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My Program Management Journey

by Thaisa Fernandes

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Agenda

About myself
Program Management definitions
Responsibilities
Difference between Project, Product and Program Management
Similarities
Recommendations
Questions

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How I can help you

Started my career as a Designer
Almost a decade living in the SF bay area
Program Manager at Twitter
Host & Producer of the podcast Latinx in Power
Writer at PM101
Certified PMP, Scrum Master & Product Owner
Co-author of the book Women in Product Management

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When I describe my work, I say what I do is unite teams and help them achieve the expected result. Many times I don’t have the answers we need, but I work with the team so that we can achieve our goals. I focus on solving problems, bringing teams together, and helping everyone to work collaboratively as part of a cross-functional team ⚡️

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Definitions

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Right skills and experience

All these roles are different, and each should be performed by the team member with the right skills and experience. Don’t assume your Product Manager can also serve as Project Manager because they have different priorities and also skills.

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Project Management

“A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.” — Project Management Institute (PMI).

According to PMI, into five phases: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling, and Closing. In Scrum, you’ll have a Sprint that last up to 4 weeks and has the Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.

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Product Management

You can define a product as anything that can be offered in the market to solve a problem or satisfy a need. It varies from a service or software to a physical product. The Product Management role includes responsibilities like planning, research, forecasting, and production.

Products have a life cycle: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. It can never be considered complete since your user is always evolving with different needs.

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Program Management

Programs comprise different projects that are interconnected and are also part of the long-term business objectives. The Program Manager leads the program strategy, objectives, and assesses the business impact.

Expands beyond the completion of its projects to the long-term program execution. Is about business and operations, programs are strategic in nature. Is susceptible to market and business goals changes. Translates strategic objectives into measurable business goals.

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Responsibilities and differences

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Responsibilities

Implement strategies and measure success.
Oversee a group of dependent projects to reach the program goals.
Align with long-term business objectives.

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Project Managers have mainly an internal focus, while Product and Program managers are more focused on what is happening externally with their users and also the market. Ideally, select and hire for the roles and skills you need and reinforce the differences between those roles..

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Differences

Manages a group of related projects in an interconnected way.
Outcome can be a benefit, a company goal, or a new process within defined constraints.
Objective is always long-term, and the risk is influenced by external factors.
Multiplicity of stakeholders, deliverables, requirements, and internal team interacting with the program.
Focuses on maximizing the benefits to the organization.
Aligns delivery value with the organization’s operational and strategic goals.

Project Management differences:

Has a clear definition of what is being delivered with little room for changes.
Faces fixed start and end date. It’s crucial to deliver on time, budget, and quality.
Tackles a temporary endeavor with a defined end.
Executes the strategy set by another team, for example the product manager or program manager.
Responsible for delivery, status updates, problems resolution, budget, resource estimation, and allocation.
Maximizes quality while minimizing risk.
Breaks down strategic plans into task-oriented initiatives managed by the project management team.

Product Management differences:

Doesn’t have a clear definition of what has to be delivered since the product will evolve over the course of its life cycle to meet the customer needs.
Has a never-ending job because a product is never completed or finalized, a product is a continuous process to anticipate the user needs.
Sets the product strategy, releases, ideations, features, go to market strategies.
Doesn’t have a hard deadline because the user expects the product to improve on an ongoing basis.
Answers the question of what problem the product is solving and how the team will build it.
Creates the product roadmap, which is a strategy to meet the product vision.
Develops and manages product documentation like acceptance criteria, product requirements documentation (PRD), and user stories.