Making the most of the first 30 days in my new product role

In November 2020 I left my role as Principal Product Manager at Pushpay and ventured back into startup land as First AML’s Director of Product.

The first month in any new role can be a nerve-wracking and overwhelming experience and parts of this one certainly were for me. There are new people to get to know. There are new customs to familiarise myself with. Domain knowledge to acquire. Acronyms and terminology to get my head around. And, on top of all of that, I wanted to make a good impression and ensure I made a decent start on some of the things I was hired to do.

It had been 4.5 years since I was “new” in a role and I really wanted to make sure I set myself (and the team) up for a positive experience from the beginning.

Here’s a brief reflection of my first 30 days at First AML and three of the ways I attempted to make the most of being the newest person on the team.

Firstly, I drank A LOT more coffee than normal!

Building relationships takes time. So, to get a head start, I made time to have coffee with every single person in our product and engineering teams. I also made sure to do this with key leaders across the business including operations, customer success and delivery. There was no set agenda for those 30-minute chats. I simply wanted to learn about a little about them (both personally and professionally) and discover what life at First AML is like from their perspective. It was also a chance for me to talk about why I chose this role and what I hope to help us all accomplish.

Secondly, AML, CRS/FATCA, SOW... What?!

There’s always things to learn in a new role. The product and the domain were two big areas of the learning here for me. There's a lot of unfamiliar acronyms in the Anti-money Laundering (AML) space and a load of terminology I've had to learn. A Glossary & Terminology page was my way of helping myself as well as others who join our company in the future. I also asked a lot of questions about who our customers are and how things work. I've got access to our platform and made sure to familiarise myself with our product. All of these activities have helped me get [some of] the context I need in order to do my job well.

And finally, I did my best to capitalise on my previous experience.

People are hired for a reason. Me included. There's things I know, and have experience with, that can help this business thrive. So I’ve also dedicated time to improving the existing Product Management practises and structure. I've had sessions with the VPs of Product and Engineering as well as the Executive Team discussing the outcomes we want to focus on in the coming year and we’ve structured the roadmap around those areas. I introduced everyone at First AML to the Product Lifecycle and what a Product Manager thinks about, with the intention of giving the whole company visibility and a base level understanding of what I'm here for.

So, how were those first 30 days?

I've really enjoyed my tenure so far. Everyone has been very welcoming and willing to share their knowledge. I'm very grateful to everyone who made themselves available to answer questions and discuss ideas and approaches to the problems we want to solve. I have also really appreciated being able to experience the feeling of being a beginner, again.

And instead of me telling you how I think I've done in my time here so far, I've asked a few people for their opinions. Here's what they had to say...

Things that have had a positive impact

The introduction of rigor to the product process, including setting up a few repositories in Notion for documenting our work. This is providing visibility and confidence that what we're building is valuable and important, and removes some road-blocks that will help us improve our overall process.
Visibility of what product development is.
I'm big on gratitude and appreciation and have been making good use of our #thanks channel. This appears to have had a positive impact on our already positive culture.
Transparency with other parts of the business. Sharing the priorities and focus areas of the product team has made people feel like they're being taken along on the journey.
Involving customers in research activities.
My openness to being approached.

Things for me to work on

Continuing my quest to improve my domain knowledge.
Continuing to build my understanding of what problems we need to solve, both for our customers and our internal teams.
Continuing to figure out ways to improve our overall processes in order to fuel the rocketship we're on.
Sharing what my longer term goals are so people can help me find opportunities to make these happen.

This, of course, is just the beginning...

Feels pretty good to have such encouraging feedback. And to know that I've had a positive impact on both the culture and the processes in our team.

The question for me to continue asking myself is... how do I ensure the rest of my time here is as impactful, enjoyable and rewarding as my first 30 days have been?