This is very important, it shows the interviewer how well you are prepared and also puts forward things that you care about. Preparation and experience go hand in hand one without the other may only get you so far. I am going to try to keep this post current from time to time, so when you do decide to start looking stop by.
I love connecting with my readers. And dont forget to check out my TPM course! Mario Gerard Connect with me on Linkedin. I am an active blogger and podcast host. Mario Gerard. I just picked up your course on Udemy. How can we connect? How can we connect, please? Great end to end resource, thanks so much for the valuable list of questions: Can you please check the coupon code for grokking?
Anand Prajapati — I will add a total reading time in the next couple of weeks. FYI — The course price is going up in the next week. You cannot buy just one module. First i would like to express my appreciation on your effort to help the community like ours. You are doing it from heart.
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Awesome awesome article!! Thank you so much for it! Could you share more guidance on a Security TPM role and what are some of things to prepare? Excellent article!!! Thank you so much.. Will you be able to throw some light on this? How should one prepare resources, previously asked questions etc.
This article has really helped me focus on certain areas. My previous interview preparation since a few months back was focused on Product Manager positions but also at very technical companies so there was a lot of overlap for me. So many great lessons and insights. The step by step process for the actual design problems first seemed too short but the descriptions have been concise for me. Money well spent in my eyes as I know that I will retain this knowledge due to its delivery.
Great Indeed. Would you like to update info as it was written in Also, Would you mind if I request to be more company specific in another blog of yours. Some top companies and what do they really ask in their interviews for TPMs and how their individual expectations are. Thanks a lot Mario, no doubt this is the most detailed blog to start preparation for TPM role. Thanks again. Thanks so much for putting this. Very helpful indeed. I am wondering where can I find generic answers for PM and agile sample question that you have posted above.
This would help in prepare more. Wow thanks for taking the time to write this down. Its really very helpful. I added you on LinkedIn too. Wow, this is one stop shop for all info for this role. Thank you for taking so much effort to write this for everyone. Great read! Thanks for gathering all this information. Great write up! Every relevant detail is captured on a single web page. Thanks for sharing!
However I could say this only after jumping in the water and trying to go through the vast amount of resource to finally stumble on this article that does pretty good job to give a structure. Fantastic article especially for dummies like me who are just curious to know what a Senior Technical Program Manager does.
Mario: this is an amazing article! Thank you! Time-consuming read but has a lot of case studies. This is a quick and dirty guide or could be used as a refresher. Shorter book!! Alessandro has interviewed over TPMs in the last two years. Listen to his take on what he looks for in TPM candidates. Hardware: Chip Manufacturing. Common questions include Describe a situation where used your leadership skills to help your project team meet a difficult challenge.
Describe a situation where you should you technical aptitude and solved an issue. Describe a situation where you negotiated a win-win situation. Describe a situation where you changed the process to make it better and more productive Describe the most complex project you have managed from start to finish and what were the challenges you encountered during your path.
How have you managed risk in a project? What was a tough situation you faced and how did you overcome it? How would you handle non- productive developers? If you do not get traction form a fellow TPM on another Team what would you do? How do you motivate your team of developers?
What are the main things you would look for when you are running a cross-team Program? Was your loyalty ever challenged?
Give an example of such a scenario and what you did about it? An example of a win-win situation you have negotiated. Give an example of a challenging situation you had and how you handled it Describe a situation where you were the voice of the customer? Give an example when you took ownership of a program.
A situation where you think target where unachievable and how you overcame it How do you add value to an already high-performance team What is the thing you are most proud of? How did you handle it? If you had to do it over again, would you do it any differently? How do you plan for a project or program? What in your opinion are the three constraints of a project or program? What are the tell-tale signs that your project or program is going to fail? How have you contributed to the success of your programs?
How would you increase the efficiency of your development team? How would you describe the critical path and float in a program? How do you deal with stress, pressure, and unreasonable demands? What are the tools you would use to ensure your program will succeed? If you come about an early delay in one of your milestones what would you do? Describe a situation when you had conflicting responsibilities and how did you handle it?
How do you decide if you would like to you traditional project management vs Agile methodologies? How would you manage cross-team dependencies and deliverables? Describe a time when your project failed. What are the various states of a project? The importance of data and how you have used data analytics in previous roles You missed a project deadline.
Google is prestigious and it's therefore tempting to assume that you should apply, without considering things more carefully. But, it's important to remember that the prestige of a job by itself won't make you happy in your day-to-day work. It's the type of work and the people you work with that will. If you know TPMs who work at Google or used to work there it's a good idea to talk to them to understand what the culture is like. In addition, we would recommend reading the following resources:.
As mentioned above, you'll have three types of interviews at Google: program management, technical and leadership. For program management interviews, we recommend starting with our program management primer. Also, take a look at the following video, which outlines how Google thinks about program management.
