Berlin

November 4 & 5, 2024

New York

September 4 & 5, 2024

Scaling leadership: Insights from the first Staff Technical Program Manager in the room

This talk offers the perspective of a Staff Technical Program manager as the first one hired in a company, deconstructing the evolutionary journey that paved the way for hiring more of them.

Speakers: Tom Koch

You must be a ticket holder to proceed

Ticket holders must sign in to LeadDev.com with exactly the same email address as stated on your ticket.

Do you have a LeadDev.com account matching the email address on your ticket?

Verify your ticket email address

Your ticket will have been emailed to you from Tito (our ticketing provider). Check your inbox for emails from support@tito.io.

Verify with google


October 08, 2024

Embarking on a mission to drive organisational change, and introducing and scaling new practices in a long-established environment can be a significant challenge.

This becomes even more complex when you find yourself as the only one with your role, that your role has a transversal exposure and is unknown by most: Staff Technical Program Manager.

Lucky Staff Engineers have benchmarks and expectations outlined in recognised books, aligning with well-established practices in software engineering. However, in the realm of Program Management, we find ourselves in a stage where the function varies significantly across companies, with diverse approaches and operational methods from one organisation to another.

One challenge faced by Technical Program Managers in the industry is to convince the value they bring to their roles, inherently positioned cross-functionally to ensure successful delivery and goal attainment. Staff Engineers contend with comparable ambiguities in their daily tasks, resulting in a convergence of job title trajectories.

This talk offers the perspective of a Staff Technical Program manager as the first one hired in a company, deconstructing the evolutionary journey that paved the way for hiring more of them. This provides an opportunity to explore the essential elements in crafting your leadership journey incrementally, culminating in the ability to influence at scale without formal authority. The format will feature practical tips and tricks gleaned from a two-year experience at Back Market.