TPM Stories — Aadil Maan from Humane

Interviewed by Zhanat Abylkassym

Aadil is a multifaceted Technical Program Manager with a 13+ years track record of successfully managing massive, Zero to One hardware and software Programs on mobile, IoT, & desktop platforms as well working on a programming language.

His career path has led him from some of tech industries biggest names (Blackberry, Apple, Google, Nike) to now the trenches of a rapidly growing early stage stealth startup working on the next leap in personal computing (Humane).

Aadil writes a newsletter on substack called Building Romes TPM’s Field Manual where, leaning on his lengthy career, he shares essays and insights on demystifying the role of TPMs.

Tell us about your career journey — how has your career transformed and how did you become a TPM?

People don’t believe me when I say this but I went to university with the sole purpose of one day becoming a project manager at a tech company. I owe my entire career to the 16 months internship in my 3rd year of undergrad I spent as a Software Project Coordinator at Blackberry in the Operating Systems Team. That was my first taste of Technical Project Management and I have been going from one lucky break after another, meeting mentors who have guided me on what it takes to be Great, exceptional engineering leaders who helped me understand what it takes to ship surprise and delight. After my internship I went back to school and Blackberry hired me right after I graduated in August of 2010. Two years later through a random series of events I managed to clear the most intense interview process I ever had, even to this day, to join Apple in Feb 2012 where I would spend the next 5.5 years of my career. I was a 23 year old recent grad from Canada suddenly surrounded by some of the most extraordinary engineers and TPMs (or as Apple calls them Engineering Program Managers) in the industry; people who built the iPhone and completely changed the trajectory of personal computing. Those years would transform my understanding of TPMs and what true value we bring to the table. Eventually I would go on to work at Google, Nike and now at Humane. I have been lucky to have always worked on zero to one projects, leading program management for some extremely complex features and platforms. I have worked in software, hardware, services, apps, even a programming language. Every success and failure taught me something new about the role of a TPM as well as about myself.

How would you compare being a program manager in a big tech company like Apple or Google, to a company like Nike?

Nike was going through a digital transformation when I joined where they were moving from a traditional IT services organization built on pay to play type planning to a continuous agile delivery organization. A lot of the processes and frameworks were not typically of what I would see at places like Apple or Google. Prime example was how roadmap development happened across the technology organizations. Nike ran SAFe and had a mixed organization of Product Managers, Portfolio Managers, Program Managers, Scrum Masters. Coming from Apple and Google, I had to recalibrate and adjust the expectation of what it meant to be a TPM especially when responsibilities I always thought of my own were suddenly divided amongst various roles. Nike’s primary revenue is sports apparel and their digital assets and platforms were all geared towards supporting that revenue stream. It required a lot of unlearning on my part about being a TPM but it was an extremely educational experience nonetheless because you develop a whole different set of skills when you are operating in that kind of a tumultuous environment where change is constant, politics is heavy, and business teams have an outsized say on your roadmaps.

What do you enjoy the most about being a TPM? Where do you think a TPM can add the most value?

The most enjoyable part for me is the requirement for TPMs to operate at the 10,000ft level but then have the skills to navigate down to the 100ft level to resolve blockers and obstacles then immediately go back to the 10,000ft level. TPMs are operating on all plains within an organization — everywhere all at once all the time — strategic, tactical, operational and that gives us a purview and insights that are extremely valuable for senior leaders to know how to ensure the organization is operating at optimal efficiency both in capacity and output. It goes far beyond just running Programs or filing jira tickets, or building gantt charts ;) .

A mindset trick which I feel all TPMs need to embrace: You have to go slow to go fast.

What is the most memorable program that you have driven as a TPM? What made it so memorable?

My most memorable were the Advanced Data Protection for iCloud and expanding Apple’s Two Factor Authentication to all iCloud users programs. ADP officially kicked off back in 2014 despite it being launched just last year in 2022. I worked on a lot of cool stuff but these two programs I always struggle picking between which is my favorite because of how intertwined they are. I never had the opportunity to see that one over the finish line but the complexity involved in that endeavor is hard to explain — backend, frontend, data centers, hardware, authentication. What made it memorable was the people who worked on this with me for however long I was at Apple and the exposure to working with executive stakeholders I got through the direct interactions I had with leaders like Craig Fedirighi and Sebastien Marineau has left a mark on me in ways that I am still finding out today. When Apple finally announced the Advanced Data Protection feature, a lot of my former Apple colleagues messaged me that day to say “Well, we finally shipped it”.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a TPM? How did you overcome it?

