While you may be eager to make changes to the team structure, process and staff, it’s often better to get a solid amount of data before implementing those changes, which you can do in the next section. The first 30 days for an executive can be intense, and the goal is to learn as much as possible. Jump into any urgent matters with your staff to immediately add tactical value.Make notes and initial assessments about the performance of your current staff.Meet with any strategic partners or evangelists that may work with your department.Get introduced to significant customers and schedule calls to learn about their use-cases.Review the company financials so you understand financial levers of the business.Get access to your budget and do a comprehensive review to understand your options.Meet with each of your direct reports, and potentially skip level meeting with junior staff.Listen as much as possible and absorb everything… join meetings, customer demos, etc.Specific things that you should be focused on at this time:
It can often be pretty clear in the first 30 days whether an executive hire is going to be successful or not. In your first 30 days, I expect an executive to be productive quickly. This document is designed to be private for you, like a journal entry, and is a great opportunity to reflect and think of new ideas to try in your next role, which you can then include in your 30 60 90 day plan. In addition to these tactical steps, a great way to help transition to a new role is to write a recap, just for yourself, of your previous role and outline what you learned and what you would do differently. Identify what mentors of yours (if any) could be helpful for you in the new role.Reach out to anyone in your network who could be a potential customer for the company.Reach out to anyone in your network who uses the product to get feedback.
You have two important goals in building this plan: The reason that you may be asked for this plan in an interview process is that leaders are looking to see how an executive would approach getting started, how much help they’d need and what type of questions they ask. This is a document that outlines the action steps you’ll take in your first 3 months to get up to speed quickly and lead your team effectively. If you’re an executive joining a new company or interviewing for a job, there’s a good chance you’ll be asked to prepare a 30 60 90 day plan.