📬 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽?

𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵-𝘛𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴.

A founder asked me this last month.

Engineering was building internal tools. 

Product wanted customer features. 

The technical roadmap felt disconnected from the product roadmap.

Sound familiar?

Here's the gap I see at most scale-ups:

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀. 

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀?

Traditional product management focuses on: 

→ User stories and customer needs 

→ Feature prioritization and delivery 

→ Go-to-market alignment 

→ Revenue and engagement metrics

But technical platforms need different thinking: 

→ Developer experience and productivity 

→ System reliability and performance 

→ Technical debt and infrastructure 

→ Capability enablement for future features

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Technical decisions made without product context create the wrong solutions.

Most companies try to solve this by:

• Making engineering "more product-minded"

• Having product managers "learn technical skills"

• Creating endless alignment meetings

But here's what actually works:

𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - a hybrid discipline that bridges both worlds.

Technical PMs think about: 

→ Platform as product (with internal customers) 

→ Technical capabilities as competitive advantages 

→ Infrastructure investments as product investments 

→ Developer velocity as a product metric

They translate between:

• Business strategy ↔ Technical strategy

• Customer needs ↔ Platform capabilities

• Product vision ↔ Technical vision

• Market timing ↔ Technical readiness

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲:

🧠 Technical product management isn't product management for engineers. It's product management for platforms that enable other products. When you treat technical capabilities like products, you start making better technical investments.

🗣️ Do you have technical product managers at your company? How do you bridge the gap between product and engineering roadmaps? Let me know your thoughts in the comments 

🙏 I help startups / scale-ups design the systems, teams, and technical strategy they need to grow — without burning out, breaking down, or bottlenecking the business. 

🔁 Like this kind of thinking? Follow along for more — or book a quick, no-pressure call.

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