PM Onboarding during Covid
Last “Normal” workday
The fateful morning of 11th March 2020 — the day I was invited for my final round of interview at Xing’s Hamburg office. I was interviewed by a lot of people in person but also remotely. Covid-19, unfortunately, had just started making its way into Germany. Luckily the interview was scheduled quite early in the morning which meant I was done with all the rounds by noon.
After lunch at a nearby bakery, I headed back to catch up on some much-needed sleep. As soon as I got back, I got a call from the recruiter informing me that Xing Hamburg office had their first positive case of Covid. All the employees were sent back home. The call was to let me know that I had not come in contact with the person who had tested positive.
Although I felt relieved, I did not know back then that I had just experienced a “normal workday” at Xing office for the first and the last time.
A new job during Covid
A new job is always exciting. It brings with it new opportunities, endless possibilities but also a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. And starting a new job during Covid definitely took the ‘uncertainty’ and ‘anxiety’ part a whole notch up.
How was I supposed to start a new job when it felt like the whole world was turning upside down all around me? But I was not alone in this — For good or for bad, the world was turning upside down for EVERYONE.
Now when I look back at my Onboarding time, there were a lot of things that went well and a lot of things that did not go that well. It goes without saying that every Product Manager’s onboarding experience is different but there are some key learnings that I can share with you from my Covid-times Onboarding experience.
Prioritize Information — The first few weeks for any new Product Manager is spent in trying to understand what is going on with the team and the business. This was the “Sponge phase” where I tried to absorb as much information as I could. There are plenty of resources with plenty of information out there. But it’s important to not get overwhelmed with all the information overload. Just like I prioritize my product roadmap, I prioritized what I needed to learn the first few months. Lucky for me, everything I needed was already available online.
Don’t be afraid to ASK — I joined Xing at a time when everyone was trying to figure out how to do this remote stuff. There was, understandably, a little bit of confusion and chaos as everyone was trying to change their way of working. But this did not stop me from asking questions on slack, zoom, email or WhatsApp (Just kidding!). And to no surprise, I got questions to all my answers fairly quickly and with a lot of patience.
(E)Communication is the key — In my previous workplaces, water-cooler chats were always a great way of getting to know your colleagues better. During my onboarding, it became quite apparent that this was not going to be possible any time soon. Thankfully my team started a daily virtual social call (which we are continuing to this day!). And virtual coffee sessions replaced regular coffee breaks so I could get to know my business counterparts and peers better. I also met my team in person for lunches/after-work drinks whenever it was safe to do that.
One thing I realized quickly was how approachable the Xing Product community is! Even before I could set up my laptop, there were Product Managers from different teams already reaching out to me to say hello. I was not expecting a grand welcome but it definitely made my onboarding experience very pleasant.
Be Agile and don’t be afraid of failure — Like I mentioned before, I joined Xing right when we were all beginning to transition to remote setup. It meant trying out new ways of working. My team experimented quite a bit with setting up virtual meetings, pairing-up sessions on Slack, even online team building events. Some of these experiments worked, others didn’t. We quickly learnt to discard what did not work and adapt what worked into our team process.
Be kind to others…..and to yourself — We always tell ourselves to be empathetic to our users, to put ourselves in their shoes. But it’s equally important to be empathetic to your co-workers. It’s not possible to understand what each person is going through or has gone through since Covid started. But it’s safe to say that it’s important to create and maintain social connections. And with social distancing, it hasn’t been easy for any of us to do that.
Last but not the least, self-care is critical. Don’t be shy to put yourself first. After all you are your Objective Number One.
When I joined Xing, I thought my onboarding experience was going to be a unique one. I thought I could tell my onboarding stories to the future generation of Product Managers “Once upon a Covid time….” But, alas, I’m not the first one nor the last one to have gotten onboarded during Covid times. I guess this New Normal is here to stay. And all we can do is look ahead.
