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⚙️ Becoming a GRC Product Manager: The Evolution Beyond Compliance TPM

How to Transform Your Compliance Role from Project Management to Strategic Product Leadership

Author

Ayoub Fandi
May 15, 2025

You know that feeling when January arrives and you're staring down another year of the same compliance cycles?

Audit prep, evidence collection, findings remediation, repeat.

Your career has hit the compliance treadmill, running faster and faster without actually going anywhere.

This isn't about adding another certification to your LinkedIn profile.

It's about fundamentally changing how you approach GRC work, transitioning from a project-focused Compliance Technical Program Manager to a strategic GRC Product Manager.

It's time to get off the treadmill and start building something that lasts.

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Why It Matters 🔍

The why: the core problem this solves and why you should care

The stark differences between these job descriptions reveal a critical reality:

GRC professionals often function as Technical Program Managers even when that's not their title. 

Most GRC practitioners find themselves:  

  • Focused on coordination rather than creation  

  • Gathering requirements instead of identifying opportunities  

  • Tracking delivery instead of shaping strategy  

  • Reporting status instead of influencing direction

This operational focus creates both immediate and long-term consequences: Your strategic input is rarely sought for key decisions Your career advancement plateaus as you're seen as an "implementer"  

Your compensation growth stalls compared to more strategic roles Your professional satisfaction suffers as you execute others' visions.

As compliance automation and AI accelerates, purely operational roles face increasing commoditisation.

Those who develop strategic product thinking will not only survive but thrive with significantly enhanced career prospects and impact.

# What most GRC professionals actually do (TPM mode)
def typical_grc_practitioner():
    gather_compliance_requirements()
    define_audit_scope()
    track_evidence_collection()
    ensure_on_time_certification()
    report_status_to_leadership()
    
# What strategic GRC professionals could be doing (PM mode)
def strategic_grc_practitioner():
    identify_security_enhancement_opportunities()
    navigate_technical_compliance_ambiguity()
    influence_executive_security_decisions()
    develop_long_term_risk_reduction_strategies()
    reshape_organizational_security_culture()

Strategic Framework 🧩

The what: The conceptual approach broken down into 3 main principles

TPM role example

PM role example

From Coordination to Creation

The TPM job description emphasises coordination: "ongoing communication," "day-to-day coordination," and "quality assurance."

The PM description focuses on creation: "shaping company trajectory," "standing up new teams," and "developing centralised systems."

This represents a fundamental shift from managing existing processes to creating new capabilities—from keeping the compliance train on schedule to designing better security railways.

GRC practitioners stuck in coordination mode find themselves perpetually busy but rarely building anything that lasts beyond the next audit cycle.

From Execution to Influence

The TPM coordinates "cross-functional products and programs execution" within established structures.

The PM must "negotiate approach with executive leadership" and "support product teams across Meta in navigating complex trade-offs."

Most GRC professionals remain trapped in execution mode: implementing controls, collecting evidence, and managing findings. This limits their ability to shape security strategy before decisions are made.

The difference? Execution authority comes from your position. Influence comes from your insights and vision.

From Requirements to Opportunities

The TPM has "knowledge of user needs, gathering requirements, and defining scope."

The PM must "identify company trajectory altering opportunities" and "develop product vision, strategies and roadmaps that reshape broader organisational strategies."

This represents the most profound shift for GRC practitioners: moving from solving defined compliance problems to identifying unaddressed security opportunities—from building what's required to envisioning what's possible.

While both roles are necessary, organisations consistently value opportunity identification more highly than requirement fulfilment.

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Execution Blueprint 🛠️

The how: 3 practical steps to put this strategy into action at your organisation

1. Evaluate Your Current Position on the TPM-PM Spectrum

Start by honestly assessing where you currently fall on the project-product spectrum. Review your last month of work activities and count how many fall into each category:

TPM Indicators:

  • Scheduling and attending status meetings

  • Creating and updating tracking documents

  • Collecting and reviewing evidence

  • Coordinating across teams to meet deadlines

  • Reporting on compliance metrics and status

PM Indicators:

  • Analyzing security trends to identify new opportunities

  • Developing strategic proposals for security improvements

  • Influencing decisions before requirements are defined

  • Creating roadmaps for security capability development

  • Measuring impact on security outcomes, not just compliance status

Most GRC professionals will find 80%+ of their activities fall into the TPM category. This isn't a judgment—it's a starting point for growth.

2. Bridge the Technical-Strategic Divide

The most effective GRC product thinkers combine technical understanding with strategic vision:

  • Select a technical focus area: Identify one technical domain (cloud infrastructure, identity management, application security) where deeper knowledge would increase your strategic credibility

  • Follow the data flows: Understand how information moves through your systems to identify security opportunities that others miss

  • Join technical planning sessions: Observe how engineers make decisions and learn to translate compliance into their language

  • Build a technical mentor relationship: Find an engineering or security leader who can help translate complex concepts

Many compliance professionals deliberately avoid technical depth, focusing solely on requirements and documentation. Reversing this pattern immediately differentiates you from traditional GRC practitioners.

Start by scheduling one hour per week to learn about a technical domain relevant to your compliance area. After just a month, you'll have knowledge that most compliance professionals lack.

3. Create Opportunity-Focused Deliverables

Start shifting your work outputs from status reports to opportunity analyses:

  • Transform your next compliance update into a strategic opportunity assessment

  • Identify 2-3 "trajectory altering" improvements in your current compliance program

  • Present a vision for how your compliance function could enhance security beyond audit requirements

  • Develop a simplified product roadmap for a security capability, not just control implementation

This shift in deliverables signals to leadership that you're thinking beyond traditional compliance management.

For your next meeting with leadership, create two documents: the standard status report they expect, and a one-page "strategic opportunities" assessment they don't expect. The contrast will immediately position you differently.

Remember: The transition from TPM to PM thinking isn't about abandoning execution excellence. It's about adding strategic vision and opportunity identification on top of a solid execution foundation.

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Content Queue 📖

The learn: This week's resource to dive deeper on the topic

If you enjoyed this exploration of product thinking for GRC careers, you'll definitely want to check out my earlier article "Where GRC is a Product: Breaking the Project Mindset".

This piece explores how transforming your entire GRC program from a project to a product approach can deliver continuous value instead of periodic paperwork. It provides a complementary perspective to this week's career-focused discussion by showing how organizations can break free from audit-driven cycles.

Together, these resources offer both the organisational and personal roadmaps for evolving GRC from a compliance checkbox to a strategic asset.

That’s all for this week’s issue, folks!

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See you next week!

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