The Sum of All Anxieties
2025.10 - Building hard things is an exercise in managing anxiety. We TPMs are a lightening rod for everyone’s anxieties. But hope is not lost for us just yet.
Product is worried the roadmap isn’t moving fast enough.
Engineering is worried there isn’t enough time to build things “the right way”.
QA is worried they have to cut corners to meet the launch deadline.
Design is worried there’s no room left for craft and polish.
Product Marketing is worried they won’t have a clear enough picture to tell the story.
Every team in a cross-functional setup carries its own set of anxieties. And in a fast-moving environment—especially in startups or high-growth companies—these worries can pile up quickly.
Now imagine being the one person who has to hold all those worries at once.
That’s the Technical Program Manager.
Unlike others who carry the burden of their own function, TPMs often absorb the collective stress of the entire organization. We feel the pressure from every delay, every shift in scope, every missing piece of clarity.
At smaller companies, this weight might be carried by product leaders or spread across the team. But in organizations where TPMs are at the center, our work becomes the sum total of everyone else’s work—and so do their anxieties.
It can be overwhelming.
It is overwhelming.
But in this swirl of emotions and shifting priorities, there’s also an opportunity.
Because we sit at the intersection of all teams, we have a unique vantage point. We can see where things fall through the cracks. We can notice patterns before they become blockers. We can bring calm where there is chaos.
Our role isn’t to blindly push task lists through a machine—it’s to help build better systems, smoother collaboration, and ultimately, better products.
We can:
Help engineering and design stay in sync by establishing demo cadences and early reviews, be prototype driven whenever possible.
Make it easier for QA by advocating for “shift-left” testing and baking in the right amount of slack in schedules.
Bring clarity to engineering by ensuring product priorities are well-defined and documented.
Support product marketing by summarizing progress and distilling complexity into clarity.
Create space for design excellence through intentional planning and early validation.
The more we understand how each team thinks and works, the more valuable we become—not just as organizers, but as problem solvers and force multipliers.
We can lighten the load across the org.
Or we can be crushed by it.
The choice is ours. And if we choose the former, the path forward begins with empathy, curiosity, and the willingness to own more than just the schedule.
Until next time.
-Aadil