1. Program
Management
-- through the eyes of Troy Ma
email: troy4u@gmail.com
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/troyma
chirrrrrrp: https://twitter.com/TroyMa4u

2. Warning
This deck may be complete B.S.
This is the world of program management as
seen by Troy Ma

3. Topics
 Types of successful PMs
 Fundamental rule of PM
 Communication
 Verbal
 Written
 Listening
 Specs & project setup
 Consensus & conviction
 Confidence
 Passion
 Meetings
 Interpersonal
 Leadership
 Managing
 Building your career

4. Two types of successful PMs
Breadth Depth
Crowd pleasers (breadth) Super nerds (depth)
• Great at pulling large cross
team projects together
• Good at
People/Relationships
• Knows complicated system
design/architecture
• Can challenge/lead dev
system designs
“you really need some of both”

5. Fundament rule of PM
This is a people game

6. Have you studied “people” lately?
 Quotes:
 Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
 Give honest and sincere appreciation
 Arouse in the other person an eager want
 Great reads:
 How to win friends and influence people
 What got you here won’t get you there
 The definite book of body language
 The art of speedreading people
Story time ;)

7. Verbal Communication
 Can you speak clearly ?
 Take pronunciation classes
 Enroll in public speaking
 Can you cut your words in half?
 Write down your main point (no more than 2)
 Think about how to convey just those 2 points
 We don’t need to know every detail
got it why are you still talking? Shut it!
“Let me tell you more”

8. Written Communication
 People generally have instant amnesia
 Get stuff in writing
 Remind people
 Summarization
 Call out key decisions & action items
 Proper email titles
 Once written, cut your text by 50%

9. Communicating Up
Feature Crew – details to get work done
• Issues & low level details
• Bugs
Middle Management – decisions
• Decisions & tradeoffs
• Major details summarized
Upper Management – key decisions
CEO – 
Summarize & Simplify

10. Listening
 Maintain eye contact
 Let people get their words out  don’t cut in
 Acknowledge their thoughts
 Repeat back what you heard to confirm
“Never miss a good opportunity to shut up” – Dr. Phil

11. Owning your spec
 Credibility
 Know your domain
 Gather your metrics
 Have consensus on the key decisions before your
spec review
 Call out the gotcha’s and how to solve them
 Follow up – no really, follow up
A spec is summary of the agreements you’ve made

12. Setting up a project

13. Consensus Building
 Identify:
 Stakeholders
 People with strong opinions
 Basic process:
 Research and think through your idea
 Get a few people on your side as support
 Think about what big players / opinionated ones will say
 Dramatize your idea to the key players and try to settle
their opinions offline
 Grab group meeting to “review” decisions
 Send out summary to cement decisions

14. Consensus Ninja
 80/20 rule: give up on the 20% to win the 80%
 In group setting
 Small issues:
 Give in or squash it
 Large issues:
 Prep people before hand and have them “chime in”
 Use data
 If it’s not going your way  ask to follow up “offline”
 In person:
 Settle large issues
 Ask yourself if this battle is really worth “winning”

15. Problem in action
 Problem: We are building image search and the backend team
wants you to highlight the image filters but you don’t think it is
the best user experience
They believe You believe

16. Understand each other
 Understand:
 You are dealing with tech zealots
 This work is what they do for a living
 Data alone won’t be enough
 Your 80% – No ugly expanded filters
 Your 20% – placement of filters i <3 starcraft 

17. Start with 50%
 50% is backed up with:
 Data
 Support from others
“After looking at data and consulting
with design, we think placing the
filters below with 1 color icon is best”

18. The rebuttal
 But everyone is a design expert
 And everyone “understands”
users
“users won’t be able to find what
they need. We should show all filters
and place it on top”

19. The 20% give
 You already know what the
outcome will be
 Congrats on being a ninja
“fine, the top has much higher
prominence, let’s compromise on
non expanded filters and run flights
for variations later”

20. Conviction
 Social framing: people act based on accepted social norms
 Start your conversation as a friend
 Never say “you’re wrong”. This includes, “but, however”
 Listen, understand and then guide their thoughts
 Get data / others on your side
 Know when it’s a losing battle and cut your thread
No PM has ever won an argument

