TPM Stories — Ahmed Talat from UnitedHealth Group

Interviewed by Kunal Nayar

Meet Ahmed Talat! In his own words: “My name is Ahmed Talat and my passion is developing technical solutions to complex business problems that lead to better outcomes. In my current role, I lead the TPM organization in United Health Group’s Data group where we focus on developing AI/ML technologies that use data to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone.”

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

I started at Microsoft over 25 years ago and my first assignment was to develop the benchmark used to measure how fast Windows Server can send and receive data over a network. The experience was invaluable because I became the conduit between key Microsoft IHV partners building networking adapters for Windows Server and the Microsoft developers from the networking team. To be successful in my role, I needed to first understand my customer scenarios and the types of business applications using the tech we’re building so we can baseline, improve, and measure using representative environments and tests. Second, I needed to technically understand how the network stack worked and develop a broader understanding of all the emerging network tech at the time to identify software and hardware optimizations that can be made to help make our customers successful.

After 10+ years leading the Windows Server TPM team, I embarked on a new challenge to define and drive Microsoft’s Windows Server Telemetry strategy. This was a very large-scale project that spanned several teams and organizations requiring me to develop influence strategies to drive alignment across teams on data instrumentation, governance, and consumption.

My next opportunity was in Azure where I was drawn by the sheer scale of the Cloud and the much faster operating cadence the business was operating at. My main role was to build the Performance Management TPM team responsible for driving performance optimizations into the underlying Cloud host platform and the virtualized instances hosting the customer applications. I had to use my technical experience and tools to learn about a new class of customers and a new set of problems that had a broader impact on businesses. As a voracious learner I dove into design documents to understand the layered architecture and used many of the tools our customers and developers use to measure and improve performance. We used 6-page narratives to describe the customer problem and how our approach plans to address them, adopted an Objective and Key Results (OKRs) framework to set challenging goals, and institutionalized an agile operating model.

Lastly, I joined Optum Labs, part of United Health group, in the beginning of 2022 because I was attracted to the prospect of leveraging technology in the healthcare space to make people’s lives better. It is a large complex space with a strong desire to modernize and use technology to leapfrog into the next century with emerging AI/ML technologies to deliver better outcomes for our customers. My current role is leading the TPM organization in the Optum Data group to build the platforms and solutions that enable teams to securely and responsibly use AI/ML to modernize healthcare systems.

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

The thing I enjoy most about being a TPM is the opportunity to fundamentally drive change across the organization. A successful TPM keeps their team organized, informed, and delivering innovative solutions to help their customers meet their business requirements. They are responsible for working across multiple functions to create the roadmap, drive alignment to execute on the roadmap, and update the roadmap based on customer feedback and market analysis to reflect the latest state.

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

The Windows Server Telemetry program was the most memorable program I drove as a TPM. It was a very ambiguous large-scale program that impacted every team building software for Windows Server. There was a deep technical part of the program where if the data collection policies were not well defined, it would have severe consequences on overall system performance. The program gave me the opportunity to work with other teams across Microsoft collecting diagnostics data to gain a deeper understanding of how customers are using their servers and how we can deliver new features to help them scale better, become more secure, and optimize for key workloads and common configurations.

Can you describe what the TPM role was like at Microsoft? How is the TPM role at your current company similar (or different)?

The TPM role at Microsoft is responsible for leading cross-team efforts to deliver engineering solutions to technical challenges. A TPM leverages their technical background to provide cross-functional leadership to align teams on design and architecture of solutions to complex problems. On my team at United Health group the TPM role is responsible for translating the customer requirements into product roadmaps, leading cross-functional execution to solve for the customer problem, and working with the engineering teams to innovate and develop solutions that deliver measurable customer value. The TPM responsibilities across United Health group can vary depending on the line of business and where they feel they can best leverage the TPM skills. Some teams focus on engineering execution and scrums, while others focus on cross-group coordination and reporting.

What are the key traits you look for when hiring for TPMs?

There are 3 key traits I look for when hiring a TPM:

1. Thought leadership. The TPM needs to understand the technical details of their space so they can start thinking strategically about architecting today’s solution to help solve tomorrow’s customers’ problems. They observe the effectiveness of their team delivering results and create new mechanisms to help improve team efficiency and output.
2. Technical curiosity. The TPM needs to ask questions and become a technical expert of their product so they can clearly communicate what their product does to a customer and discuss new design ideas with their team. One of my success metrics is when the TPM starts driving partner and customer meetings without needing to bring their engineering team every time.
3. Drive for results through collaboration. The TPM needs to take initiative in getting things done and builds partnerships with key teams to accelerate innovation and find creative new ways to unblock their team from delivering high business value.

“You can go faster alone but further together”

What do you think makes a successful TPM organization?

A successful TPM organization is responsible for driving change that results in delivering improved outcomes for the customer. It is in tune with what the customer needs are, what the engineering challenges are, and it creates a plan for tackling impediments and delivering the product. The TPM organization is responsible for defining the How and When (Customer Value Delivery) a solution will be delivered. They work closely with the product team who defines the Why and What (Customer Value Definition) should be delivered.

What advice would you give to someone who is looking for a new TPM role?

Understand the technical details of the role by leveraging online resources, shadow a TPM in your organization if possible, and be bold asking questions to learn and demonstrate that you’re engaged and actively thinking of new ideas. Early in my career I asked a lot of questions, particularly right after meetings where 90% of the material discussed went right over my head! Your colleagues will also be there to help support your learning and you should be thinking of ways to apply that new information to make things better for the team.

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