This is a great article, very well thought thanks Johnny. My own experience about onboarding is startup (<100ppl) moves very quickly and there isn’t too much room for proper onboarding. Would you have any advice for PM onboarding in a fast paced environment like this? Thanks.
Thanks Claire, and that's a great question! It's true that onboarding can be very different in a faster paced startup. I'd say:
1) The principles of a good onboarding should largely apply (e.g. you still want to start from people and learning before jumping into crafting your product vision for instance).
2) The steps could at least be good reminders for yourself to try to cover as many of these basics as possible while you're still new. Because if you don't, you will probably never have to time to come back to it as you'll only be busier. Wherever possible, you may even ask to be given time for it even if there's no such process defined for you. Explain that these will set you up for success.
3) You might run at a 2x or 5x speed through the 30-60-90 and the milestone goals might start to overlap a lot. E.g. you're expected to start leading already while you're still meeting people and reading materials. Obviously this might leave you with much less required context and confidence, but in which case you'd approach it with higher dose of humility and flexibility, and just learn by doing. That 2x speed might end up forcing you to be 2x more efficient, which is a positive thing! :)
Great answer Johnny, I particularly agree with your second point, it’s really important to set up that expectation and try to carve out time to ask questions!
This is a great article, very well thought thanks Johnny. My own experience about onboarding is startup (<100ppl) moves very quickly and there isn’t too much room for proper onboarding. Would you have any advice for PM onboarding in a fast paced environment like this? Thanks.
Thanks Claire, and that's a great question! It's true that onboarding can be very different in a faster paced startup. I'd say:
1) The principles of a good onboarding should largely apply (e.g. you still want to start from people and learning before jumping into crafting your product vision for instance).
2) The steps could at least be good reminders for yourself to try to cover as many of these basics as possible while you're still new. Because if you don't, you will probably never have to time to come back to it as you'll only be busier. Wherever possible, you may even ask to be given time for it even if there's no such process defined for you. Explain that these will set you up for success.
3) You might run at a 2x or 5x speed through the 30-60-90 and the milestone goals might start to overlap a lot. E.g. you're expected to start leading already while you're still meeting people and reading materials. Obviously this might leave you with much less required context and confidence, but in which case you'd approach it with higher dose of humility and flexibility, and just learn by doing. That 2x speed might end up forcing you to be 2x more efficient, which is a positive thing! :)
Great answer Johnny, I particularly agree with your second point, it’s really important to set up that expectation and try to carve out time to ask questions!