How to Approach Your First 30-60-90 Days as a Product Manager

Every new product manager wants to make their mark, but before you’re viewed as a thought leader with the respect of various internal factions, you need to build a foundation of respect, collaboration, and trust. These tasks can’t be put off - gaining influence and authority is the core of your first three months on the job. How you spend your first three months in a new product management role sets the tone for your entire tenure with the company.

So what should you do? What should you avoid? What can wait until later? Below are the essential undertakings during the first, second, and third month on the job:

What to do in Your First 30 Days as a Product Manager

There are two traps product managers often fall into when they start a new position. Falling into these can put you on the wrong footing at your new PM job, leaving you to play catch-up later.

Trap One

The first is getting lost in the world of paperwork, documentation and systems. This doesn’t help you really learn how the company works or help you establish your credibility. It can also give folks a negative impression of your engagement and interest, since you’re spending too much time alone at your desk.

Trap Two

The second trap is to “come in hot” and start making proclamations and decisions too quickly.  No one likes a know-it-all, and it doesn’t show much respect for the work people put in before you got there and leads with their own subjective experience bias. That’s why your first 30 days should be non-stop meetings and conversations, with the focus on listening and asking questions.

“Showing up to your new gig and immediately bashing long established norms will backfire,” says Jarie Bolander of The Daily MBA. “Those norms are there for a reason and you must first respect them and then try to figure out how to change it. This is true even if everyone hates the policy or procedure. Go slow and build your reputation up first before challenging company norms.”

The key to avoiding this is to start talking to people, scheduling as many one-on-one meetings as possible with peers, superiors and individual contributors in each part of the organization. The more perspectives you get, the better you can help everyone succeed.

“Try to get time with anyone critical to you performing your job,” says Barron Ernst of Naspers. “You want to spend this time not criticizing people or their jobs, but instead spending the time to understand their role, the metrics they are focusing on, and the problems they are facing. The key here is to listen. If you walk in the door and try to tell a long time employee how to do their job or criticize their thinking, you’re not going to be received well.”

Learn About Priorities, Problems, and People

Now that you’ve shown you’re here to listen and help, these meetings are a chance to discover where you should focus early on for some quick wins, as well as what landmines or simmering problems may be lurking in the shadows.“Identify and surface issues percolating just below the radar that may not have been discussed during the interview process and first few days on the job,” says Vincent Huang of BetterWorks. “A good filter for this was to ask how we could do things faster, more efficiently, or better. This goal of mine included figuring out what the team needed, which was also an opportunity for me to provide additional value."

Of course, the most important meetings are going to be with your new manager, as their perception of you and your work is critical.“Learn about your boss,” says The PM in Heels. “How does she like to assign work? What’s her communication style (email, in person, phone)? What does she expect from you in the first 30-60-90 days?”

If your manager has specific things they’re looking for at these milestones, create a plan and update the status weekly so they can see how you’re progressing.Finally, your first 30 days should include meetings with people outside of your office. Start visiting customers right away so you can avoid your own cognitive biases and get direct product feedback.

“Before any biases set in, let’s them hear and evaluate external feedback. Also arms them with first hand information so they can start contributing when they return to the office,” says Saeed Khan of On Product Management, adding that “As the new PM probably can’t go alone to a lot of the meetings due to lack of product or possibly domain knowledge, provides a good excuse to get one or more other PMs out of the office as well. Helps those PMs traveling together bond as a team which is great for the PM team.”