Your first 30 days as a Product Manager

Your first 30 days are a critical time in any new company, role, or team. What you do now will have lasting impacts.

I recently started a new product management role and finished my first 30 days two weeks ago. Whether it’s a new role, project, team, or company, how you spend your first 30, 60 or 90 days is something most of us probably don’t think about until day one. This critical time is often seen as part of your regular ongoing work, but it couldn’t be more different, and you really should leverage this time for what it is. So, while it’s fresh in my mind and I’m experiencing this myself, I thought I’d take some time to note some of the things I’ve been reminded of while I go through this process for the umpteenth time.

Starting a new role can be daunting, whether at your current company or a new one. Personally, I’ve learned to love it and see it for the opportunity it is, a chance for personal growth and improvement. As a Product Manager, I see it as part of my own iterative process that allows me to improve my operational procedures. You typically have a lot of freedom during this time, but this is also where you set expectations. Another goal of your first 30 days is to make an excellent first impression and ensure you set yourself up for long-term success.

Before you start the role, you can start thinking about how you want to take notes, manage your to-do list, and email. It’s a great time to re-evaluate your own processes. Don’t like the way you did this at your last job? You now have a clean inbox or Notion to start with.

The Setup (Week 1)

The first step should be ensuring you have everything you need to do your job. Finding out you don’t have access to a critical program two months into your new role would be a red flag to everyone, so ensure your access to everything works, even if you won’t use it right away.

Ensure you have access to all the systems you need:

• Try to use each system you get access to, making sure you have the right permission and access levels.

• If this is your first time using the software, take some time to watch a few tutorial videos or read up on how to get the most out of it.

• Get experts in the company to give you a walkthrough or tutorial so you’re not lost.

I got access to our BigQuery early on, and as soon as I had a project to work on, I connected with the resident expert to learn about our data model, how the different fields are calculated, and to clarify definitions.

Learn & Document (Weeks 1 to 4 and Ongoing)

In your first 30 days, much of what you learn will go over your head, especially in the first two weeks when there’s a lot of new information. It’s important to save this information for retrieval later when you have more context.

Now’s the time to learn how the company works, who its users are, and how others in your role operate:

• Pay close attention and take notes in meetings. Note the departments, responsibilities, and concerns of the various departments and people you meet, as well as important facts and history about the company, previous decisions, and ongoing challenges.

• Save links to documents others share and a little note about them, whether in a spreadsheet or your bookmarks bar. They may not seem relevant then, so you’ll want to refer to these later when you have more context.

• Keep a list of questions that come up as you’re going through onboarding.

• If you have an onboarding checklist to follow, update it and add other relevant information to make it easier for the next person who follows.

Review these notes later when you have more context. Even if you think you got all of the information the first time, with your new context, you’ll likely see things you missed. The same goes for data if that’s something you have access to.

Connecting (Weeks 1 to 4 and Ongoing)

You meet new people daily in group meetings like standups, retros, and demos. This is great, but it’s not enough to build any rapport, so book a one-on-one later with the key people you meet.

• Book short intro meetings. Learn what other people do and what they care about. Let them know who you are, what they can count on you for, and what you’re excited about.

• Set up weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly syncs with your manager, direct reports, and possibly even your manager’s manager.

• Take time every couple of weeks to meet with someone in another department with whom you don’t usually connect.

As a Product Manager, context is everything, so it's incredibly helpful to gain a deeper knowledge or understanding of what happens within various teams.

Cadence (Weeks 1 to 4)

By the end of the first 30 days, you should become comfortable with the cadence of the company you’re working at. There are daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly meetings that will have a significant impact on your day-to-day.

If you have feedback about regular meetings, want to join meetings you were never invited to, or think there should be additional meetings (we could all use more meetings, right?), now’s the time to say something.

• Review your manager’s calendar and ensure you’re not missing any critical recurring meetings. Online calendars make this easy.

• Opt out of meetings that aren’t providing value.

• Put time blocks on your calendar for focused work.

• Put any critical deadlines and important dates in your calendar.

• Ensure any personal obligations, like school pickup, drop-off, or gym time, are blocked off.

In my first two weeks, I found a couple of important meetings my manager hadn’t added me to, so it’s worth paying attention!

Setting Expectations (Weeks 1 to 4)

How you manage yourself from week one will impact what others expect for a long time. Once again, you have a blank slate to set your schedule, response times, communication style, and notifications.

If you feel like you got some of this wrong in your last role, now’s the time to make some changes while you have a fresh start. Some questions to think about that may have long-lasting impacts on your time here:

• How long are your breaks?

• How often do you check your email and messages?

• How quick are you to respond?

• When someone asks for support, do you guide or do it for them?

• Do you communicate in public channels or private? (I recommend keeping everything in public channels as much as possible)

In my new role, I’m making more of an effort to put details in public documents and direct people there to set the expectation of where they should look before reaching out with questions.

Delivering Value (Week 4 and Ongoing)

Your first 30 days are about researching and getting the lay of the land, but that doesn’t mean you can’t deliver value. If you can deliver significant value in your first 30 days (or close to it), you’ll give yourself the best chance of success.

You don’t always have all the knowledge you need yet at this stage, but try to deliver some value toward the end of your 30 days or immediately after. You’re still early, so people will forgive you for needing extra help. Here are some things you can do early on:

• Take notes on the onboarding process and make recommendations to help future hires.

• Update process documents, or create them if they don’t exist, for processes you’re doing for the first time.

• If working with data, generate dashboards and reports you can leverage after your first 30 days.

• Prioritize the highest impact things you can do after your 30 days.

Your first 30 days are critical in any new company, role, or team. What you do now will have lasting impacts. It’s generally a good idea not to be too radical or make sweeping changes at this stage. Observe, learn, document, and set expectations. Do this well, and you’ll set yourself up for long-term success.

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Read next:

Your next 30 to 60 days as a Product Manager

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