How is the role of technical product manager different than other product managers?

A technical product manager has a more substantial role working with engineering teams on core architecture and component design related to a feature. If all product managers have allegiance to different dimensions - business/revenue, customer experience, product/tech strategy, marketing etc - the technical product manager indexes more heavily along the areas of technology design and integration. For most products, feature development usually happens on a longer cadence involving multiple iterations to build towards a fully formed capability. It is essential to have a core north-star blueprint in mind even as customer-facing iterative enhancements are rolled out. The technical product manager shares this vision with enginering managers and architects. While a technical PM may not own the design of the technology, they share this vision and the approach to achieve it.  

On a day to day basis, this translates to a technical PM working more closely on how multiple systems work together (integration) and in some cases, what APIs are utilized or need to be developed at a high level. The level of technical involvement may vary depending on company and product area - for example, a tech platform as product with engineers as customers may require the PM to be more in the weeds on API utilization or platform choices. In all cases, what differentiates a technical PM is the abilty to delve several layers into the technology utilized while still maintaining allegiance to other focus areas.  

It is rare to have a technical product manager and another product manager working on the same product. When this happens, it is usually in organizations where one of the product managers work in a more inbound or engineering facing role and the other in a more outbound and customer facing role. 

In general, technical product managers work on technical products with tech customers while non-technical PMs might have products whose primary target customer isn't technical.

The role of a technical product manager (TPM) is different from other product managers in that TPMs typically have a deeper technical background and are responsible for managing the development and implementation of technical products or features.

TPMs work closely with engineering teams to ensure that product features are designed and built in a technically feasible way and that they meet the needs of both customers and the business. They are responsible for understanding the technical requirements of a product or feature, and for making decisions about the technical direction of the product.

Product managers, on the other hand, may be responsible for managing the development of non-technical products, such as consumer goods or services. They may not have the same level of technical expertise as a TPM, but they are still responsible for understanding the needs of the customer and the business, and for managing the product development process from ideation to launch.