EXECUTION & JUDGMENT
Technical Competency
Practical product-technology judgment, not coding ability: architecture, scalability, technical debt, and build-versus-buy tradeoffs, tied to customer and business outcomes.
← All 16 dimensions in the competency frameworkWhat strong evidence looks like
- A specific technical tradeoff (build vs. buy, debt vs. velocity) made with engineering
- The business or customer consequence of that tradeoff
- Evidence of genuine engineering partnership, not just deference
What weak evidence looks like
- General technical vocabulary with no real tradeoff decision attached
- No example of a build-versus-buy or debt-versus-velocity call actually made
A real follow-up question
“What technical debt did you knowingly accept, and what did that cost you later?”
Questions like this follow directly from what you just said, not from a fixed script -- they exist to find out whether an answer holds up, not to check a box.
Browse by career level
The evidence standard for Technical Competency shifts with scope. Select a level to see what strong evidence looks like, what changes from the level below, and a real interview probe.
Technical Competency at the PM levelA single feature, component, or defined product area within one team.Technical Competency at the Senior PM levelA defined product area with real ownership of roadmap and metric accountability.Technical Competency at the Principal PM levelCross-team or full product line scope. Often defining the boundaries rather than operating inside them.Technical Competency at the Director levelA product area spanning multiple teams, often with PMs reporting directly.Technical Competency at the Senior Director levelA large product portfolio or multiple product areas, often with directors reporting.Technical Competency at the VP levelA full product line, major business unit, or portfolio with P&L accountability.Technical Competency at the CPO levelCompany-wide product vision and strategy, as a member of the executive team.
Related dimensions in Execution & Judgment
See where you actually stand on this
A self-assessment only goes so far. The adaptive interview tests exactly this kind of evidence, in your own words, with follow-up questions built to find out whether it holds up.