A PRACTICAL successful 30–60–90 DAYS PLAN for the NEW JOINED PRODUCT DESIGNERS: YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE!
It is very usual for new product designers who first joined the industry to feel anxious, nervous, and maybe lost, and they often keep asking themselves three main questions that they keep struggling with in order to answer: how to gain expertise on the product, from where to start learning first about the industry? And what should be the first project to work on?
The developed three months plan does represent any new product-design team joiner’s guide into managing his new experience, better integrating into the job environment, and accomplishing some learning targets and objectives ahead.
What is the 30–60–90 days or the three months plan?
The three months plan is a plan created by both new hires and their managers and which is used to set the activities and the goals wished to be accomplished in the three first months. For you to be able to accomplish these goals effectively, contribute as much value as possible to the new team, and become successful in the workplace; you must allocate all your efforts in the best way possible. And this is what this article will help you do.
Sometimes, you may join a team or a company that does already have an onboarding workflow with particular consideration for the plan we are talking about. This would mean that you do not need to build a whole new one, but you still need to be proactive and allocate your efforts in an effective way that serves your own and your team’s, and your company’s success.
One other important thing to mention is that learning as much as possible about the people you work with, the product business model used, and the strategy used by the company to get things done can be a very crucial factor of your success. For you to be giving the needed efforts to each area mentioned before, you may always feel free to adjust your processes and methods and choose what works best for you.
What should I do during the first month?
For you to have a good start, you must spend your first month being curious, receptive, and proactive.
The first thing you should do when you first join a company is to interview the key team members and the stakeholders for you to understand the working style, the internal organization, and the tech stack. You can also try to know exactly who are the people you will be working with and their positions such as your manager, your design peers, your tech leads, and your product and product marketing managers.
Another thing you can try is to know exactly what these people are expecting you to learn and accomplish, how the company came into existence, and then set your SMART goals list.
What to do in the second month?
In this period, you should try to get familiar with the design system and then move on to understand how it connects with the tech engineering and the product engineering of the company. Also, acquiring enough knowledge about how the company develop products is vital in this period.
Improving your product-critiquing skills is also necessary for you now as well as getting fluent in the industry. Another thing you should consider is learning the business terminology if you want to gain your stakeholders’ respect and your colleagues’ appreciation.
What should I do in the third month?
It is in your third month that you should start taking initiatives to start be part of real design processes as a key team player. You can try to collect the data needed for a particular kickoff meeting and share it when the meeting is held. Even if you are not the main designer, you can also benefit from participating in order to keep improving and contributing to the design processes, the documentation systems, and the product design system.
Mapping your first three months of integration is very important if you want to contribute to the improvement of your expertise and your new company as a key member.
