6 useful hints to kick-start your new job as a product manager
You have your first or a new job? Then follow these steps to have a good start:
1. Get on the same page with your manager right from the start
No matter who makes the first step: consult with your manager the expectations of the first 6 months. If the expectations are not similar anyway, but leave enough flexibility, also suggest the following points for your induction period and get approval for them. This way you are sure not to work past your manager’s expectations and get into conflicting goals right at the beginning.
2. Get to know all important stakeholders
At the beginning, try to meet everyone from your team, the most important peers and other relevant stakeholders. If possible, go out to lunch, coffee or whatever else is appropriate in your company with them individually. Ask them about the things that should definitely change or not change. It is good to build trust and personal relationships before making important decisions or addressing conflicting issues.
3. Understand the organization, the culture and the power structure.
Make sure you understand the official and unofficial structures and decision-making processes. Also the peculiarities that exist in each company. What is valued and what are the pitfalls you should avoid. Since the first perception of you is important, you should not start with a faux pas.
4. Focus on learning
Before you start making decisions, you need to have good enough judgment. Therefore, if possible, don’t start writing stories in the first week. Focus on learning. Learn as much as you can about the market, your customers, your own product and company partners. Use existing benchmarks or create your own. Anticipate the vision, strategies and goals. Try to understand the logic behind KPIs and understand why the current system architecture was built the way it is. Talk to customers or work in support or sales for a few days. Question everything you don’t understand or what doesn’t seem logical to you. There are probably reasons for that, which you should know.
5. Don’t judge right away, but rather write it down
Hold back on judgments in the beginning, but keep a record of your findings until you can better evaluate whether you have actually found a relevant aspect for optimization. Develop a mind-map or at least notes with all the topics you notice to come back to later.
Once you have gained sufficient confidence, use your still fresh perspective to question established processes and assumptions with the right people in a small circle. But start by putting in only your most important idea or suggestion at the moment. Only once that has been discussed and eventually implemented you should bring in one of the other proposals. New employees who want to turn everything inside out are a bit annoying, even if they are right.
6. Back up your first decisions and important actions until you have built up trust.
No one expects you to know everything after 2 months. It is therefore not a sign of weakness to ask colleagues or superiors for their assessment in the first months before making relevant decisions, commitments and important announcements. Explain how you came to your conclusions so that the feedback is more valuable. This way you ensure that you don’t start with wrong conclusions right at the beginning.
I wish you good luck!
First published by Traian Kaiser on Medium
