How do technical product managers work at Amazon? What's the difference between a PMT and a TPM?
First of all, we need to address Amazon's terminology for these roles. A technical product manager at Amazon is generally referred to as a Product-Manager-Technical (PM-T). Whereas a Technical Program Manager (TPM) is a distinct role that sits at the intersection of product, engineering and program management. An Amazon TPM is a unique role that combines business ownership over delivery with high-level technical architecture. They are usually the program glue - that brings together PMTs, engineering teams and business stakeholders on all aspects of an initiative.
However, note that this AMA is focused on the technical product-manager role or PM-T. So please make that translation whenever you see "TPM" in these questions.
1 Answer
Amazon Head of Driver Products, Amazon Relay • May 31
First of all, we need to address Amazon's terminology for these roles. A technical product manager at Amazon is generally referred to as a Product-Manager-Technical (PM-T). Whereas a Technical Program Manager (TPM) is a distinct role that sits at the intersection of product, engineering and program management. An Amazon TPM is a unique role that combines business ownership over delivery with high-level technical architecture. They are usually the program glue - that brings together PMTs, engineering teams and business stakeholders on all aspects of an initiative.
However, note that this AMA is focused on the technical product-manager role or PM-T. So please make that translation whenever you see "TPM" in these questions.
8135 Views
Related Ask Me Anything Sessions
Workiva Vice President Of Product Management, Chris Omland on Technical Product Management
Salesforce Senior Director of Product, Einstein AI, Deepak Mukunthu on Technical Product Management
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Director of Product Management, Devika Nairon Technical Product Management
Top Product Management Mentors
Tanguy Crusson
Atlassian Head of Product, Jira Product Discovery
JJ Miclat
Zendesk Director of Product Management
Jesse Tremblay
HubSpot Director of Product
Katherine Man
HubSpot Group Product Manager, CRM Platform
Victor Dronov
Atlassian Group Product Manager, Trello Enterprise
Reid Butler
Cisco Director of Product Management
Sheila Hara
Barracuda Sr. Director, Product Management
Bryan Dunn
Nextiva Head of Product, Developer Ecosystem and Experience Cloud
Natalia Baryshnikova
Atlassian Head of Product, Enterprise Strategy and Planning
Mike Flouton
GitLab VP, Product
Related Questions
There are lot of Software Engineers/SREs trending towards TPM discipline and want to transition into this career. Where do you see TPM as a discipline or career path going forward? Is it an industry standard now?When did you decide to move from IC to Management? How was the transition and how did you prepare for it?What does a day-to-day activity of a TPM look like?What technique/process do you follow to build the vision for a program?What surprised you the most about being a TPM?What's the biggest challenge you've ever faced as a product management leader and how did you overcome it?