Mastering PM Onboarding: A guide from Chen, Product Director at Netflix - Part 2

Joining a new company as a Product Manager can often feel overwhelming, from understanding the organizational dynamics to familiarizing oneself with the projects at hand. Product Pub invited Chen Zheng, Product Director at Netflix, to share her approach refined over years as a seasoned Product Leader. This article aims to serve as a practical guide for PMs to ace their onboarding.

Part 1: Identifying and Engaging Key Stakeholders

Part 2: Adapt to the Company Culture

Adapting to the Company Culture

Adapting to a new company's culture requires active listening, observation, and absorbing. Remember, you're navigating a fresh environment; it's crucial to remain adaptable and refrain from challenging the status quo prematurely. Embrace the mindset of a student eager to learn: Why does this culture exist? How can I adjust? As Chen advised, "The easiest one to change is always yourself."

In your 1-on-1 meetings, allocate time to understand the unique cultural nuances of your new milieu. For instance, you might ask questions like, "What attributes made your favorite PM stand out? What were her behaviors?" Through this approach, you may discover your role model within the organization.

Initially, you might wish to restrain from presenting your former company as the paragon of best practice. Some organizations might not appreciate this, given your potential context gaps.

There are two recommended books:

• "Culture Map" - It’s a good book that illuminates the characteristics of individuals from diverse countries and countries, making it easier to build cultural context.
• "Crucial Conversations" - This book is especially useful when you begin to challenge the status quo as a newcomer.

Build trust with your new manager

• Clarity: Seek to understand your manager’s expectations. Understand how she/he will evaluate your performance and what her/his expectations are for your first week, 30 days, and 90 days.
• Check in with your manager frequently and regularly, especially when you're unsure about how to balance between networking and project progress.
• Ask about management style. How does your manager prefer to communicate? Is she/he a reader or listener? What is her/his preferred check-in frequency? Does she/he prefer involvement in the early stages or a presentation of refined results? How does she/he prefer to give and receive feedback?
• Comprehend the decision-making dynamics. Understand who will play what role in the decision making processes. Identify your sponsor – a person who has a seat at the table and will advocate for you. This will build a foundation for navigating in the new environment.

If you like this post, please like and comment to let us know. We will share part 3 - 4 of this guide soon.

What is Product Pub

Product Pub is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers professionals with global perspectives and product minds through bi-weekly events covering trending industries, product methodologies, product teardowns, and career development. Our community has 3000+ members, including product managers, engineers, designers, researchers, data scientists, entrepreneurs and others from leading Bay Area tech companies and startups such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb, Lyft, and more.

https://www.productpub.org/

Author: Lydia Tang