The First 90 Days — Reflections on Onboarding into a New Organisation, Team, and Role

Photo by Christine on Unsplash

Three months ago, I started my journey @ GovTech’s Government Digital Services. From developing the legal industry and building international partnerships at the Ministry of Law, I now work with a team of talented developers and designers to build TradeTrust, a digital utility that aims to supercharge the global transition from paper-based to electronic trade documents.

These first 90 days have passed in the blink of an eye. Taking a moment to look back on this journey, here’s what I’ve learnt about onboarding into a new organisation, team, and role:

1. Have a plan, but be prepared to iterate as you go along.

As I was looking ahead to this new job, I sent out a call for advice to my Telegram support group of new and aspiring Product Managers, which really came through with tons of resources and useful advice (I’ve linked these resources below, along with other resources which I’ve found to be useful!)

The most common piece of advice was to make the first 90 days count. So, I dutifully drafted a 30–60–90 Day Plan, laying out my priorities and desired learnings.

On hindsight, not everything went according to plan. I found myself tackling things at an accelerated pace, and having to adjust the plan as I learned more about the product and the team.

However, as they say, plans are useless but planning is indispensable. The act of planning helped me manage my nerves about the transition. It also helped me hold myself accountable to what I had written down, which included arranging 1-on-1s with various GovTechies across the organisation. That brings me to …

2. Get to know as many people as possible.

People matter. Beyond getting to know your manager and team members, it’s a good idea to connect with other people in the organisation and to learn about what they’re working on.

One technique which I used to meet more people was to ask each person I managed to connect with who else I should talk to if I wanted to learn more about X or Y. Most would then offer to connect me with more people. Rinse, and repeat.

As an extroverted introvert, I alternated between the excitement and exhaustion of meeting new people. However, I’m glad I pushed myself to connect with more people, and I’m grateful to all my fellow GovTechies, who responded with openness and generosity.

3. Observe

The second most common piece of advice I received was to take some time to observe and ask why, before suggesting improvements.

New joiners bring a fresh pair of eyes to a team. There may be things which don’t make sense to us and which we will want to change immediately. This is valuable and important for an organisation’s development. However, there may be some context which is not immediately apparent, or some history behind a particular decision. Understanding this context / history will help us evaluate the issue and better shape our interventions to be more effective.

I think this is especially important for those of us whose jobs include acting as a Scrum Master. I hope I’m not offending any Scrum purists here, but I do believe that immediately enforcing a version of Scrum that is “by-the-Guide” can be counter-productive and damage the team’s ability to self-manage.

4. Discomfort is a sign of growth

Something that I feel is not said enough: transitions are tough!

I’ve definitely found these past 90 days challenging. However, knowing this^ has helped me sit with the discomfort, and take heart that it is likely a sign of growth.

What has also helped is taking things one day at a time and asking myself — What experiment can I try today? What can I learn today? Over time, I’m hopeful that those daily learnings will snowball into a big difference.

That being said…

5. Ask for help

Some discomfort is healthy, but you should not feel like you’re sinking. If you find that you’ve reached an impasse and you’re struggling, please reach out.

As a poster in our office proclaims, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. I’m sure you’ll find people in your organisation who can support and help, if you ask for it.

Resources:

• Purity Waigi — Product Management Resource Catalogue — Great compilation of resources for the first 30–60–90 days, plus other relevant topics
• First 30–60–90 day guide for Product Managers by Akshayaa Govindan
• Make the First 90 Days Count by Deb Liu — I used this lightweight template to draft my 30–60–90 day plan
• Overcome imposter syndrome and accelerate your career | Julie Zhuo (Sundial, Facebook) — Shared by Steven Koh, I found this podcast to be so very insightful. There’s so much to unpack here, but especially relevant to this topic (point #4) is when Julie talks about how being in this uncomfortable position, where you’re going through a lot of change that is outside of your comfort zone, is also what forces you to do the work, learn, and become better.

That’s been my first 90 days at GDS, and I’m looking forward to the next 90 days. If you’ve gone through a similar experience and have more tips / advice for navigating these transitions, please leave a comment down below!