The First 90 Days - Setting Yourself Up For Success

How would you approach your first 90 days?

It's a question that's asked a lot during latter stages of job interviews, having asked the question myself when recruiting, how they answer it can really tell you a lot about the candidate. How invested they are in the role, the company and the opportunity to make a real difference.

Having been in "interview mode" recently, it's something I thought I would spend some time thinking about it for the purposes of answering the question. But more importantly how to actually approach those first 90 days when successful.

TAKE NOTES

Starting a new job is never easy, there are so many things to remember, taking notes can help:

1. Reduce cluttered thoughts and organise information.
2. Stay focused on what you need to do.
3. Convert notes into a to-do list.
4. Colleagues get up to speed or catch up.
5. Create a structured and searchable information to refer back to.
6. You look good, showing you care and that you’re fully present.

A notebook and pen is lovely, but do yourself and colleagues a favour, use Microsoft OneNote, Evernote or Google Keep.

THE FIRST 15 DAYS - LISTEN, LEARN & ENGAGE

People

Whatever level you join a business at, the most important thing is to ensure alignment with those around you.

• What does success look like? What are the business, department, team and individual objectives?
• Meet and build relationships with your manager, team, internal customers, senior leaders, agencies and other suppliers.
• Who is the customer and the decision making unit? What is their profile?

Product & Process

Having a deep understanding of the product can take time, specially if it's highly technical, so start with the "why", then start to put yourself in the mind of potential customer to get a feel for the experience.

• What is the journey of a prospect and customer? Who do they interact with and how?
• Why do people choose these products/services over our competitors?
• What are the current and future campaigns and projects? How are they agreed, planned and put live?

Technology & Data

Few companies would say their data and supporting technologies are perfect. However you will very quickly learn how big the challenge is when you speak to those closest to them. Getting a sense of how important it is the business to improve them will allow you to understand where to focus your efforts.

• What current technologies are used?
• How are current tools managed, maintained and supported?
• How are reports created? How are they distributed and presented?

15 TO 30 DAYS - REVIEW & RECOMMEND

Team, Agencies & Suppliers

Creating the right level of engagement will help ensure you have time to assess, develop recommendations and deliver continuous improvement for the business and those around you, as opposed to being seen as someone who just "talks a good game".

• 1:1s, team, agency and key supplier meetings.
• Review individual, team, agency and supplier competencies.
• Recommend skills training, improvements and/or changes.

Performance & Reporting

Knowing what success looks like and being able to measure and assess personal/team KPIs are crucial to help understand how you are performing. But more importantly sharing big improvements/wins with key stakeholders will help others show what you contribute back to the business.

• Working your way down, what are the "metrics that matter" within your organisation and team?
• Review past and current performance, how are key metrics collected and reported upon?
• Review and recommend improvements to reporting that allow better tracking and optimisation of the customer experience.

Marketing Activities, Campaigns & Projects

When you have been working in the same business for a number of years, it's easy to get tunnel vision and lose the inspiration you once had. It's easy to be critical without understanding the context, so when reviewing work treading carefully when sharing feedback is crucial.

• Recent, current and future planned activities, campaigns and projects.
• How is work planned, managed and coordinated to ensure visibility and maximise collaboration?
• Recommend key opportunities.

30 TO 60 DAYS - PLAN, CREATE & DELIVER

Prioritise, Plan & Prepare

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Benjamin Franklin

It's well used quote, and for good reason. So whatever the temptation or pressure, just make sure you prioritise, plan and prepare.

• Prioritise by time to implement and impact (vs. cost).
• Create a simple plan of whats happening, when, by who and any costs that might be incurred, a few I would recommend are: Microsoft Planner, Monday, Asana, Wrike, ActiveCollab.
• If you will need to work with colleagues, agencies or other suppliers, make sure they are prepared, briefed and aligned. It might be they have ideas which make the end result better and easier to deliver.

Create, Deliver & Communicate

The first project or campaign is never easy, we all want to impress and ensure it performs but approaching it in the right way make a big difference.

• Ignore the temptation to go it alone by ensuring you check in with your colleagues during key phases.
• Before pulling the trigger, make sure everyone that needs to know is aware.
• Keep everyone up to speed with performance updates, plus any feedback and learnings.

60 TO 90 DAYS - EVOLVE & TRANSFORM

By this time your head should feel less cluttered and you will feel much more comfortable about what you are doing and have a good understanding about how you can develop and improve the way you work.

Monitor & Report

• How are the marketing activities and campaigns performing? e.g. Click Through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Click (CPC), Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), Sales Qualified Leads (SQL), Cost Per Lead (CPL), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA).
• How often are you monitoring the key metrics?
• How are you reporting performance? Are you spending a lot of time creating painful and manual Excel or do you have automated dashboards using Business Intelligence tools like Microsoft Power BI, Tableau or Qlik?

Analyse & Recommend

Reporting without time to review and recommend is all too common within many businesses. Putting time in your diary for self-development and reviewing personal, team and KPI performance is crucial to keep motivation and engagement high.

• Make recommendations based on learnings, observations and data analysis.
• Attend webinars and events to keep yourself up to date with whats happening in the industry and learn the latest best practices.
• Review team, agencies and suppliers, ensuring they are aligned and engaged, they believe in the company strategy and believe the objectives are achievable.

Optimise

Clearly showing the difference you have made and communicating appropriately will ensure that senior stakeholders see the value you bring to the team and wider business.

• How can efficiency (speed and cost) be improved?
• How can quality and consistency be improved?
• How can KPIs be improved?

Final thoughts

With all recent interviews taking place via [insert web conferencing tool here!], its much more difficult to assess that all important "fit". Although it's a hard time for those out of work right now, keep reminding yourself that interviews are still a two way process and to make sure:

1. There is a positive connection with the potential manager

• How would you describe your management style?
• What are you most passionate about professionally? 

2. There is positive vibe about the potential company

• What do you most enjoy about working here?
• What is the biggest challenge facing the company today?

3. The role will challenge and/or develop you

• What does success look like in this role?
• What opportunities are there to develop and grow?

I hope this has been useful and wish those who are currently looking for a new job all the very best! Please do share any top tips you have, we are all in this together!