In the world of software development, understanding the differences between a Technical Product Manager (TPM) and a Product Manager (PM) is essential for success. While there is a bit of overlap between the two positions, each plays a pivotal part in product development.
Knowing who to hire (TPM vs PM) and when can be the make or break of your product’s development.
This article is about understanding the distinctions, overlaps, and the strategic considerations involved in choosing between a TPM and a PM.
What is a technical product manager?
A technical product manager is a product leader who bridges the gap between business and engineering. They bring a deep technical understanding to the product lifecycle and work closely with developers. TPMs help translate business goals into technical specifications and understand the technical challenges and opportunities in developing a product.
TPMs also get hands-on with the technical team, ensuring that the product not only meets customer expectations but also adheres to best practices in coding and system design. They play a pivotal role in managing complex technical projects.
“I believe a TPM is a manager who knows enough technical stuff, like programming frameworks or languages, that they can give better recommendations, realistic estimates, and create better tasks with the team.” — Mayron Alves de Araujo, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad
How does a technical product manager differ from a traditional product manager?
Both TPMs and PMs manage products. What’s different is their focus and approach. TPMs lean heavily on their technical knowledge to ensure that development is executed properly, while PMs concentrate more on business strategy and customer needs.
Key responsibilities of a TPM
TPMs take responsibility for the technical product management side of things. They act as the technical product lead, diving deep into the tech stack, collaborating closely with engineering teams, and ensuring that the product is not only functional but also scalable, reliable, and maintainable.
Their deep involvement in engineering teams also allows them to foresee technical risks and navigate pitfalls.
Responsibilities of a TPM include:
Managing product vision: A TPM carries the product vision and maintains its alignment with technical requirements. They work closely with the product owner to develop short- and long-term goals, aid feature planning, and make adjustments for functionality and scalability.
Product roadmap development: Translating the product vision into a step-by-step executable product roadmap with clear timelines and deliverables. This level of roadmapping gets into the detailed breakdown of feature development.
Market research: Conducting market and technical research to find gaps, gather feedback, and maintain alignment with technical feasibility. This also includes internal communications with the engineering and design teams to gain insight into what is and is not working.
Risk assessments: The TPM is responsible for identifying potential risks such as cybersecurity issues or delayed timelines. The goal is to anticipate and avoid issues before they arise, but that is not always possible. So the TPM is also in charge of creating contingency plans.
Cross-communication: Collaborating across multiple teams (technical and non-technical) to ensure product objectives and technical details are understood. It is the TPM’s responsibility to make sure all parties are in line throughout the development process.
Technical oversight: Maintaining cutting-edge technical standards and addressing scalability, security, and system infrastructure issues is a must. This also helps avoid the product's descent into the realm of legacy systems.
In addition to these core responsibilities, technology product managers also review technical documents, evaluate third-party software, and address engineering estimates and scalability activities.
“A TPM understands how to implement the code, which helps keep the discoveries nearer to a feasible roadmap. Multiple possible solutions can come up earlier with a better estimation in a shorter time. In addition, a TPM speaks the same language developers do, reducing misunderstanding, introducing suggestions, and doing a deeper QA.” — Sandro Boçon, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad
Key responsibilities of a PM
Product managers focus on delivering the best product by managing its overall business strategy and aligning the product with customer and market needs. They are responsible for helping the product owner define the product vision, understanding market needs, and ensuring that the product aligns with the company’s goals.
Is product manager a technical role? Not really. Compared to a TPM, the PM’s responsibilities are broader and more strategic. They leave the technical aspects of product development to others.
“The technical aspect really makes a big difference on how you can support your team when a big challenge approaches. I really like to be close to them, offering support on complicated tasks and solving problems together.” — Nelson Pereira, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad
Responsibilities of a PM include:
Defining the product vision: Either in conjunction with, or independently, creating a clear vision for the product that addresses market opportunities and customer pain points is on the top of a PM’s responsibilities.
Product roadmap creation: A PM maps out the product's direction. This business-oriented roadmap aligns product features with customer needs and business objectives. And, they make sure timelines match market needs.
Market research: Conducting extensive research to understand customer pain points, trends, and competitors. PMs find the gaps in the market to maintain a product that offers a unique value.
Risk assessments: A PMs risk assessment is focused on market risks. This includes changes in customer behavior, competition, or regulatory challenges. They work to mitigate these through strategic adjustments.
Cross-functional communication: Collaborating with teams across marketing, design, and sales to ensure the product meets market demands and company goals.
Overseeing product performance: Tracking product success through KPIs and metrics, and refining strategy as needed.
As can be seen, PMs focus on delivering the right product for the market and the business, while TPMs ensure the product is built correctly from a technical standpoint.
What about the responsibility overlap?
There is certainly some overlap between the roles of TPM and PM. This is really seen when it comes to high-level product strategy and communication with stakeholders. Both roles also require strong leadership, a deep understanding of the product, and the ability to prioritize features that will bring the most value to the business.
