Deducing your 30-60-90 (downloadable framework included)!
Here's how you gain clarity about the expectations your employer has & then prepare your 30-60-90 without having to wait for it until your onboarding!
🎉Thank you!🏅Milestone reached!
24th Feb 2023 marks the culmination of a year since I started writing on my channel – Management Inc. & what an experience it has been!
I started with what was a measly 30-odd subscribers mainly friends, acquaintances from work. I didn’t even know if this was going to be a viable option for me, let alone tracking all those important metrics.
Thanks to every one of you, “I’m at 1,013 subscribers” now!
So, here’s an expression of gratitude.
“If you ever happened to read even one of my articles then I’d like to extend my deepest heartfelt thank you & personally tell you that your gesture has inspired me & has driven me to do more research, explore, iterate, reinvent myself”.
My regular readers:
Thank you for all the love you’ve showered towards this channel via shares, likes & comments, not to mention the follows, DMs across all the other social media platforms where ever this was shared, not to forget the e-mails.
Those of you who DM me quoting how reading this newsletter has:
- “helped you change the way you think” (OR)
- “inspired you to rethink & reconsider your move”
I’d just like to humbly say “thank you for giving me that opportunity”. I promise my continual efforts in making this more bigger & more reader-friendly yet nuanced over the use of mental models & topics of relevance.
If you want me to write about anything in specific, do leave a comment.
You could also reach me / HMU with your questions on these channels: -
· Twitter (https://twitter.com/BgpInv)
· LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/bguruprasad )
· Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=669106623)
Now… on to this week’s issue…!
30-60-90
As anyone onboards & joins a job, whatever the role is across the organizational ladder, one often is found talking of properly planning everything out over a set list of deliverables. In the same vein we often see PMs talk about 30-60-90.
In case you are new to this, the figures are indicative of a period - the no. of days constituting it and how a candidate ought to have / build clarity over the expectations from the teams’ and organization’s perspective.
So, on a very broad scale this could be a viable representation of it:
30-day Period: Observe & Learn, Get Familiar
60-day Period: Identify & Contribute, Collaborate
90-day Period: Envision, Build & Deliver, Drive
Here’s one such visual from HubSpot’s blog.
To the effect that post joining one could really get focused towards aligning with the expectations / outcomes required and build a deeper sense of accountability taking just that stipulated amount of ownership as needed, after all we’re in the age of “work smart, don’t work hard” as we have been for ages now.
If you want to read more about how Ownership & Responsibility ought to add up to build a sense of Accountability, do check this write-up here:
As I have practically experienced it myself as much as witnessed this over my teams as well, it could be a great practice to populate some sort of a visual chart, and hang it up the wall about one’s desk so as to keep a close tab on it. One could also suitably populate the main & sub sections in there with checkboxes so as to suggest that “Yay! Well! Job done and dusted” if required. And, doing so, not only makes one more conscious and focused towards the job on hand and the goals but could also improve visibility.
Having said that, it’s really a no brainer that all this would be possible only after one joins the organization post furthering the interview process right up to the end and accepting the offer as well, is that not?
But, do you correlate to a situation where you happened to accept the offer and joined an organization only to realize that the whole gig wasn’t meant for you at all, leading to that sinking feeling which repeatedly reminded you that you don’t belong there? Which then eventually leads to the experience turning totally sour forcing you to look for an escape plan, a way out of there:
to begin with, firstly the situation, if it seems resolvable (OR)
the whole organization if that isn’t resolvable
Alas! It can’t be helped.
“How could one ever know or gain access to all of this before joining the organization, its literally impossible”?
But, what if I were to tell you, there is a way around it.
You could very smartly use it to extract / infer / decipher all that information required and could turn it into deducing an influencing factor driving that “Yay” or “Nay” decision to join the organization and take up your next gig.
All of this could be done during the interviews phase itself.
The Questions
Given the (n) rounds of interviews which quite frankly could be exhaustive, one could use them as an opportunity to probe one’s way into getting to a level of clarity of what one’s ownership, accountability & responsibility ought to be by aligning it with the expectations.
And, that could be done over popping these simple question stubs at your interviewers at every stage of the interview funnel. Not only would that be a welcome addition, it could be a great ploy to dig in & expose a chink in the armor.
As for the questions to be asked, here’s a framework that could be very helpful:
You can download a High-Res image of this chart here, blow it up on print & hang it up your wall so that it serves you as a reference irrespective of what position you’re interviewing of hiring for in a product based organization.
To access the full-blown HQ version of the image on Gumroad, follow this link here:
https://3475652248832.gumroad.com/l/wtahp
Use the code: “WelcomeTPW” for a early bird discount of US $10
Also not to mention, it’d be a token of gratification & support to the work that’s gone in towards curating these short little snippets of wisdom.
Each of those interview phases could help you build an understanding of the goals, OKRs, products, metrics, teams, culture adding up to your 30-60-90.
NOTE 1: There may be the odd instance where your interviewer doesn’t have any time for your questions, ending the session owing to a hard-stop. When that’s quite possible look for the inclination towards understanding the importance of your questions via “ok, you drop me an e-mail & I’ll answer your questions in due course” or “we could book an alternate time over this, I’ll send you a Calendly invite”.
NOTE 2: Mind you! If each and every interviewer you’re talking over the stages of the interview funnel seems to quote the lack of time as a reason to take up your questions, that could be a 🚩 (RED FLAG).
NOTE 3: If you happen to ever face a situation where you aren’t given time at all for your questions, as in the prompt never comes to you, that could be a bigger 🚩(RED FLAG).
Summary:
Yes. The Product Manager role is that of high-agency & high-visibility.
And that’s why you ought to stop looking at your interviews as just an exam because it is not only about clearing and getting through those individual levels.
What ought to be more important and matter to you all the more is how you’re going to fit in there, and what your 30-60-90 is going to look like for the initial period which is when you would be expected to weather a few storms, even whirlwinds & tsunamis in some cases, so to speak.
Good luck with that!