Strategic Thinking
Explore how to develop and apply strategic thinking as a technical program manager. Understand how to analyze program goals, foresee challenges, collaborate across teams, and use data to guide decisions, enabling proactive leadership and stronger program outcomes.
What is strategic thinking?
Strategic thinking is a leadership skill that involves taking a step back from day-to-day operations and focusing on the big picture. This is something you’ll desperately need if you want to move from being a good TPgM to a great TPgM.
It involves analyzing and synthesizing information from a wide range of sources to identify patterns, trends, and opportunities. A strategic thinker is able to anticipate future challenges and opportunities and develop a plan to capitalize on them.
Your key responsibility is overseeing multiple projects and ensuring alignment with the program's overall goals. Developing strong strategic thinking skills is critical to identifying potential issues early on and proactively developing plans to mitigate them. Strategic thinking also enables anticipating future opportunities and positioning the program to take advantage of them. You can make informed decisions and effectively lead your program to success by honing your strategic thinking skills.
The antithesis of a strategic mindset is a reactive or short-term mindset. This mindset focuses on immediate problems and lacks a long-term vision or plan for the future. It can result in decisions that address the symptoms of a problem rather than the root cause, leading to short-term solutions that may ...