prodissues

Product Leader's First 100 Days Plan

Tue 12 September 2017 by yaniv

Asking a candidate for a 100 days plan apparently becomes the norm. As for me, I'm part of this norm. During the final steps in my recruiting process to Button, I created such 30/60/90 days plan.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Drafting this plan was one of the better ways I could prepare for the new role. It helped me in both setting better expectations for myself, as for what will be expected of me in those first 3 months, and set a cadence for progress and execution, right from day one.

As I'm about to hit the first 30 days mark, its time to revisit this plan, and see where I stand against it. Doing so, I've figured it might be a good idea to share my plan. Hopefully someone finds it helpful, and/or share their own ideas.

There are two perspectives through which I think of the different time horizons in that exercise:

  • Learn, plan, execute
  • Influence myself, my team, the company

Here's a google doc version of the plan. Feel free to comment, just make sure to add your name to the comment.

THE FIRST 100 DAYS

0-30 Days - LEARN

Product

(Repeat the below for each product.)

  • What does it do?
  • What problems/needs does it solve?
  • How does it work?
  • What's the value proposition?
  • Business model
  • Set of features
  • Current roadmap (icebox, long-term planning, short term backlog)
  • How it's measured?
  • Tech stack
  • Open issues and bugs
  • Stakeholders
  • How integration, management and maintenance processes look like?

The market

  • Partners/Customers/Users
    • Top partners
    • Type of partners
  • Representative personas within partners’ organizations
  • GTM strategy and process
  • Product positioning
  • Are there product commitments to future/new/existing partners?
  • Competitive landscape

Current product/market fit

  • Are there any gaps between the market needs and the current products and features?
  • Sales/BD pipeline
    • Are there new types of customers in the pipeline?
    • Are the needs of future customers match current product (+ roadmap items)?
    • Is there an alignment between the sales pitch to current products (or features that are WIP)?

Company culture

  • How things work - structure, functions, teams, pods
  • Meet the people
  • Internal lingo
  • What people like (/don't like) about the product and development process?
  • How product vision and roadmap are being communicated? where/how are they tracked?

Current definition of the PM role

  • Current definition of product management
  • Scope of ownership and responsibility of product
  • What from the above is currently missing? (assuming there are no full time PMs in pods)

Product team

  • Current plans and open heads
  • Job description
  • Hiring pipeline and status
  • Meet relevant candidates
  • Scope ownership
    • Manager/Me
    • PMs to products (depends on products’ definitions)

Product Development Process

  • What's the process today?
    • What works?
    • What doesn't work?
  • How involved team members are in sprint planning

Tools

  • What tools are used today?
  • Who are the users of the tools?
  • How product vision, strategy, roadmap, and WIP is communicated? how transparent is it?

31 - 60 Days - PLAN

Based on the first 30 days, the goal in this stage is to set the framework for the product team, product development process, and complete a strategic product plan.

Products/Market

  • Clear definition of products' suite
  • Levers for growth
  • Definition of customers and needs
  • Definition of user personas
  • Prioritize and start building a roadmap
  • Goals and KPIs

Product Team

  • Define the value of Product Management to the company, and to product development
  • Define the goal of the team (Maximize business results through product solutions that meet both market needs and company goals)
  • PM hiring process
  • 100-days plan - onboarding process for new PM
  • List of "must" read books for PM
  • Personal growth and mentorship program

Product Development Process

  • Write a "product development manifesto"

61 - 100 Days - EXECUTE

Goal of these phase is to start executing against the plans.

Product Team

  • Product offsite (assuming most of team hired). Reach clarity, team buildup.
  • Split of ownerships and responsibilities

Product Development Process

  • Team training and starting to work according to the planned process

Reference