#6: The First 90 (Or So) Days

New year, new gig...now what?

Congratulations! You’ve successfully navigated this Hunger Games of a job market to land a new role, either in your existing company or in a new organization. Obviously, you want to be successful in your new gig, but what specific steps should you be taking to maximize your chances of success? There’s a ton of advice and information out there; some of which is helpful and on point, but most advice lands somewhere between vague nebulosity and Captain Obvious-ness, leaving intrepid, eager, newly hired employees at a loss. Today, I’m sharing the onramping plan that I’ve used in my last few roles, in the hopes it will help some of you. While my focus area is Strategy and Operations (StratOps), this plan can be applied by anyone in a new role, regardless of function. Ideally, this is a 30-60-90 day plan; however, in today’s world, 90 days to ramp up is a luxury. So, I’ve broken the below plan into phases (vs. days), and you can adjust the length of each phase based on the time you have allotted for your own ramp up.

Before You Start (Phase 0): Do the Research

Do as much industry/company research and product training as you can before your actual start date - you will not regret it. What you will regret is assuming that you can pick this up once you’re on the job, once things “quiet down” and you have “spare time”. The idea of having spare time once you start a job is like losing those last 10 pounds - it’s something that is theoretically possible, but realistically? Good luck.

A solid understanding of the company, including its product(s), competitors, market position, financial performance, and business model will help you identify challenges and opportunities early on. You’ll have a massive advantage if you’ve already done this research and are already thinking through the following on Day One:

• How your/your team’s work contributes to the company’s business performance: For years, I’ve prioritized work that meets one or more (preferably more) of the following criteria:

  • Increases revenue and/or market share

  • Enables innovation and/or the development of emerging technologies/products that will impact future company performance

  • Reduces costs or improves the efficacy of existing spend

  • Improves productivity

Note: The list above does NOT include “interesting problems”, “things we might want to look into”, or “things that would be good to have in our back pocket”. The only exception to this rule are requests that come directly from a senior executive. In that case, just smile, nod, and execute.

• Any external challenges (geopolitical, macroeconomic, or competitive) that might affect current and/or future initiatives

• Whether your work is tied to a strategic priority area, and how that may impact levels of investment (yay!) and inspection (boo!) tied to you/your team’s work.

Phase 1: Seek to Understand

Your goal in the first 30 days (or whatever time frame you’ve set aside for your Phase 1) is to understand the current state of the organization you support. I typically divide my focus on five pillars: People, Performance, Process, Culture, and Technology.

People: The universe of people you’ll interact with includes not only the members of your immediate team; it also includes your peers, direct reports, external customers, and internal business partners. Thoughtfully planned introductory 1:1s with these individuals can help you identify challenges that you/your team may face as well as opportunities for short and longer term wins. While this is a ‘getting to know you’ conversation, your inclusion of thoughtful, targeted questions will help (1) establish your credibility and (2) ensure that you’re getting the information you need to plan a path forward. Some questions that I like to include in introductory 1:1s include:

• What are your priorities for the next 3 to 12 months?

• What are the biggest challenges you face in terms of meeting those priorities?

• What are the things that are working or have traditionally worked well between my role/team and your role/team?

• What are the things that are not working or have traditionally not worked well between my role/team and your role/team?

If you are a people manager, you will also want to take this opportunity to assess the talent profile of your team - their values, abilities, skills, and areas for development. Some things I like to discuss in intro 1:1s with my directs include:

• What parts of the job energize you? What do you want to do more of?

• What parts of the job drain you? What do you want to do less of?

• What is your superpower? What is the thing that you (and others) would agree is your strength?

• What is your biggest weakness? What skills/competencies do you want to work on improving?

• Is there specific experience (or training) that you are looking to gain in the next 3 - 12 months?

Performance: What you are aiming for is an understanding of how the organization defines success, as well as how the organization is currently performing against the metrics that define success. This is the time to familiarize yourself with the tools, reporting, dashboards, etc. used to measure business performance and track attainment against OKRs and other targets. Regardless of whether you sit in a StratOps function or not, there is benefit to understanding the tools leaders use to evaluate business performance and the OKRs that you/your team directly impact/contribute to. This will help you identify opportunities for quick and longer term wins.

Process: Your goal is to understand the internal processes that are pertinent to your role, which can include processes for obtaining resources (budget and headcount), making purchases (contract and procurement), function-specific workflows (i.e. marketing campaign approvals and product launch processes), and processes to support the Rhythm of the Business.

Note: Rhythm of the Business refers to the recurring meetings, reviews, etc. that an organization relies on to run the business day to day. This includes, but is not limited to forecast and pipeline reviews, business reviews, account reviews, staff meetings, product reviews, and campaign reviews.

For those in a StratOps function, I also encourage you to look for areas where recurring business decisions are made without a process in place. Accelerating the time it takes for leaders in an organization to make decisions is an area where StratOps professionals can add value. It can be an opportunity for a quick win - either by creating new processes around recurring business decisions or streamlining existing processes to increase agility and productivity.

Culture: Culture is driven by leaders at all levels - meaning that the culture of your immediate team and larger organization can be different from each other, and in some cases, can also be different from the official culture and values listed on the company website. Your goal is to understand the undocumented ways of working that are specific to your team, organization, and company. That is what you and your team will need to navigate…and that is what will inform your/your team’s ability to make an impact. To uncover the culture of a team, organization, or company, pay attention to the following:

• How decisions are made: Are the majority of decisions made by consensus, frameworks, tops-down direction from the leader, or a combination of all three? What levels of the organization are typically included in making org-wide decisions?

• How work gets done: Is collaboration between teams valued, or do teams operate in silos? Every organization will say it values collaboration - the real measure of what behavior is valued is how much of it actually occurs in real life.

