I started my product management career in 2014, and by 2019 I had switched jobs five times.

(And by the way, it’s not something I regret!)

But every time I switched jobs, I felt I had to learn product management from scratch—learn about the product, the systems, the processes, the people, and so on.

Believe it or not, every company, every team, every manager does product management differently.

And relearning everything every time was taking a toll on me—it was too painful and time consuming.

But after a few years, I started seeing patterns. As long as I followed these patterns, I was able to learn and create impact faster and easier. The opposite was also true—if I did not follow the patterns, it took more time (and pain) to create the same amount of impact.

In other words, what I did in the first 90 days truly defined how much impact I create and how easy it is to create that impact.

Here is a guide that I now use to navigate the first 30, 60, and 90 days as a new product manager.

The initial 30 days should be all about learning—learning about your role, the users, the goals, the teams, and the processes that drive the product. This knowledge is essential for making informed decisions and contributing effectively to the product's success.

The first and the most important thing you should do is to understand how your manager defines your role and the success of it.

This information is critical so you know exactly what to do to be successful.

Understand who are the users, non-users, and how they interact with the product.

This knowledge will help you build solutions that truly resonate with their needs.

Leverage data, past user interviews, and documentation to gain this knowledge. Talk to people and teams who are close to users, and understand from them what they know about the users and their needs.

Learn about the larger goals of your product, team, and organization. Then understand how your role contributes to achieving these goals, and use them as a compass for your work.

Only when you align your efforts with the product, team, and organizational goals can you truly drive meaningful impact.

Develop a deep understanding of the product's capabilities, limitations, and functionality. This will give you the required intelligence to make good decisions.

The easiest way to do this is to use the product extensively.

Then, read old documentation, release notes, launch announcements to understand how the product has matured over time.

Finally, talk to other people who are experts in the area. These could involve other PMs, engineers, or even your manager.

Identify the key teams and the individuals in those teams who will have a direct or indirect impact on the success of your product. Know who makes the decisions vs. who is closer to the users, because most of the times these two are different.

Since you’re new to the org or the team, you might not be able to do this on your own. Ask your manager or mentor to help you with this.

Familiarize yourself with the organization's ways of working, communication styles, tools, and processes.

Every team does things differently. Without knowing their ways, you will not only struggle yourself, but also slow down the team.

By the end of the first 30 days, you should have the required knowledge, context, and a clear understanding of what you should focus on.

The second month, is the right time to establish yourself as a valuable member of the team and build relationships with key stakeholders.

The relationships you set at this stage will almost always be the ones that help you succeed, gain support, and create impact in the long run.

To do this, I follow the below approach:

Identify the people and the teams that will help you make your product (and career) successful. While you’re doing that, have clear goals—what is it that you want to gain and share with these people.

I use the below chart as the starting point to find the right people and set goals for my relationship with them.

I then replace the second column with actual names of people and teams.

Once you’ve identified the right people, make sure they know who you are and what you do!

Schedule one-on-one meetings to introduce yourself, explain your role, understand their goals and responsibilities, and discuss details on how to make your relationship a success.

A few things you should discuss in your 1:1s:

There is a high chance that you don’t get to discuss all of the above in just one meeting. So take your time (across multiple meetings) to cover these topics.

Remember the most important outcome of this step is to ensure that you are visible. And you can know that if they know you (by name), they understand your role, both of you agree on ways of working, and both of you know each other’s long-medium term goals.

Once you’re done with the initial rounds of discussions and introductions, find the best cadence and to set regular meetings.

In each meeting, be sure you stay true to the ways of working and each other’s business goals (that you discovered in the 0-30 days phase)

Additionally, do these things:

At the end of 60 days, you should be in a place where relevant (and important) people already know you. They understand what you do, and why you’re well suited to do the job. They know your goals, and have some idea on how you will work with them to meet the larger goals.

At this stage, you should be ready to start executing on small tasks.

This is your time to show that you have the skills to do the job well.

Start with well-defined projects. It is better to execute those tasks that are well defined. They allow you deliver with high confidence and help in minimising errors and issues.

At the same time, taking ownership and delivering something concrete early will help you build confidence. It will help you start creating your reputation (in the right way!)

This is when you start leveraging the relationships you've built.

Don't hesitate to ask for help when needed.

Collaborating with others is key to finding success in the short term. If done well, you will be able to keep using these relationships even in the future to deliver high-quality solutions in the long term.

While you're doing this, try to prioritize initiatives that create tangible value for the team and also for the organizational.

While you might not have the option to say “no” at this time, still be as deliberate as you can about the ownership you take. Try to find and own areas or projects that are the biggest contributors to the team’s larger goals.

The goal is to focus your efforts on delivering real, measurable impact from day one.

Sharing progress, wins, and failures transparently will help build trust.

Publicly and repeatedly share with everyone you’re already delivering important projects.

This will encourage others to work closely with you and be a part of the success story that you’re going to create.

You can drastically (and I mean really really drastically) increase the chances of your success in a new organisation or team, if you are deliberate and strategic about how you spend your first 90 days.

Do these things and you will start seeing a difference—all of a sudden you will be the best PM in the team. More and more people will know you, like you, and want to work with you.

With that said, also note that this is just a generic guide. From experience, the timelines might change depending on the kind and size of organisation. For ex: in a startup, you might do all of these things in just 30 days. And in a big tech, you might spend 6 months doing these things. So use this as a starting point and then see what makes sense for you.

Until next time,

Sid

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