Biggest Challenges of a Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft
Kartik's biggest challenge as a Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft is achieving "buy-in" from every team member for new processes, illustrated by the difficulty of creating a simple dashboard due to conflicting views on data accuracy between subject matter experts and other team members; this highlights the constant negotiation and compromise required in a large organization to achieve common goals.
Project Management, Data Analysis, Teamwork, Communication, Leadership
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kartik Atyam
Senior Technical Program Manager
Microsoft
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Engineering - Civil
Architecture, Construction & Design, Technology
Real Estate
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Successfully implementing new processes requires understanding current workflows and future goals.
2. Building consensus among team members with diverse perspectives and expertise (e.g., subject matter experts, data scientists, programmers) is crucial for project success.
3. Data accuracy and reliability are key challenges when integrating data from multiple sources for reporting and decision-making
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
The first thing I had to do was understand the current process. Then, I needed to understand what our future growth looks like. Finally, I had to propose a process that we can use to meet our goals.
This process is inherently my vision, shaped by my experience and the experiences of others. However, I'm finding that the things I propose aren't always completely aligned with what everyone else is thinking.
For example, I'm trying to create a dashboard. This seems simple, but it requires automation and data ingestion from multiple sources. There's a lack of trust in some of these sources, as not everything can be the definitive source of truth.
While I believe it's good enough to get accurate data and use it as a reference, others believe it must be precisely accurate. This creates tension between subject matter experts and data scientists versus programmatic folks who just want to get the job done.
Finding common ground or alignment within this tension has been my current challenge.