We are leaders without authority. That was the first lesson taught to me at Apple. Rather than fighting it, I had to learn to embrace it. For a lot of TPMs, especially engineers turned TPM, who come into this role, this is a huge struggle. How you overcome it is learning to let go, first and foremost, and realizing that the power you have when you influence someone to do something is far more useful than when you leverage your direct title or formal powers.

What advice would you give to someone who is looking for a new TPM role? Any tips on how to best prepare for TPM interviews?

I always tell people to understand that your day to day will swing between lack of progress to overwhelming progress, no output to feeling overwhelmed by the work to do.

• Are they ready to embrace an environment where your output is dependent upon others to their work?
• Are they ready to be in a constant state of ambiguity and uncertainty?
• Are they ready to be held accountable for work they do not own?
• Are they ready to influence and lead people as a voice rather than a figurehead?

If the answer is yes to all of this then be prepared to explain why you think you are ready.

How I prepare for my interview is simple structure:

Pick 3 projects you worked on: success, failure, mixed outcome.

For each project, prepare the following:

• What your role was?
• What precisely did you do on a day to day?
• What challenges have you encountered and how have you overcome them?
• What lessons did you learn from the projects?
• What have you changed about yourself after the project?

For each project, draw a high-level architecture diagram to refamiliarize yourself with systems design thinking.

Research the industry the company operates in or products they offer in.

• When I was preparing for the Dart Language Program Manager role, I read books, articles, and papers on compilers and the architecture behind programming languages.

Write out key points you want to hit in the behavior questions.

• I never write out full answers to these questions because I want them to feel organic. If I write them out then I will have a tendency to memorize them. This may not be applicable to everyone but this is how my brain works.

If available — research the backgrounds of the people who will be interviewing you.

If applicable — try to use the products the company offers.

• When preparing for the Android Things Program Manager role at Google, I spent a lot of time playing with the Arduino based Developer Kit that Google sold and learned to program on the Android Things Platform.

I followed this process which landed me the role of Principal Program Director for Privacy at Nike. Ultimately — you do what you can and everything you can think of to prepare for that interview. No amount of preparation is too much.

What inspired you to start a TPM Newsletter?

I became a Director at Nike and suddenly found myself responsible for helping guide a team of project managers and scrum masters. It forced me to think about my past careers and journey; a retrospective of some kind. Substack was all the rage when I started writing Building Romes. So — I wondered if there are people who would like to learn from my experience working at places like Apple, Google, Nike, Blackberry and all the things I learned along the way. From the very start I wanted to focus on the ground reality of what it means to be a TPM. I didn’t want to be another academic “15 ways to do agile or scrum or framework X”. I wanted to have a philosophical approach to it, dig deeper, in between the lines, and give shape to things we all experienced daily as TPMs but had no vocabulary for it. Naively, I thought I could be Lenny Rachitsky, John Cutler or Luca Rossi for the Technical Program Manager field. I am laughing out loud as I write this last sentence out because of how foolish that sounds BUT I am really enjoying trying to chase that foolish goal with my newsletter and probably the reason I keep writing.

You are joining the TPM Summit as an on-site coach. Tell us about your coaching passion.

The best coaches I have ever had, they all listened more than they pontificated. A great coaching experience feels like being on a journey with some wise person who helps you get to the answers by asking you a series of questions that you don’t even think to ask yourself. That is the process I try to emulate with my coaching approach. Above all — coaching is a two way street. I always walk into a coaching session with the mindset that I want to learn from the person across the table as much as they want to learn from me. It is a dialogue and never a ChatGPT style experience Q&A session.

Use code TPMSTORIES for a 10% discount to the upcoming TPM Summit!

TPMs — What’s your story? If you are interested in contributing or sharing your story, please reach out!