What is a Technical Product Manager?
At some companies that split the role of Product Manager (PM) into external-facing and internal-facing, the internal-facing role is called Technical Product Manager (TPM). At some other companies the internal-facing role is called Product Owner (PO). Regardless of what the role is called, the focus typically lies on the Refinement and Development steps of the product management process.
It is more common that TPMs have a strong computer science or software engineering background, above and beyond the baseline technical proficiency expected of all product managers developing software. It is important to note that TPMs do not write code themselves. Rather, they work close to and engage with engineering teams on the same level as experts and focus on areas that require more in-depth technical expertise.
Splitting the PM role is more common in larger organizations, but regardless of whether the PM role is split into PM and TPM or into PM and PO it is often a mistake to split the role into two.
