How to Deal with the Summer Slowdown as a TPM

If there’s one thing every Technical Program Manager learns sooner or later, it’s that the summer slowdown is as inevitable as that one colleague who always “forgets” to mute during Zoom calls. After all I am writing this article while holidaying in Florida. The summer months hit differently. Stakeholders vanish into vacation mode, projects seem to drift without their usual momentum, and meetings are either eerily quiet or overloaded with the same three people trying to make decisions meant for ten.

But here’s the thing: the summer slowdown isn’t a dead zone. It’s an opportunity hiding in plain sight. You just need to know how to work with it, not against it. And if you are the one on vacation (like me) then there are things you should be doing before you leave as well.

The Anatomy of a Summer Slowdown

First, let’s understand what’s really happening. The summer slowdown isn’t just about people being out of office (though that’s a big part of it). It’s also about the collective psychological shift that happens when the weather warms up. Studies have shown that productivity dips during summer months. A Harvard Business Review article even notes that workplace productivity can drop by as much as 20% in the summer.

Why? A mix of factors: distractions from vacations, school breaks, longer daylight hours, and, frankly, people just wanting to enjoy life outside of work. And honestly, can you blame them?

The Wrong Approach: Fighting the Slowdown

Many TPMs (my past self included) fall into the trap of trying to force productivity during this period. You stack meetings, push deadlines, and generally try to pretend it’s business as usual. The result? Frustration. Projects stall not because of laziness or incompetence but because the ecosystem you rely on simply isn’t functioning at full capacity.

I once spent an entire July frantically chasing sign-offs for a critical release, only to realize that the decision-makers were scattered across three continents, half of them unreachable and the other half politely ignoring emails while sipping cocktails somewhere coastal. Lesson learned.

Reframing the Summer Slowdown

Instead of seeing it as a productivity killer, think of the summer slowdown as a strategic pause—a natural intermission in the relentless pace of tech projects. Here’s how to make the most of it.

1. Shift from Execution to Strategy

When execution grinds to a halt, zoom out. This is prime time for strategic thinking. Revisit roadmaps, reassess project priorities, and identify gaps in your current processes.

• Conduct Post-Mortems: Run retrospectives on completed projects. What worked? What didn’t?
• Optimize Processes: Are your workflows efficient, or are you just used to them?
• Strategic Planning: Sketch out Q4 initiatives. Use the slowdown to get ahead.

Think of it like clearing out the garage. It’s never urgent, but when you finally do it, everything else runs smoother.

2. Invest in Relationships

With fewer meetings and deadlines, you have the bandwidth to strengthen cross-functional relationships. Schedule one-on-ones with stakeholders you don’t usually get face time with. These aren’t status updates, they’re conversations:

• “What’s been working well for your team?”
• “What’s a frustration we could solve together?”
• “Where do you see our biggest opportunities?”

People are more open during slower periods, and these chats can uncover insights that never surface in the usual rush.

3. Focus on Professional Development

When was the last time you took a course, attended a webinar, or even just read industry articles without feeling guilty about neglecting your inbox? Use the summer to invest in yourself:

• Certifications: Agile, Scrum, SAFe—whatever sharpens your toolkit.
• Technical Skills: Brush up on that coding language you’ve been meaning to learn.
• Leadership Development: TPMs are leaders without formal authority. Any skill that improves influence and communication is gold.

As Simon Sinek says, “Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.” Use this time to reconnect with your professional passions.

4. Tackle the Backlog

Every TPM has that invisible backlog, the list of “someday” tasks that never seem urgent enough to prioritize:

• Cleaning up Confluence pages
• Documenting tribal knowledge
• Updating dashboards and metrics

These aren’t glamorous tasks, but they’re the scaffolding that holds projects together when things get busy again.

5. Embrace Asynchronous Work

With teams scattered and time zones thrown out of whack, the summer slowdown is the perfect opportunity to refine your approach to asynchronous work:

• Clear Documentation: Decisions shouldn’t require meetings to be understood.
• Effective Updates: Use concise, structured status reports that don’t require a call to explain.
• Flexible Check-Ins: Swap real-time stand-ups for async updates in Slack or project management tools.

This isn’t just a summer strategy—it’s a future-of-work strategy.

Prepare Before you Go

If you are the one going on vacation and TPMs like everyone do deserve to disconnect and unwind, then make sure you codify a playbook. I always document all my programs in flight all in one nice Confluence page. In fact it is dynamic with JIRA macros inside, as well as POCs, meeting cadences and so forth. If you can schedule announcement emails or messages ahead of time, do it rather than rely on someone else to do it. But for everything else, make sure your backup knows where your playbook is, and has read it with you as part of the handoff.

The Emotional Side of the Slowdown

Let’s not ignore the personal impact. The summer slowdown can feel disorienting, especially if you’re someone who thrives on momentum. It can trigger imposter syndrome (“Am I doing enough?”), or just general frustration (“Why can’t we keep things moving?”).

Acknowledge those feelings. Then reframe them. Downtime isn’t a failure; it’s part of the rhythm of sustainable work. In fact, it’s essential. Just like muscles need rest to grow stronger, teams need pauses to avoid burnout.

A Personal Anecdote

A few summers ago, I found myself staring at a half-empty calendar, feeling oddly anxious. Was I slacking? Had I lost my edge? But instead of filling the gaps with busywork, I did something radical: I leaned into it.

I scheduled coffee chats with colleagues I barely knew. I read that backlog of articles collecting dust in my bookmarks. I even spent an afternoon whiteboarding ideas for a process improvement I’d been mulling over for months.

By the time September rolled around, I wasn’t just “caught up”, I was ahead. My relationships were stronger, my mind was clearer, and my projects had a strategic edge they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Wrapping It Up

The summer slowdown isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a season to navigate. As a TPM, your job isn’t just to manage projects—it’s to manage momentum. Sometimes that means driving hard toward deadlines, and sometimes it means pausing to reflect, recalibrate, and prepare for the next sprint.

So, the next time your calendar thins out and Slack goes suspiciously quiet, don’t panic. Don’t force it. Lean in. The slowdown might just be the most productive part of your year.