How to Better Manage Your Tech Teams

Jenny Chynoweth, talent acquisition consultant at Kohr Consulting, explains how non-tech PMs can establish themselves with tech teams.

Let’s say you’re a business leader. You’ve been managing teams for years now, and you know what you’re doing. Suddenly, you’re put in charge of overseeing a technical project, and you don’t know continuous delivery from continuous integration. What do you do?

For starters, be vulnerable. In this week’s episode of the Ship It Show, Jenny Chynoweth, a talent acquisition consultant with Kohr Consulting, says the old fake it until you make it thing just doesn’t work when trying to establish and build relationships in the tech industry. “I’ve worked with a lot of recruiters who have pretended to know technology as they’re talking to an engineer,” Chynoweth says. “The engineer can quickly read through that.” Instead, leading with questions that demonstrate an unfamiliarity with technology but a willingness to learn will go a lot further.

Asking questions will only get you halfway, though. Eventually you’re going to have to put in time to educate yourself as well, Chynoweth says, “whether that’s attending industry events or going to workshops or even reading.” Regardless of the approach you take, the effort will be used to it. “At some point it’ll all start to click and you’ll feel a little more comfortable.”

Sodo runs two-day intensive workshops that help people understand and manage technical teams. Check out our workshops for business leaders and project and product managers.