Overlapping responsibilities include:
Defining product requirements and user stories
Prioritizing features based on both business value and technical feasibility
Collaborating with various teams to ensure product goals are met
Communicating progress and addressing challenges with stakeholders
Aligning product development with stakeholder expectations
Balancing scope and timelines
Problem-solving during development
Having both a TPM and a PM on your team can be a significant advantage. The PM can focus on the big picture—customer needs, market trends, and business strategy—while the TPM focuses on maintaining a flawless technical execution. This combination allows for a more holistic approach to product development.
Technical product manager vs product owner
While the roles of TPM and PM often overlap, the comparison between a Technical Product Manager and a Product Owner (PO) is different, especially within Agile development frameworks.
A PO’s focus is on the execution phase of product development. They are often seen as the tactical counterpart to the PM’s strategic role. TPMs on the other hand are deeply involved in the technology and its seamless development.
The product owner’s role
A PO is responsible for maximizing the value of the product by managing the backlog, defining user stories, and working closely with the development team during sprints. Unlike a TPM, a PO may not have deep technical knowledge, but they must understand the product’s objectives and ensure that the team is building the right features at the right time.
Specific responsibilities of a Product Owner include:
Managing and prioritizing the product backlog.
Writing and refining user stories with acceptance criteria.
Collaborating with the development team during sprints.
Making real-time decisions to guide the team during development.
The main difference here is that while a TPM might dive into technical details and even code reviews, a PO focuses more on the delivery of the product features. They focus on the product meeting the business needs and being completed on schedule.
When should you hire a TPM vs a PM?
So now that you know the difference between what a TPM and a PM do, how do you determine who to hire? Here are some scenarios to consider:
Your product is highly technical: Hire a TPM to manage the technical complexities of development.
“One of my products required thousands of photos to be shown to the customer on a screen, and there's users with more than 25k photos. This required a really high level of memory management. I was able to provide input as we built a solid virtual scroll to handle the different parts of the application that required that.” — Nelson Pereira, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad
You need to define product strategy and market fit: Hire a PM to shape product vision and strategy based on customer needs.
Your product is mature and needs optimization: Hire a TPM to handle scaling and technical debt.
You need to balance both business and technical needs: Consider hiring both a TPM and a PM to ensure comprehensive product management.
You are launching a new product: If the product requires significant technical innovation, a TPM is crucial to manage the complexity and integrate the tech stack.
“One of my most recent challenges was a highly complex feature that could have been better discovered. Initially, I thought it was something, but upon presenting my work to the client, I quickly discovered it was not what they were looking for. The feature had some useful but not necessary functionalities which could wait for a later version. I solved the problem by taking a step back, recognizing it failed, and focusing on the feature MVP and most importantly, what could bring more value to the client and the client's clients. By doing that, we achieved the feature's goal.” — Vitor Carnello, Technical Product Manager at DevSquad
You have a small development team: Hire a TPM to manage technical execution and work closely with developers, ensuring the product stays aligned with technical requirements.
You are scaling your product across multiple platforms: A TPM will help handle the technical intricacies of scaling the product while maintaining performance and reliability.
Your market research and product direction are unclear: A PM is ideal for establishing market fit, conducting research, and driving strategic decisions.
Your product must meet strict compliance standards: A TPM will help ensure the product adheres to technical requirements related to security, data protection, and regulatory compliance.
You’re facing technical performance issues: Hire a TPM to identify bottlenecks and optimize the system architecture for better performance.
Should you have a TPM and a PM on your team?
The differences between a TPM and a PM are clear, but they also complement each other in many ways. Having both on your team can lead to a more balanced approach to product development. The PM focuses on the “why” and the “what,” while the TPM keeps their eye on the “how.”
The overlap in responsibilities also supports an ebb and flow that is natural in highly fluid and dynamic processes. While the demands of one position are exceedingly high in particular aspects, the counterpart can maintain the overall trajectory and momentum of the product—and vice versa.
For startups and small teams, hiring a PM and a TPM is not always feasible. If this is you, then consider hiring (or acting as) a PM who can handle the business strategy. As far as a TPM is concerned, you can outsource to an experienced software development team that includes a TPM in the roster. That way you gain the benefits of the TPM in addition to the experienced development team that is ready to tackle your product.
Why we only work with TPMs
We only hire TPMs because we believe in the power of combining technical expertise with product management skills. Our TPMs aren’t just project managers; they are deeply involved in the technical aspects of product development. We focus on products, not projects, and what we build is not only functional but also scalable and maintainable. This proven approach leads to better outcomes, faster development cycles, and ultimately, products that succeed in the market.
Get a TPM with a development team
While having a TPM on board is critical for success, finding (and hiring) one is both time-consuming and distracting. And we haven’t even mentioned hiring the rest of a winning product development team.
With DevSquad, a TPM is a standard position of the fully managed, ready-to-go, and high-performing team of professionals you get when you work with us. Our CEO and CTO also provide strategic advice and product strategy to help with technical decisions, architecture, development feasibility, cost, aligning to user needs, and product-market fit.
We believe in building impactful products and help you validate your vision before you commit to building it. We don’t just build to build, and we never hold you to a long term contract.
Are you building a SaaS product? Get expert technical advice and product strategy from our CEO and CTO alongside fully-managed product development. Learn more about how we work.
