Thread by @VaibhaviDesai

First in #ReflectionThreads: What are the dos and don'ts of Program Management?

Sharing some best practices that I learned, while running and leading programs for Google in India & Southeast Asia. Read below.👇
#ProgramManagement #Thread

1/ #Disclaimer: Program Management is a BROAD domain. The definition varies from a company to company, function to function. This thread might help address it from a tech/product company’s pov.

2/ #ContextSetting: Some examples of programs I worked on include - CS edu program for students, diversity programs for women in tech, accelerators for gaming and AI startups, AI/ML skilling programs. Also, each of them aligns with tech product/s at some point in time.

3/ You don’t need a degree/ certificate before hitting the ground. What you need is a structured approach, process driven thinking, collaborative attitude, knack of understanding products and “empathy” for your end users.

4/ Know your end-users / audience:

- Who are they?
- Where do they reside?
- What are their pain points?
- What do they need to succeed?
- How can you reach them (channel)?

5/ Although you’d want to shoot the star (read ‘10x’), be aware of your program scope. It’s often easy to just ‘expand’ a program into various directions and then ultimately lose your focus.

6/ Don’t ASSUME anything. Do quick pilots to validate your assumptions or to overcome your concerns. Try to include a diverse set of audience, so you can have your all special cases tested out.

7/ Prepare for scale early on: You don’t need to rush into this, but while conducting the pilots always keep in mind ‘How Might You’ scale the program to 10x people/ geographies/ languages.

This will make your journey more natural, and stress free.

8/ Stakeholder management is key to a successful program. Make your stakeholders feel inclusive and updated. Set right expectations from the very beginning. Have frequent check-ins to check alignments.

9/ While working with a big team, set clear owners. Your role is not to dictate as a PgM, but rather to have a conversation with every team member regarding their area of interest, and then mutually decide work streams / ownership.

10/ Set clear METRICS - both qualitative and quantitative. Create a high level category first, and then dive deeper (top down).

eg: for a skilling program I managed, following were high level categories: Participant success, Program success, Product success, Business success.

11/ Processes & tracking are key to seamless execution. Simplify, iterate and innovate. Use sheets, tools, docs. Try to remove redundancies. Automate (using scripts) when possible.

12/ Create reusable & complete artifacts, which can be used by other PgMs without reinventing the wheel every other time.

This is also a way to build your credibility within an organization 😉

13/ Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.
Both vertically, horizontally, cross-functionally.

Reports, dashboards, spreadsheets : Keep them all up-to-date.

14/ Feedback is a ‘gift’, keep asking for it. Give honest feedback, and be open to accept harsh feedback.

When you receive harsh feedback, you tend to defend yourself. Don’t react immediately. Take your time to think what might have gone wrong, and then loop back.

Questions / Comments / Additions / Thoughts / Agreement / Disagreement?

Keep them coming!😁