Onboarding Artifacts

Last week, I (as a new-ish hire) was asked by a teammate what artifacts I had found particularly useful in my first few weeks. More specifically, what research had I expected to be available that wasn’t. Since I’d been cataloging my onboarding findings, I had a list handy. And in my efforts to learn Miro, I decided to make a quick visual out of it:

A dozen of these I find critical when you’re ramping up on a SaaS product, so let’s dig into those

1. customer journey map - the repeatable playbook for how an account lands / expands and the GTM + product milestones on that path

2. customer maturity model - a bucketing of the account base along clear lines of “readiness” for different parts of the product portfolio

3. product portfolio overview - breakdown of the core product, key add-ons, and complementary modules along with canonical use cases for each

4. use case matrix - all the recurring usage patterns for the product, potentially broken down by industry / department verticals

5. key differentiators - structural, foundational product investments that cannot be easily copied by the competition in a reasonable timeframe

6. customer health model - usually a RED / YELLOW / GREEN categorization based on certain usage levers / adoption milestones

7. north star primer - what key metric the product org is focused on, how it’s calculated, what the drivers are, and how it ladders up to customer value

8. user adoption lifecycle - what are the key aha! moments for things to click

9. lost report - what are the recurring reasons we lose deals that came in as qualified leads?

10. professional services playbook - what steps do implementation consultants take to get a customer onboarded onto product (usually 30/60/90 view)

11. personas in play - who are the key players in the purchase, implementation, adoption, expansion, and renewal cycles (users / consumers / influencers)

12. company loop / product flywheel - a synthesis of the core motion (across product development and go-to-market) that powers customer value / runs the business

I’d love to hear from readers on what artifacts in their business / function / industry they consider must-haves for onboarding new hires - please chime in via comments👇. And if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing.

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further reading / references

• here is 5 min audio episode walking through some PM onboarding practices

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childish drawing / interpretation