90-day Transformation plan for a Product Leader!

A leader entering a new organization has 90 days to build trust and set the course for their tenure. If one does not establish credibility within these 90 days, they risk a bad culture and may find themselves haunted by the processes they were hired to ameliorate.

In these first 90 days, an individual contributor is expected to get involved in design discussions, quarterly planning, and bring a fresh perspective to the work. As a leader, one is expected to learn about the people, process, and tech while also developing a point of view on what can be done to make it better.

This 90 day period is not a “honeymoon period” but instead an “immersion program.” The leader is responsible for completing a deep dive and developing an execution plan.

To deliver a maximum value 90-day plan, the best strategy is the same as any seemingly insurmountable objective: set milestones along the way to gauge progress and adjust strategy as required.

Zero days plan

This is the only time you truly get an “outside-in” view. Before you start anything, really get to know the product. The goal is to deeply understand the customer experience and understand the market-fit. Take the time to research the industry, product, competitors and think critically about the company and its vision.

In short:

• Know the business
• Know the product
• Understand the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Metrics to look at key customers, customer growth, profit margin, RnD expense, customer feedback, team size and changes over the last 2 years.

Phase I: First 30 days

The focus of the first 30 days is to know the people that make up the place and become familiar with the organization’s structure.

Week 1: Know your Boss and his peers. Your objective is to learn what is top-of-mind for this group, and the goal is to extract the vision and understand what gets talked about at the company level. What are the top priorities, keep the focus of the conversation on a three-year roadmap, but make sure you get a feel of what keeps them up at night today. The conversations here will help you frame your Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and also come up with short term goals that you can show immediate improvements.