Product Collective - Starting a new Product Management role

First 30-60-90 Days as a Product Manager

There are a couple of ways you can approach your first few months at a new product management job. You can put yourself completely in the hands of your new company and expect everything will be perfectly laid out with everything you need to know wrapped up neatly with a bow. Or, you can take matters into your own hands and have a plan for how you’ll get yourself up to speed. While it’s great to think you’d be able to do the former, the truth is you probably should be prepared to do the latter.

What to do in your first 30 - 60 - 90 days as a product manager. Starting a new product management job can be exciting and intimidating at the same time. You’re excited because you get the opportunity to work on a new product and solve new problems. You’re intimidated because everything is new, and you have a lot of learning to do. If your new company does not have a good onboarding approach, you may initially find yourself without much to do. Kent McDonald explains how to build your own 30-60-90 day plan for a new product management job.
(via @KentJMcDonald)

How to Approach Your First 30-60-90 Days as a Product Manager. Every new product manager wants to make their mark, but before you’re viewed as a thought leader with the respect of various internal factions, you need to build a foundation of respect, collaboration, and trust. These tasks can’t be put off - gaining influence and authority is the core of your first three months on the job. How you spend your first three months in a new product management role sets the tone for your entire tenure with the company. Heather McClosky explains the essential undertakings during the first, second, and third month on the job
(via @uservoice)

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The color you choose in your app can cause panic

“So, which color should we make the icon?”

Such a simple question that may come up in a mundane planning meeting, right? As a metro system learned this week in Shanghai, the answer to that question could be the difference between business as usual… and causing widespread panic. 

Last week, that system decided they’d do something festive to celebrate the Lunar New Year. When its customers would scan their mobile devices when entering and exiting the system – instead of the usual black QR code that would appear, it would be red instead. Fun, right?

Wrong.

That color change decision caused widespread panic, as so many users believed that the red QR code indicated that they were marked as COVID positive. After all, the color-based “health code” that many parts of the country implemented had a system that indicated green for healthy, yellow for having been a close contact of somebody that was COVID-positive, and red for confirmed or suspected cases. And given that China adopted a COVID-zero policy, even just a handful of positive COVID cases can mean widespread lockdowns. 

On Sunday, the Shanghai metro system had to release a public statement, explaining that the color change choice was meant “to welcome the coming of the Year of the Tiger and create a traditional festive atmosphere.”

One simple color choice caused a near-catastrophe. User Experience experts and Designers are probably feeling a sense of vindication here, as their pounding of the table for certain color choices may often get eye-rolls from the product team. But product people, let this be a lesson for all of us. Color choices do matter inside of the products we launch. So next time your team members are explaining the importance of one over the other, maybe cut them some slack. 

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7 Tips for product managers to optimize their first 30 days at a new job. Being a Product Manager requires having both breadth and depth of understanding, which needs to encompass the organization, the business, the people, the customers, and the technology. When you start a new job at a new company you possess little of this knowledge. Curtis Stanier recently went through this experience and shares the framework he used to get up to speed on his new job. Most of these tips work in conjunction with the on-boarding activities your new company organizes. However, it is beneficial to formalize tasks to give yourself a degree of structure for times you are feeling overwhelmed. 
(via @crstanier)

First 30–60–90 Days in a New Product Manager Job.  Before starting his latest job, Arpit Rai made a checklist of things he thought he should do to settle into the new role. That list included areas such as team, manager, customers, product, market & competitors, and product management process. Arpit learned quite a bit from using that checklist. He shares what he learned and describes how to plan out your first 30–60–90 days of your next product management job. 
(via @arpitrai)

What to Do in Your First 30 Days in a New Role.  Congratulations, a product has found its product manager. Perhaps you’re joining a small startup, or maybe you have a new project in a big company. How you approach your first 30 days will make a tremendous difference, setting you up for success or struggle. Ken Norton shares some tips for how to approach that first month. Emphasize these three areas: People, Product, and Personal:
(via @kennethn)

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