21. Confidence
 My state of mind
 I am the best at my job
 I can easily swap roles with any management and rock it – I just need the opportunity
 Work on your core
 Do you really believe in yourself?
 Reflect back on your history of success
 But I can’t do <insert b.s.> -- what if I told you:
 You will lose the project, if you can’t do <insert b.s.>
 You will lose your job, if you can’t do <insert b.s.>
 You will lose your family, friends, life, if you can’t do <insert b.s.>
 Set new expectations for yourself & readjust your social frame – force yourself to
live up to your own new expectations
Strong self belief mixed with a touch of ignorance and a dash of cockiness

22. This is my cat “Bella”
Youtube inspiration
She’s a kitty cat
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!

23. The art of story telling
 Why storytelling?
 Easier for people to follow
 Easier for people to remember
 Related Formats:
 Tag lines – summarize your project into 1 memorable sentence
 Elevator pitch – explain your idea in 30 sec
 The journey
I need to sell the idea and have everyone see the same picture

24. The Journey – Building a toaster
 Tada! Here’s my solution:
 Step 1: I think I have a good idea of the solution and
need to get people on board
 Step 2: let’s brainstorm together and I’ll guide them
through my thoughts
 Step 3: let’s refine together
 Step 4: Tada! Here’s our solution
OR

25. Does passion matter?
 Without passion, it’s hard to put in the extra effort to succeed
love what you do or find something else

26. Meetings
Pre-meeting:
 Have an agenda
 Set the correct length
 Bring the right people
 Do the prep work
During meeting:
 Know when to cut threads and when to let people waste a few minutes
 Push for your goal
 Assign names and time for follow ups
After meeting:
 Send out notes
 Follow up
Know your goal and your desired outcome

27. The “street-cred” of your crew
Respect (professionally):
 Solid PM fundamentals: Solid specs, leadership, etc…
 Consistency over time
Like:
 Strong interpersonal relationships
A mix of how people respect and like you

28. How to get people to like you
 Smile
 Don’t be a little bitch: no one cares about your problems
 Be positive and have a can-do attitude
 Try to understand people’s interest and goals and appeal to those
 Show appreciation for their work
 Demonstrate how you have a team “family” mentality
 Plan to spend time with people

29. Leadership
 Prerequisite  peer respect & self confidence
 Actively lead the team into new projects, directions
 No one will tell you what to do next, go freakin’ do it
When in doubt, go freakin’ do it

30. With your manager
 Set clear expectations
 Over communicate status
 Understand what your lead wants and how to make his life easier
 Know when to push back
 Communication: call out big points and drive for decisions

31. With your dev/test peers
 What value do you provide AND do your peers value this?
 How you earned your credibility at the table?
 Are you and your leads speaking the same language?
 Communicate: Get down to the concrete issues and drive for
resolution
“my dev/test lead and I are joined at the hip!” – PM Ape

32. Managing
 Less sugar coat and corporate talk – be straight up
 Set up large areas of ownership
 Reinforce good work
 Give room for them to fail
 Don’t be a stickler on vacation, expenses, etc…
Value people – what’s the best thing I can do for my reports?

33. Delegation
Too much
 Lose touch of the
project/team
 May lose respect of direct
reports
Too little
 Suffocates direct reports
 Overloads self  burn out

34. Engineer yourself out of a job
Go relax on the beach Move up to bigger challenges
OR

35. Job vs Career
A career is a job with progression
 What do you want to be when you grow up?
 Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results
 How are you increasing your impact & influence?

36. Build your career
 Remember the “don’t be a little bitch rule”?
 Where do you stand when compared to your peers?
 Set expectations for promotions and actively discuss it
 You need more than just your lead’s support

37. Learning
 What did you do in school when you knew
something was going to be on a test?
 Why do you believe you will just learn everything
you need on the job?
 Set out time and concrete goals for learning
Commit to always learn and grow

38. visibility vs influence

39. Building your Reputation
 Do great work – ship awesome products
 Consistency
 Do people really like you and respect you?
 Do people even know you exists?
 No matter where you are, you are always selling yourself

40. So long, farewell, it’s time to say
goodbye…