer-centric mindset. Developing these skills involves gaining hands-on experience in technical roles, refining communication abilities through cross-functional collaboration, mastering project management methodologies, and continuously engaging with customers to understand their needs and feedback. Balancing technical expertise with strategic vision is key to excelling in this role.”—Caio Alves, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
As you can see technical product managers are vital to the success of any software development project. They ensure that products meet business goals while staying technically feasible and user-centric.
However, finding and hiring the right TPM can be a significant challenge. The role requires a rare combination of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and communication skills. With competition for top talent at an all-time high, you might struggle to recruit TPMs who can truly drive product success.
If you decide to go this route, note that not all these skills will be on their resume. You’ll have to identify many through asking the right interview questions.
There is also another option to consider.
Rather than navigating the difficult process of hiring in-house TPMs, businesses can collaborate with a dedicated development firm that already has experienced TPMs as part of its team. At DevSquad we provide a TPM with every development team, and we support our team members' growth to become stronger and better at what they do.
“Communication, risk mitigation, product discovery. I developed these by doing it in DevSquad and with help from the C-Level team.”—Pedro Pessoa, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad.
The benefit to you is a high-functioning team of experts that are ready to hit the ground running on end-to-end product development. All without the hassle of recruitment, onboarding, and management. Our TPMs work closely with you to align product strategy, manage development, and ensure that your software delivers real value to users and the business.
Are you building a SaaS product? Get expert advice and a TPM alongside a full-service development team. Learn more about how we work.