Good managers shield their team from all the noise coming from above, and give them a calm environment to work in. Bad managers amplify the noise and make the team feel every silly whim of upper management.
They understand technical topics well, what’s required to implement them and what the risks and rough timeframes are to achieve them. On top of regular project manager knowledge.
So TPM = PM + T where T is a deeper understanding of a topic… Which makes you better at general PM things?
Tangentially - how common is it for a TPM to write code?
There is probably many definitions but that’s my opinion. E.g. a TPM with a data centre project should know about data centre physical security, aisles, enclosures, peering, power, cooling etc.
I think they should “know about” the technical things but no, not do the technical work - so I wouldn’t expect a TPM to write any code.
Communicate. Good technical project managers do continuous communication with the team, including the engineers, upward with management, and outward with relevant stakeholders.
I’m sure this is a good skill to have but if I remove the word “technical” from your second sentence I would think that would now apply to all PMs. I guess I’m wondering really how TPM is different than PM.
A good PM should have an adequate understanding of the problem and the solution. That requires both business and technical knowledge. Very good PMs are rare.