The Technical PM: A New Standard in Product Management

You might need to be more technical as a PM than you think.

Numerous employers are now looking for highly technical PMs:

That’s right — not people with the title “Technical PM.” Just “PMs.”

On one end you have:

“This is a technical product and we need technical PMs.”

• These people tend to believe, “the more technical, the better.”

• You’ll often spot PMs who were former engineers and internal transfers at these types of companies.

• They tend to think that the worst types of PMs are ‘MBA PMs’.

On the other end you have:

“We need technically comfortable PMs.”

• These folks focus on your ability to go technically deep, but they acknowledge much of PM isn’t a technical job.

• They just want you to go deep enough to be comfortable with technical constraints.

• You need to be able to think through trade-offs and edge cases.

I’ve been chatting with PMs at many companies and attempting to map them. These are the results.

I share more in my deep dive.

If you’re interviewing somewhere technical, be ready for computer science, system design, and basic coding questions.

Even if you don’t use them often on the job.

They’re essential career skills.