WTF does a Program Manager do? | My last newsletter in 2023 🎉

Nobody really knows what a program manager does until you become one.

Today, we’ll break down 5 core responsibilities:

1/ Defining a strategic plan

2/ Getting alignment with leadership

3/ Motivating people to accomplish a shared goal

4/ Measuring and communicating impact of a program

5/ Facilitate decision-making by bringing different people together

Let’s dive in.

1/ Defining the strategy

First things first, your job is to craft a robust project plan. It means setting clear goals, defining the scope, sketching out the timeline and key deliverables. Here’s how to create a project plan from zero to 100.

Ask yourself: What's our end goal and how do we get there?

2/ Getting alignment with leadership

Part of our job is to get all the leaders on the same page. And sometimes it means playing politics.

So you might be wondering what does this look like?

I like to set up weekly or bi-weekly syncs with different leaders to understand:

-What are they prioritizing?

-What support do they need from me?

-And what support do I need from them?

Getting buy-in for a project would fall under the last bucket. For example,

”Hey John, I’m proposing a project to revamp our current microsite. Currently, it is outdated, under-utilized and does not serve all teams. I’d like to share my business case for how this project can promote better collaboration, drive team engagement and increase productivity by 30%. What will you need to see to give us your green light to move forward?”

Ask yourself: Who’s the ultimate decision-maker? and what do they need to get on board?

3/ Motivating people to accomplish a shared goal

This is one of the most rewarding and often challenging parts of the job. It’s where driving influence without authority kicks in.

You’re here to inspire, address challenges and keep everyone focused on the end goal.

Pro tip: Set weekly syncs and create a clear agenda with action items defined at the last 5 minutes.

For example, “@Jean - conduct market research and share with working group by end of week 5pm PST”

4/ Measuring and communicating impact of a program

Great program managers are great storytellers.

Recently, I shared in our quarterly all hands, we shared our employee engagement feedback results and plan for next steps. Here was the framework I used:

-Here’s what we’ve done

-Here’s the feedback we heard

-Here’s what we’ll be doing (next steps)

5/ Facilitate decision-making by bringing different people together

A key role is driving decisions effectively and timely. It’s not easy but you can shine as a leader when you’re navigating different opinions, finding consensus, and moving forward.

Pro-tip: Define and align on a clear decision-making matrix from the get-go. Then include this in your project plan. Check out my favorite frameworks: RACI, DACI, RAPID.

Hope this was helpful contextualizing each responsibility and how you can put into practice.

What is 1 thing you’re struggling with right now with running projects, leading people or landing jobs? Let me know how I can help. Just hit reply.

You’ve got this!

PS I’m taking a break for the holidays so will pause my newsletters until the new year. And I hope you do the same 🙂. Thanks for reading 💙. I’ll catch you in 2024 with even better content!

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