First Three Months in a New Company?

Felix

Hello,

What are some processes, systems, or approaches you have found helpful when making a transition to a new company?

I have all these ideas in my head of what I want to do, but I don't want to step on anyone's toes, and I don't want to come in and suggest a ton of changes.

But without suggesting changes, etc., how can I make a massive impact in the first three months? I'm already studying the software I will be working with and becoming a product expert at it before the job even starts. But then there are so many other aspects of the job that I need to tackle, like managing accounts, and tackling my onboarding quotas, etc. I also need to brush up and learn how to be on camera again, how to do product walkthroughs and so on. I got 4 years of experience in Customer Success, but for the past year, I have been on hiatus doing other things.

So I'm coming back to it, but I like putting maximum effort into whatever I do.

Emily Cawse

Hi Felix,

Congratulations on the new role!

May I ask, are you joining as an individual contributor, manager or leader?

In any case, my advice is to spend your first 3-4 weeks listening. Speak to everyone you can, ask them what they think is working and not working, and listen out for the gaps that you can fill and make a real impact.

If you're in an office, schedule coffee and lunch. If you're remote like me, try Zoom coffee breaks. Also make sure you speak to people outside your CS team, especially Product and Sales.

I hope that helps!

Emily

Jordan Silverman

@Felix I think @Emily Cawse question will make an impact on the answer (IC vs Leader).

I took a new job in January and here is a short summary of my goals when I joined as a Team Leader.

First 2 weeks = People

Weeks 3 - 6 = People + Software + Clients

Goals:

• Know the team
• Department/team planning
• Understand the product + customer journey
• Some ability to do each job myself
• Customer visits + segmentation
• Initial ideas on how we can improve (department, customer journey, onboarding, culture, everything)

I had 1 on 1s with each team member as well. Brief overview of that agenda below:

• Learn about them personally/professionally (family, what do they do for fun)
• What is one thing that old boss did as a manager you would like me to make sure I do? How does she like to be managed? How can I be the best possible boss?
• Are they happy in current role?
• Where do they want to go career wise? What do they want to accomplish?
• What are their current KPIs? OKRs? Rocks? How are they going? Are they correct?
• What does an average day look like?
• What is working? What is not working? - for their job, for the department, for the company
• What should we stop? What should we continue? What should we start?
• What should I know about the rest of the team/other team members
• How can we interact better with other teams?
• What else should I know?

Felix

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11738#Comment_11738

Thank you, Emily. I'll be joining as a CSM-Specialist, so that's a contributor. I'll listen and try to interact as much as possible. I appreciate your thoughts.

Felix

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/11739#Comment_11739

Thank you. I like the way you present this:

• Know the team
• Department/team planning
• Understand the product + customer journey
• Some ability to do each job myself
• Customer visits + segmentation
• Initial ideas on how we can improve (department, customer journey, onboarding, culture, everything)

I'll use this as a rough guide on how to navigate my way into this new position.