Once you've watched this video or studied the summary above, we recommend brushing up on program management basics. This will give you an opportunity to refresh your memory on all key aspects of project management including: scope, schedule, resources, cost, quality, communication, risk, stakeholders, etc. In addition, if you're interviewing for a TPM role in software development, you should make sure you're on top of common concepts used in Agile project management.
A great resource here is Atlassian's Agile project management guide. In particular, we recommend brushing up on the difference between Kanban and Scrum, and the common structures used in Agile projects e. Once you've refreshed your memory on project management best practices you should go through the list of program management questions we've listed in the previous section and draft answers for those.
As a reminder, you can expect three types of questions in technical interviews: system design, technical explanation and coding questions. In addition to studying the video above, we recommend studying our system design interview prep guide. The guide covers a step-by-step method for answering system design questions, and provides several example questions with solutions.
For technical explanation and coding questions, we recommend learning the step-by-step method we've developed. To practice, you can use that method to craft answers to the technical questions listed in the previous section. For leadership interviews, we recommend starting with our leadership and people management primers, followed by the this video, which outlines how Google thinks about leadership. Here is a summary of the video.
Notice that some elements overlap with the Program Manager and Technical interview. In addition to studying the video above, we also recommend learning our step-by-step method to answer behavioral questions. You can then use that method to craft answers for the main leadership questions we have listed in the previous section of this article.
This may sound strange, but it will significantly improve the way you communicate your answers during an interview and really makes a difference in our experience.
Play the role of both the candidate and the interviewer, asking questions and answering them, just like two people would in an interview. Trust us, it works. Practicing by yourself will only take you so far. One of the main challenges of TPM interviews is to communicate your different stories in a way that's easy to understand.
As a result, we strongly recommend practicing TPM interviews with a peer interviewing you. A great place to start is to practice with friends if you can. This can be especially helpful if your friend has experience with TPM interviews, or is at least familiar with the process. You can also find peers to practice with on our TPM mock interview platform. Practicing with peers can be a great help, and it's usually free. But at some point, you'll start noticing that the feedback you are getting from peers isn't helping you that much anymore.
Once you reach that stage, we recommend practicing with ex-interviewers from top tech companies. If you know a TPM or a software engineer who has experience running interviews at Google or another big tech company, then that's fantastic. But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen.
And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well. Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. Learn more and start scheduling sessions today. If you have any questions about Google TPM interviews, do not hesitate to ask them below and we will be more than happy to answer them. All questions are good questions, so go ahead! Applying for other companies? Interview coaching Resume review New.
My Account Logout Cart. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.
If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form. NodeFlair Insights. See more Insider Data. For Companies About Book a meeting. For example, imagine that a CTO is looking to develop and bring to market a software product.
They would then formulate a program charged with the software delivery, of which a TPM would manage. This program would be made up of several projects with similar goals at every phase of the program's lifecycle, from strategy creation to execution to delivery to completion.
TPMs handle all aspects of these programs. And, as a result, they're often tasked with working through every phase in the program's life cycle, from the very beginning idea phases all the way to the closure or post-closure monitoring phases.
But why do companies need TPMs anyway? Well, this is the digital age, after all. As such, companies are handling more technical projects than ever before. More often than not, modern companies need skilled technical program managers to develop and direct the various technical programs that are necessary for success in the modern economy.
Ultimately, TPM's help make complex program delivery faster by creating and driving the strategy behind it. This additionally efficient delivery can support the day to day increasing of scope for technology companies.
It should come as no surprise that a technical program manager is a very complex and multifaceted position in a company. Several interdisciplinary skills are necessary for any successful TPM. These include, but are by no means limited to:. Every TPM must have a strong aptitude and understanding of the technical aspects and capabilities of their organization.
Their technical knowledge will be indispensable when it comes to developing and executing their programs. It will also be invaluable to their overall ability to lead their different teams. Having solid technical skills yourself will, then, ensure you are an effective and inspiring leader to those highly technical members of your teams.
This will directly translate into a better execution of your technical programs. Program Management positions are deeply strategic in nature, with their focus being on long-term, big picture initiatives intended to meet an organization's business goals. TPMs must be able to develop programs that can accomplish some aspect of a business's larger strategy.
And, as such, an enthusiasm for high-level planning and strategic thinking is the cornerstone of being a technical program manager. Risk Management skills are also necessary when developing various business programs. Because of a TPM's focus on an organization's long-term, strategic goals, a successful TPM must have the ability to recognize, measure, and mitigate the many risks that come with any particular approach.
They must be able to make prudent decisions when it comes to how to best apply an organization's time, resources, and personnel to achieve some end. It shouldn't be a surprise that a successful TPM must have a deep understanding of the goals and objectives of their company.
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