3. Onboarding Product Managers

So, you’ve successfully hired the Product Manager you were looking for! You’re excited to welcome a talented individual into your product team. Now, it’s time to conduct an effective onboarding that will help them integrate smoothly into your company and set the foundation for success.

Onboarding processes may already exist in well-established companies, often managed by the training and development team in HR. However, if your company doesn’t yet have a structured onboarding program, or if there is only a generic onboarding process but not one specific to Product Managers, it’s important to create something that will set new hires up for success.

Here, I will share some tips on creating a meaningful onboarding process based on my experiences in building onboarding programs for Product Managers.

Components of an Effective Onboarding Process

Beyond the welcoming gifts, like branded company T-shirts and notebooks, which help build an emotional connection, there are key onboarding activities that help the new hire get familiar with their work and start contributing.

1. Vision and Strategy: It is crucial to explain the vision and strategy of both the product portfolio and the specific product they will be working on. This includes sharing the long-term vision (what you are building over the next 3-5 years) and the current strategic decisions guiding the team toward that vision.

2. Mission and Roadmap: Explain the mission and purpose of the product—why it exists and the problems it solves for customers. Additionally, share the current roadmap and the major initiatives or bets the team is focusing on.

3. Team Topology: Introduce the team structure, including squads or cross-functional teams, and explain the missions of each squad. This helps new hires understand how their work fits into the larger company mission and how different teams collaborate.

4. Stakeholder Conversations: It’s important for new PMs to meet the key stakeholders they will be working with. Arrange for them to set up one-on-one meetings with other Product Managers and stakeholders from key parts of the product that interact with their squad.

5. Product Rituals: Provide a rundown of the product rituals—recurring meetings and practices that your team follows. Explain how each ritual works and its intended outcome.

6. Frameworks and Practices: Different companies may have different sets of tools and frameworks that guide product management practices. Whether your company has a structured list of tools or a more flexible approach, it’s good to share what is commonly used or expected in different scenarios.

7. People Management Practices: Finally, it’s also important to discuss people management practices, such as performance reviews, individual development plans (PDPs), and any systems the company has for tracking employee growth and feedback.

First One-on-One with the New Hire

I like to schedule the first one-on-one as soon as possible—ideally on the first day or shortly after. In this initial conversation, it’s important to:

• Provide Feedback from the Selection Process: The new hire should know why they were chosen for the role. Share their strengths from the interview process and set clear expectations.
• Establish Expectations for the First 30 and 90 Days: Make sure they understand what you expect from them in their first month and first three months. Typically, the first 30 days involve learning the product, the company, and the users. For the first 90 days, expectations might include leading a small project, contributing to discovery, or starting to take ownership of parts of the product.
• Reinforce Communication Style and Collaboration: Use this opportunity to discuss your management style, your approach to feedback, and how you prefer to work with your team.

Retention and Engagement of Product Managers

Once you have onboarded a new PM successfully, the next step is to keep them engaged and retain them over the long term. Here are some methods to enhance retention and engagement in your team.

Common Reasons Why Product Managers Leave

To improve retention, it’s helpful to understand why PMs might decide to leave. Based on personal experiences, here are some examples of why PMs might resign:

• Unspoken Goals: A PM leaves for a role in another country, and you never knew that this was their dream. They may not have felt comfortable discussing this goal, fearing it might be taken the wrong way.
• Financial Offers: Sometimes, PMs leave for higher compensation at another company. This is often a missed opportunity to discuss career growth and what makes a PM’s current role valuable beyond salary.
• Misalignment in Career Growth: When a PM leaves because they feel there’s no clear path to seniority, it’s often because you weren’t able to have open conversations about what’s needed to grow.
• Chaos or Uncertainty: Changes such as company restructures or a lack of clear direction can cause PMs to leave for more stable environments.

Strategies for Retention

Here are strategies I’ve found helpful in retaining great talent in product teams:

1. Open Career Conversations: Ensure that career discussions are part of your regular one-on-ones. It’s important for PMs to feel comfortable sharing their ambitions, whether that means moving to another market, taking on bigger responsibilities, or growing in a particular domain.

2. Personalized Growth Plans: Every PM will have different areas they want to develop. Create personalized development plans, focusing on both technical and soft skills. When PMs feel they are growing, they are more likely to stay.

3. Offer Challenge and Impact: Product Managers thrive on challenging problems and the opportunity to make a difference. Make sure that each PM has a meaningful challenge they are working on and that they understand the value their work is adding to the company.

4. Be Honest About Opportunities and Gaps: When a PM has skills gaps, be upfront about them and provide support for development. Equally, be transparent about opportunities within the company and the kinds of roles that could become available to them.

5. Promote a Sense of Justice and Fairness: People need to feel they are being treated fairly—both in terms of compensation and career progression. Ensure transparency when it comes to promotions, pay structures, and recognition.

6. Listen and Adapt: Sometimes, the best way to retain a PM is simply to listen. If a PM comes to you with concerns about a lack of challenge, a desire to work on a different product, or feeling undervalued, use this feedback to adapt their role. Often, simple changes can prevent someone from leaving.