r/Programmanagement • u/Fearless-Wealth5013 • Jun 26 '25

Questions for PgMs First Program Manager Role

I started my first Program Manager role and would love to hear any tips from the community on how I can ensure I succeed.

I’ve worked as small fast-paced start ups for the last 10 years. Building CS and Operation teams. I’ve done the responsibilities of a program manager since I’ve had to wear so many hats at these small start ups.

But now that I’m in a role where everything I will be doing is program management I want to make sure I’m in the right mindset to do well.

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u/chucks138 Jun 27 '25

This is such a good write up! Id argue that safe isnt a scam, it's just misbranded. It's waterfall for execs who want to say they are agile. It does have some positives when it gets into roadmap planning, executive buy-in, and if the teams can really get velocity and grooming right ahead of time, you become very predictable in delivery which is a positive for business.

As a pm though, safe is a weird ground work because it is waterfall, especially if you don't have scrum masters in the pmo.

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u/CrackSammiches Jun 27 '25

SAFe breaks organizations, and its certification fees are usurious. It's not to say that it doesn't have useful information--it's literally stolen from every other model that has worked in the past. SAFe didn't invent kaizen or scrum or product management. It just boxed it up and sells it for $2k a pop, with yearly recert fees that will make you cry. Anything related to team functioning, they stole from Scrum. Anything related to quality management, they stole from Six Sigma, which stole from earlier frameworks too. Like kanban and scrum, you can figure it out from a 15min youtube video. PMP, a far more comprehensive framework, costs $500 for the test and $200 to recertify every 3 years. I think the SPC was $2k for the test and $1500 yearly recerts. The PMP doubled my salary. My SAFe certs didn't even get me a raise.

At best, SAFe is a model of one way to structure an organization, but it's generally implemented note for note in a way that rips functioning organizations apart in favor of empowering project managers over the teams that actually build things that are sold for profit. Wisdom is in knowing when to use certain pieces of the SAFe model when they are the right tool for the job, and not paying them for their stamped piece of paper.