On point number one, I can't agree with this enough. It's the best empathy building exercise to actually experience what your customers experience. Another onboarding experience I've had in the past is to do a support shift. You get to 1.) build empathy for support 2.) get a feel for your users and their level 3.) find some obvious problems with fresh eyes.
Another onboarding experience I've seen someone else do is that at the end of their 90 days share everything they've observed about how the team works. This was really useful for us as a team to learn about what others see while they have fresh eyes. This taught us more about how we operate as a team.
I hadn't thought of that dimension, but it probably comes through in 3 ways:
(1) most PM interviews involve a presentation, so that's akin to a teardown of a product (including the development process)
(2) how quickly a candidate absorbs (and picks apart) your strategy depends on how well they absorb your external communications (product launches, feature tiers, etc)
(3) whether or not they spent hands-on time with (a demo / trial version of) your product and can weave that into the conversation
Great one. Certainly there's a learning period that can be valuable to the team, a chance to reality check if key aspects of the product shine through for a new user. Digging through the CRM is a great idea. It's amazing how over time the spectrum of views / perceptions of a product widens A LOT especially in a large company with a vast portfolio. Being new to a team is a chance to remind everyone of the why.
This is 6 minutes!! :)
On point number one, I can't agree with this enough. It's the best empathy building exercise to actually experience what your customers experience. Another onboarding experience I've had in the past is to do a support shift. You get to 1.) build empathy for support 2.) get a feel for your users and their level 3.) find some obvious problems with fresh eyes.
Another onboarding experience I've seen someone else do is that at the end of their 90 days share everything they've observed about how the team works. This was really useful for us as a team to learn about what others see while they have fresh eyes. This taught us more about how we operate as a team.
+1 to the support shift idea!
-1 minute from next week’s episode to restore balance to the universe
(New subscriber here) This is a fantastic episode - thank you! I was curious if any of this translates to the PM interviewing process for you.
I hadn't thought of that dimension, but it probably comes through in 3 ways:
(1) most PM interviews involve a presentation, so that's akin to a teardown of a product (including the development process)
(2) how quickly a candidate absorbs (and picks apart) your strategy depends on how well they absorb your external communications (product launches, feature tiers, etc)
(3) whether or not they spent hands-on time with (a demo / trial version of) your product and can weave that into the conversation
Great one. Certainly there's a learning period that can be valuable to the team, a chance to reality check if key aspects of the product shine through for a new user. Digging through the CRM is a great idea. It's amazing how over time the spectrum of views / perceptions of a product widens A LOT especially in a large company with a vast portfolio. Being new to a team is a chance to remind everyone of the why.
💯 on the product surface expanding in all manner of unexpected ways over time