Getting more technical | Timestamp Karaoke

## Q: I don’t have a technical background, and I find it hard to follow what my engineers are saying sometimes and, even worse, to make informed trade-off decisions. How can I level up my tech skills to become a more effective PM?

I was an engineer before I was a PM, and I can tell you that having that background is a PM superpower. You can predict timelines, anticipate blockers, and avoid black holes of endless work.

However, the majority of PMs are in your same boat—never having written a line of code, having only a vague sense of how software works, with an ever-present tinge of impostor syndrome when talking to engineers.

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to learn to code to see most of the benefits. Frankly, I wouldn’t spend any time there (unless you really want to). Instead, I’d start by learning a few basic concepts and then asking your engineering partners a ton of questions. Start at the bottom of this pyramid, and work your way up.

Let’s explore each step.

1. Learn the basics

Start by learning the basic terms, technologies, and concepts involved in building product. Investing a few hours here will immediately level up your game and also build the foundation for further development. You can do this on your own or, better yet, with a buddy.

Here’s a handy lesson plan to get you started:

1. How programming works 2. The difference between front-end and back-end 3. How software systems are architected 4. How websites work 5. How web apps work 6. How databases and SQL work (plus learn the basics of SQL) 7. How APIs and Webhooks work 8. What libraries and frameworks are 9. How GitHub and pull requests (PRs) work 10. What AWS is

Set a few hours aside next week and go through this list. Most are short (fun) videos, and will have large ROI on your time. To go deeper, see the additional reading at the end of this post.

2. Ask questions

With some foundation in place, you can now leverage the incredible gift right under your nose: the engineers you work with! Guess what, they are experts at the very thing you want to learn. How convenient. And in my experience, most engineers love nothing more than explaining their craft to curious people.

Here’s some tactical advice for how, and who, to ask questions—from other PMs who went through what you’re currently going through:

Questions you might want to ask:

1. Can you draw me a rough diagram of how our system is architected? 2. Say we were to add feature x—what would be involved in making it happen, from idea to launch? 3. What slows your work down the most, in general? 4. Can you show me what it takes for you to update copy in our product? 5. What would you recommend I study in order to level up my technical skills?

TL;DR If you’re ever feeling not technical enough, put together a list of questions, grab an engineer, find a whiteboard, and ask them questions until you start to understand WTF is going on.

3. Build something yourself

Finally, if you want to reach the pinnacle of being a technical PM, you need to learn to code and then build something yourself.

Learning to code is a serious endeavor, and I won’t truly do it justice in one post. Here are a few places I recommend embarking on your coding journey:

1. CS50: Introduction to Computer Science (free) 2. freeCodeCamp (free) 3. Codecademy (free) 4. Udemy 5. Coursera

Getting technical, as a non-technical PM, is hard. Don’t feel sad if it doesn’t come quickly. Set a few hours aside to learn the basics, ask your engineers more questions, and eventually, if you want to go the extra mile, try to build something yourself. I promise that with a few hours up-front and a few whiteboarding sessions, you’ll see your product with new eyes—and, at the same time, become a much more effective PM.

📚 Further study

To go deeper, some additional suggestions:

1. Subscribe to Technically, by Justin Gage 2. Learn SQL and start running your own queries 3. Explore more videos by freeCodeCamp.org 4. Explore more videos by Codecademy 5. Get the Technical Product Manager Certification by PMHQ

If you’ve gone through this journey and have any additional advice for PMs looking to become more technical, please share 👇

🔥 Featured job openings

1. Pinpoint: Product Manager (Remote-Global) 2. Aescape: Product Management Lead (Brooklyn, NY) 3. Mynd: Senior Growth Product Manager (Remote-US) 4. Mynd: Product Lead, Internal Tools (Remote-US) 5. CHPTR: Founding Back-End Engineer (Remote-US) 6. Permutive: Senior Product Manager (NYC) 7. CloudTrucks: Product Manager-Console (Workflows & Automations) (SF) 8. Fairchain: Software Engineer, Full Stack (NYC) 9. HomeLight: Senior Product Manager, Listing Management (SF, Phoenix, Seattle) 10. Perfect Recall:Founding Fullstack Engineer (Waterloo) 11. Spatial: Backend Engineer (Remote-US) 12. Maven: Product Lead (Remote-US) 13. Republic: Product Manager (NYC, Remote-US)

Browse more open roles, or add your own, at [Lenny’s Job Board](https://lennysnewsletter.com/jobs).

🧠 Inspiration for the week ahead

1. Watch: Michael Seibel — Building Product

Watch on YouTube

2. Read: The Day You Became A Better Writer by Scott Adams 3. Look: The Winners of the 2021 Drone Photo Awards

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Sincerely,

Lenny 👋