What to Focus on in the First 30 Days of a New Role

Shreyas Doshi · 4m · transcribed 9h ago

Section Insights

# 0:00

Aligning Expectations in a New Role

How should a new product manager approach their first 30 days?

A new product manager should align with their manager on expectations, focusing on learning and identifying key issues to investigate.

Clarify manager's expectations for the first month.
Identify a burning problem to diagnose rather than solve.
Frame requests to avoid overwhelming your manager.

# 0:56

Identifying Key Issues

What should a new product manager focus on during their first month?

The manager should collect key issues from team members to build credibility and prioritize urgent tasks.

Gather insights from engineering and design counterparts.
Focus on two or three high-leverage tasks.
Avoid random tasks that may overwhelm the team.

# 1:52

Navigating Team Dynamics

What pitfalls should a new product manager avoid when integrating into a team?

New product managers should avoid overwhelming the team with additional work and focus on understanding existing challenges.

Be cautious about how new ideas are presented to the team.
Prioritize understanding over immediate problem-solving.
Engage in context-gathering activities like customer meetings.

# 2:48

Building Relationships and Gaining Context

What strategies should a new product manager employ to build relationships?

Focus on building relationships through one-on-ones without assigning action items, and prioritize understanding team members' concerns.

Avoid assigning tasks in initial meetings.
Understand team members' priorities and working styles.
Empathize with colleagues to build credibility.

# 3:44

Empathy and Understanding in Team Interactions

How can a new product manager demonstrate credibility?

By empathizing with team members and understanding their roles, a product manager can build credibility without appearing boastful.

Share relevant experiences without bragging.
Understand the perspectives of different roles like engineering and design.
Focus on relationship-building as a key priority.

Transcript

0:02 so you might be an experienced product manager who's entering into a new role and there's just like too much to do too much to learn so my Approach in those situations is first you want to align with your new manager what his or her expectations are for you in the first 30 days most managers will say oh we don't expect anything of you just spend time learning Etc which is good so you can say great yes I will spend time learning

0:26 is there anything specific you'd like me to learn but go a step further and ask them is there some burning problem on the team that You' at least like me to investigate and diagnose cuz then that frees them up not all managers but many managers feel guilty about assigning a bunch of tasks to people early on that's why the way you frame it is I'm not asking you to give me a problem that I'll solve I'm just asking you what is

0:48 the burning issue that I can at least diagnose and share with you or share with the team so that's when you start hearing oh actually yes you know there's this kind of indecision around this particular feature whether it should be a native feature or a web feature can we figure that out you don't have all the context but can you look into it you say yes I'm going to look into it you want to collect such items from your

1:08 engineering counterpart from your design counterpart the people you're working closely with and your manager so that's the work you should aim to do in your first 30 days maybe two or three of these things the important thing here is it flag for you what is important and Urgent for the team plus it will give you a way to build credibility but in a very intentional way not randomly see many new PMS start doing random just to add value so an example is a PM

1:36 will come in and say hey team great to be on the team you know what I spent the last four days to aggregate user feedback from this place whatever and here's a bunch of user asks and it'll be great if you can review it and provide feedback well okay maybe it'll work but in most cases what happens in these situations is the team goes oh we already have enough work to do this new fancy spany PM came in and has

2:03 put more work on us some people will view it as condescending which is like hey you just came into the team I've been working on this thing for four years and now in your first week you telling me all the we should be doing that we haven't been doing so the intention is good here but the execution and the messaging is the problem that's why you want to identify the few issues two or three issues that the right

2:26 people flag for you and you want to try to investigate them try to diagnosed try to provide recommendations that's the kind of work real work I want you to do other than that I want you to focus on getting context that is reading that is going to customer meetings that is reading industry reports understanding the domain all of that avoid the temptation of showing how smart you are which is like oh I read all this you think

2:51 you are very smart but you're not yet you know smart enough in this domain to be able to sh from the rooftops that oh I've figured out all the problems maybe you have but don't talk about it in the first week or the first month so that's the getting context part I want to want you to focus on so the first one was two or three High leverage tasks or problems the second one is getting context which is very important the

3:18 third one I want you to focus on is building relationships the way you build relationships is standard ways you do one-on ones obviously in your first few one-on ones don't assign action items see PMS have the bad habit of assigning action items everywhere they go don't assign action items to people in your first few meetings try to understand what they care most deeply about what are the problems that they are seeing what are the problems that they want to

3:43 solve if it's a legal counterpart or a compliance counterpart or a privacy counterpart or whatever else what are the problems that you are seeing that I should pay attention to what can I learn from you what has been tried before that hasn't worked what kind of working Style you prefer in that conversation I want you to also share without bragging how you empathize with them and how you understand how engineering works if you're talking to an engineering

4:09 counterpart how you understand how design works because that's a subtle way of building credibility with people without bragging or giving them action items those are the three things the the high leverage Focus tasks being number one second is getting context and third is building relationships that's what I want you to focus on in the first 30 days n

Summary

In the early days of a new product management role, it's crucial to align with your manager's expectations, identify key issues to investigate, and build relationships within the team. Focus on understanding the team's dynamics and gathering context rather than jumping into solutions or assigning tasks immediately.

- Align with your manager on expectations for the first 30 days, including any specific problems to investigate.
- Identify 2-3 high-leverage tasks or issues to diagnose, which helps build credibility and focus on urgent team needs.
- Collect insights from engineering and design counterparts to understand pressing challenges.
- Prioritize gaining context through customer meetings, industry reports, and domain knowledge without showcasing premature expertise.
- Build relationships through one-on-ones, focusing on understanding colleagues' concerns and experiences rather than assigning action items.
- Share your understanding of different roles subtly to foster credibility without appearing boastful.
- Avoid random tasks that may overwhelm the team; instead, concentrate on meaningful contributions.