A Day in the Life of a Technical Product Manager

We recently caught up with Bright Network member Maxim to chat about how his career is going. Maxim has been working as a technical product manager and told us about his personal experience of what a day in the life of a technical product manager is really like. Read on to learn what a technical product manager does and whether it’s the career path for you.

What does a technical product manager do?

Product managers are responsible for the entire production line of a product, working throughout all teams from conception to production to help create a product. Technical product managers work on the technological side of products. They still work with all the teams involve in making the product, including marketing, commercial and sales teams and all over departments along the way, but have a stronger focus on the technical aspects. It’s Maxim’s job to make sure a product is delivered smoothly from concept to delivery.

We started by asking Maxim to reflect on working as a technical product manager.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned since starting?

Agility. This is because what you’re doing today may not be important tomorrow or next week. There are so many things going on in the company I’m working at and we have a low attention culture in a positive way. It’s great to know that you can work hard on something but not fixate on it or receive gratification on the work you’re doing.

It's important for me to review the week I’ve had but remember that another week is ahead so not to get bogged down with it. There is always more I need to be doing and this keeps me excited! The last thing I want to be doing is getting complacent – if I finish a task, there is always another one for me to complete. I don’t feel like I’m drowning, I’m afloat and I’m swimming to my next goal and if I get there earlier, then I might be hitting a record.

The working conditions of a technical product manager

Because technical product managers are responsible for the entire process of creating, making and selling a product, they work between many different departments. This means being involved in meetings across the company and being involved in the culture of all of the departments. Lots of the work you do will be office based with relatively little requirement to travel outside of your workplace.

We asked Maxim about what it’s like working as a technical product manager.

What was one thing that you didn’t expect when working at the company?

How little university, or theoretical concepts that you learn throughout your education means. Everyone teaches you throughout the education system that you need to know everything and use it in what you apply from your GCSEs to your degree. For me, how little I apply my degree in what I do is amazing to me. Once you’ve passed your interview at your job, no one cares about your education.

It’s how you apply your degree that’s important!

A typical day in the life of a technical product manager

Technical product managers often have a busy workload, working between many teams and coordinating timeframes for a product’s delivery. This may mean long working hours, especially around release dates and big deadlines. Therefore, you may work non-standard hours some of the time to make sure your work fits with the timeline you set early on in the process.

We asked Maxim to take us through what a typical day in the life of a technical product manager is like, from the meetings he has to the schedule he sets for himself.

What is the first thing you do when you start working?

The first thing I do is turn off my electric scooter. I’ve been challenging myself to get into work quicker and quicker – it now takes me 6 minutes 23 seconds between my house and my office!

What do you do throughout the morning?

I’m a morning person. I like to come in earlier than I have to because throughout the day I’m busy with talking to people. I’m not at the point in my career where I’m senior enough to do a lot of talking and not a lot of doing. When I need to do my thing, I’m very much a morning person – don’t talk to me, do my thing, get in a couple of hours of what I need to do with the expectation that the rest of my day will be interrupted.

What does a typical afternoon include?

I like to tailor lots of my conversations to be in the afternoons. This is because I know the conversations will take a long time.

How you could become a technical product manager

Being a technical product manager requires a combination of skills and experience. Typically, technical product managers have an undergraduate degree in subjects like business and marketing but can be educated in computer science or a more technical subject to have the understanding of the technical products they’re producing. Necessary skills include an understanding of the big picture of what you want to achieve with a product, but also the minute details you need to get get there. Along with this, you need great people skills and the ability to work well with lots of different departments.

We asked Maxim for his advice on how you can break into the technical product manager profession.

What top tips would you give Bright Network members looking to follow in your footsteps?

It took me half a year to get my first graduate job. Everyone I spoke to who had graduated had gone through a period of applying for big companies, household names, that they dreamt of working for. Then you start applying for smaller companies that you may not have heard of but are still great companies. You will get your job and you’ll be really glad you have it, despite it not being a big company!

Not being disappointed by failure is a great skill to have in the workplace. You learn a lot of resilience and it’s good to start your career with some so you’re prepared.

Consider companies that you don’t know the name of. Just because you don’t know their name doesn’t mean you shouldn’t! Despite not knowing my name of the company I work for before applying, it still gives me great exposure and I get to work with senior colleagues everyday.

Don’t oversell yourself to senior colleagues.

If you don’t enjoy it, don’t work more than you’re contracted to. If you don’t like your job, go and find yourself a better one. I work hard, but not always my contracted hours. Don’t work harder than you need to if you don’t enjoy the job. If you’re thinking about the hours, you probably aren’t enjoying the job.

Have you been inspired by Maxim? Are you considering working life as a technical product manager? Explore the current jobs in technology, consulting and product management and read our product manager job profile. Are you interested in learning more? Read about product manager Christina.