A Product Manager’s First 3 months - Building Relationships and Reputation

Or how to prove your value as product manager.

Whether you are someone brand new to PM work, or someone who is just new to an organization, the article will help you with the most critical period of your work - the first three months as a product manager. Use this knowledge to build the foundation of credibility and demonstrate early success.

The three sections of the article should be viewed as a sequence of actions, rather than strict monthly timeframes.

Key Points from the Article

• Proactively build relations with your colleagues and superiors starting from day one. Learn your boss and update your behavior accordingly.

• Learn as much as possible about the product or the part you are responsible for.

• Begin bringing value as soon as possible.

Establishing Foothold on the New Territory

Congratulations, you’ve landed your dream job and started your first day as a product manager. Your painstaking work begins now. This may sound very trivial, but I will keep repeating the common truth through my articles - product manager relies heavily on their soft skills and relations. Be proactive and start with a short welcome message to your colleagues explaining who you are and what you will be doing. Depending on the communication style in your organisation, it might be a welcome email or few sentences in the corporate messenger.

Start learning about your nearest colleagues and your boss(es). Gather as much information as possible to understand who this people are and their working habits. Company portal or LinkedIn might be ideal places to begin. Ask someone to explain the company structure to you.

I worked in a company that has a structured intranet site with all employees and their teams in the form of a wiki. I could open info about any colleague to see their photo and description, as well as testimonials from their colleagues.

After you have identified your key colleagues, book quick one-on-one appointments to introduce yourself and establish first contact, which is especially important in organizations with completely remote culture. This will help you to make first opinion about these people and decide future actions. Networking whether improvised or not helps as well. Go out for a dinner or for a coffee break. Ask questions. When you build relations with your colleagues, you also build your own army of supporters.

Apart from all other actions, establish relations with your boss as quickly as possible. Regular one-on-ones would be the best option to understand and talk about expectations from you. Learn the working style of your boss and tune up your behavior accordingly. If you don’t communicate with your boss regularly, you may end up in the situation of total misunderstanding.

If your boss asks you to join his weekly game of badminton, don’t hesitate to do this even if you don’t like this type of sports. Shared activities are more important for your success than sending detailed reports or working extra hours.

During your first month you are like a submarine in hostile waters - aiming your all-round radar to actively listen, analyse and plan future actions.

Learning the Product and Identifying Areas of Improvement

This text is also applicable to the first section – you must learn your product and company culture from day one. However, as time passes, you get yourself in a better position. All papers are signed, your workplace is arranged, and you know your closest colleagues. You can begin focusing on your primary objective – making a better product.

Remember, your colleagues still perceive you as a stranger with zero weight inside your organization (unless you've been promoted internally). Even in that case, they don't know your management style and habits and will be wary. Remain neutral, keep establishing contacts, and visit as many meetings as possible – especially development meetings – to gain insight into the current state of things and earn the trust of developers.

Learn as much as possible about your product. Act methodically and scrupulously. Start from the main use case and continue with more intricate aspects. Become a fellow tester of the product. "How does this work?" and "Why are we doing this?" should become your main questions at this stage.

Don't allow a situation to develop where your colleagues catch you inattentive or unaware of the obvious functionality of the product. This may ruin your emerging reputation.

It’s a good time to start building your product plans. Get as much input as possible from stakeholders and customers, and create a short-term action plan for the next several months. Present it to your boss and other stakeholders. This is where real action begins.

Be data-driven whenever possible. Arm yourself with quantitative metrics to justify prioritization in your plan. This will deflect criticism from dissatisfied stakeholders and cement your reputation as an objective product manager who makes fair, evidence-based decisions.

Delivering First Wins and Gaining Trust

As soon as you are ready, you can start making first wins. And again, if you feel confident enough, you can start bringing value from day one. I'm just offering a more smooth adaptation period. Small changes to the product or processes will add to your credibility as a manager in the eyes of your colleagues. In many cases, it's relatively easy to find areas for improvement.

The product backlog is a great place to start. Hopefully, the organization where you've begun working already has a backlog. If not, it's even better. You can start from scratch and decide what to do next. Go through the backlog to identify areas of quick improvement. You are a new person and may bring a fresh vision to different aspects of the product.

Create a short-term roadmap based on the revised backlog. Speak your voice and express your opinion. There is nothing worse than keeping silent during backlog refinement/prioritization meetings. Even if your opinion is wrong, your colleagues will not criticise it, knowing that you are a fresh mint.

While making small changes to the product, you will learn more and more about it. Start small, bring value, lay the ground for future success, and repeat. Watch your progress closely to make sure everything goes smoothly. Communicate your progress to your superior and to the broader team. Request feedback.

Now you are prepared for greater achievements. This is all for now, and good luck in your product manager’s adventures!

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