I was looking for some of my old job descriptions for Program Manager positions to help out a colleague.
While I didn’t find them, I did find some of the questions that I have used to evaluate a potential Program Manager’s effectiveness:
Project Management
- ability to create a work breakdown structure (WBS)?
- ability to manage a budget?
- ability to organize scope in terms of incremental value?
- ability to cut scope to manage quality, resources and effort?
- ability to ship within short cycles? (1 month vs. 3 month vs. 6 month vs. 12 months)
- ability to get budget support from another group/org?
People/Team
- ability to work effectively cross group?
- how have you resolved design conflicts among a team?
- how have you verified user experience?
- lead a team through execution?
- ability to inspire people?
Technical Expertise
- ability to identify emerging and future problems/trends?
- ability to identify key technical challenges within a problem space?
- ability to identify and evaluate solution candidates/options?
- ability to identify appropriate guidance within a given domain for a broad audience?
Customer Focus
- ability to vet design decisions with customers?
- ability to build, organize and rationalize customer data?
- ability to organize guidance against user experiences?
Communication
- ability to sell an idea?
- ability to communicate technical concepts to individuals outside the internal development team?
Passion
- passion for the job?
- passion for making things happen?
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