• What behaviors/competencies get rewarded: be sure to meet with the proverbial “rock stars” in your organization, including those that operate in roles similar to yours. Make note of what they have in common, in terms of the type of work that they do, the amount of exposure they have to leadership, how they communicate, and how they work with others.

Technology: Whether they are first or third party applications, most (if not all) organizations depend on technology to gather customer, campaign, and opportunity data, distribute work, manage workflows, and conduct planning, among other things. Your goal is to understand the basics of the applications that are specific to your function - whether it is Sales, Marketing, Product, Finance, or something else. For those in a StratOps function, pay special attention to whether the current technology helps or hinders productivity, collaboration, and organizational agility, as those insights will help you in developing an Action Plan.

Phase 2: Assess the Current Landscape

This is where you combine (1) your observations in the prior phases, (2) feedback that you’ve received from your teams and stakeholders, (3) your understanding of current business performance and processes, and (4) your prior experience to build a hypothesis of what is/is not working and to identify opportunities for impact over the short, medium and long term. A simple list of what is/is not working, and what you think can be done to address it (scaling the good and eliminating the bad) is enough to begin with. Your next step is to socialize this list with your peers and business partners to determine which issues are top priority.

For my StratOps folks, I also like to organize my what is/is not working list under the pillars of People, Process, and Technology. Why? Because these are the typical levers available to any org looking to operate at scale.

Phase 3: Develop an Action Plan

During this phase, you’re going to take everything you’ve learned, all of your observations and insights, and all of the feedback you’ve received from your peers, customers, and business partners to develop an Action Plan. The Action Plan is a living document that outlines (1) your observations to date, (2) your insights on what the priority issues are for you/your team to address, (3) the tasks, projects, and programs that you/your team plan to execute in order to address these issues, and (3) the date by which those projects will be complete. If your top priority projects require investment (budget or new/existing HC), I would also call that out in your Action Plan.

Next thing you’re going to do is socialize the Action Plan with your customers and internal business partners and get their feedback on (1) whether you’ve correctly identified the priority issues to be addressed and (2) their thoughts on specific actions you recommend. Is this a lot of socializing/consulting with others? Why, yes. It may be more socializing than you’re used to, but it is far better to over-socialize on the front end than to develop an Action Plan in a silo and have your peers and business partners rip it to shreds because they were not consulted (been there, done that, still have the scars to prove it). At the end of this phase, you want an Action Plan that has been fully vetted and approved, providing you/your team with a clear path forward for the next 3-6 months. This eliminates the guesswork around whether or not you are working on the right things, while also giving you some air cover from being randomized with non-priority work. (“I really would love to help you with <<insert issue here>>, but I am currently focused on addressing <<insert priority issue here>>, that has been flagged as a priority by <<insert stakeholders here>>.”)

Note: In case you are wondering (and I have to explicitly say it), yes, you should absolutely get your manager’s approval on your Action Plan. In addition to providing you with much needed air cover, presenting your Action Plan to your manager gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of your role, the opportunities and challenges that the organization is facing, and your ability to develop impactful and relevant solutions to business problems. You’re welcome.

For those of you in a StratOps role, my Action Plans in a new role are delivered in the form of a Team Charter. Like the Action Plan, this is a living document that outlines your understanding of the role, the team, challenges and opportunities, and a prioritized set of business issues that you wish to address; however, it also includes the following:

• Organizational Overview: information on you and the members of your team (coverage model, primary stakeholders, skills/superpowers, experience, etc.) I view StratOps as a standalone function and use this section to demonstrate why others should as well. Consider it my very polite, very cute, very demure way of saying, “A team with Program Management, Project Management, Analytics, Product Management, Financial Analysis, Process Improvement, Organizational Development, and Enablement expertise surely can be used in more than an administrative capacity. Come on! Look at all of this goodness and value that you’re missing out on!”

• Mission Statement: statement outlining your team’s objectives and the value that you provide to business partners. One phrase I’ve continuously included in my mission statements: “we make impact by operating proactively and at scale to…” this is your opportunity to define your role/team – take full advantage of it early on.

• Engagement Model: how you’d like individuals within the org to submit requests to you/your team, including who requests should be submitted to (directly to your team or vetted by team leaders), and how those requests should be submitted (intake process). Being specific here provides a document you and your team can use to push back on work that comes your way outside of the agreed upon channels.

• Statement of Scope: specific examples of the types of projects/initiatives that are both within and outside your team’s scope. This demystifies for others what types of projects they should be looping you/your team into and empowers you/tour team to push back on requests where reasonable and when needed.

• Prioritization Framework: the factors that your team will consider when identifying high vs. low priority work. This injects objectivity into the system by running all proposals through the same process and prevents squeaky wheels from monopolizing your teams cycles.

• Other: team specific tenets that describe how your team works with each other, as well as stakeholders (internal and cross functional). Example: one of the elements I always include is the expected percentage of work done by my team that is proactive and planned vs. ad-hoc (typically 60/40 or 70/30, depending on the maturity of the organization)

I know this is a LOT of information, but you only get to be a newbie once. Hopefully, you’ll leverage this time (using some of the guidance in this article) to gain the insights needed to develop a thoughtful plan that addresses the most pressing business problems facing your new organization. And you can do it all while establishing credibility, building relationships, and charting a tangible path to success for you/your team.

Erica Hart is a Strategy and Operations executive with deep expertise in driving business results and growth at scale across Sales, Product, Marketing, People, and Partnership teams in high growth tech companies, including Microsoft, Google and Facebook/Meta. Erica specializes in using analytics and business insights to enable data driven decision making across leadership teams and their organizations. She is passionate about developing talent, and optimizing processes, people, and teams to work better…together.