🎵 I’m a new-PM, in-a-remote-world 🎶
A Survival Guide for Your First 30 days as a Remote PM
The only thing for certain these days is that times are definitely uncertain, and the fact we will likely have to continue to navigate through this ambiguity for the foreseeable future. Going through major life changes, like starting a new job or switching career paths, is inherently an exciting yet nerve-wracking venture, with this added stress only amplified as it happens under the backdrop of a global pandemic. Having recently gone through an entire interview and onboarding process in a remote environment, I wanted to share some tips and practices that I’ve personally found to be helpful along the way. Before I start, I want to preface that this is definitely a work in process and is by no means exhaustive. I am 100% all ears to hearing more input from others who are also going through a similar situation. If anything, anyone else down to start a support group here?
I really liked Ken Norton’s original framework on what to do in your first 30 days as a PM that focuses on the three areas of People, Product and Personal, and have made some tweaks to account for the current climate — Hope you enjoy!
People
Meet everyone on the team!
Without the distractions of oat milk lattes and soothing elevator music as you go on your coffee runs, there’s now nothing sitting in between you and your counterpart for your first one on one. If you’re an introvert like me who dread awkward silences, here are some quick tips to getting the most out of your first virtual coffee chats with the team:
- Come prepared with questions or a simple agenda to anchor your first meeting on. Ideally I would like to have the conversation flow as organically as possible, but I find that having something in my back pocket in case of unexpected lulls to be, if anything, a comforting thought.
- Ask these three questions in every meeting: Figure out how you will work together with this person, what has/has not been working in the past and what you can do to make his/her life easier!
- Make good use of this time to also get to know your colleague as a human outside of work, build rapport and have fun! :)
Figure out the right communication channels with your teams
As the days of swinging by the desk and water cooler conversations come to an abrupt halt, it is essential to figure out the right channels and cadence to communicate with your teams. Does your team prefer to jump on quick slack calls to touch base on an ad hoc basis or does a scheduled session work better with a particular stakeholder? Ironing out these details up front and figuring out what works best for you and your team will serve you well into the future.
Product
Be a Sponge
I’m a strong believer that the most important work you’ll need to tackle during the first few weeks of starting is to just be a sponge and soak up everything you can. Learn the product process at your new company. Be a fly on the wall and attend all the scrum ceremonies and meetings that your schedule allows for. Grab some time with your engineering lead to walk through the company’s tech stack and understand the system. Attend meetings outside of your immediate working group to get a sense of different styles and pace. Take copious notes on what you’ve observed and maybe even offer up your fresh eyes as an opportunity to evaluate what’s working vs. not.
Read everything, and write something too
Documentation has always been my jam. I personally learn and think the best from reading and putting pen to paper on ideas that are floating around in my head. For your first 30 days, read anything and everything that you can get your hands on: past roadmap decks, user insight decks, requirement docs, architecture design docs…. to name a few. Take notes on all your meetings and 1:1s and leverage this material to produce documentation on what doesn’t already exist. I find that producing a piece of writing has alway been a great forcing function to test my true grasp on a particular topic, plus future new hires will thank you down the line (🙏)!
Ask all the silly questions
As a new person coming in, you are often eager to prove yourself and feel the pressure to bring value to the team from day 1. But don’t let the fear of looking silly prohibit you from asking the gazillion burning questions that you’ll inevitably have in your first days at the company. Do run through walls to get answers to all your questions, just try to do so in an efficient and considerate way. Consider consolidating all your questions to a doc and scheduling a rapid-fire session with your manager daily for the first week instead of slack-spamming your team stream-of-consciousness thoughts to be respectful of everyone’s time.
Personal
Set clear goals and expectations and establish checkpoints with your manager
What better time than the impetus of starting a new job to evaluate your personal goals and career aspirations? Aligning on tactical details and setting clear expectations with your manager during your first days at the company is especially important in this remote environment. Go ahead and schedule in checkpoints at the 30, 60 and 90 day mark as your start to touch base on them and track your progression.
Set up your systems — your future self will thank you later
As you are ramping up, take the time to fight through all the painful hassles of IT and set up all your tools and systems. You may not need access to this particular database right at this moment, but one of these days you just might and will have to face the daunting prospect of sending in that IT access request at the 11th hour of launch. So take the time to get all the important admin stuff out of the way, your future self will thank you.
Most importantly…. have fun and enjoy the journey!
