90 Days Plan - Tool Kit

The first 90 days of a new job usually involve a pretty steep learning curve. There´s so much to absorb. So many people to meet. If you get promoted or changes job, you want to prove yourself and set you up for success. Thus I really found the value of having a well structured 90 days plan.

Based on my own onboarding practices, I have gathered my own 90 day plan - tool kit which I will share in this post. I will include some tools, books and references that will help to get up to speed, understand your new role, and establish a better sense of your team and company. Check out my template below to see what I have included.

What is a 90-day tool kit?

Fortunately, there's a way to organize and prioritize your time and tasks, helping you seamlessly adapt to your new environment: The 90 day plan. Creating and following an effective plan enables you to soak in as much information as possible, master your core job responsibilities, and make a lasting impact on your new team.

Learning the nuances of your new role in less than three months won't be easy. But crafting a strong 90 day plan is your best bet for accelerating your development and adapting to your new work environment as quickly as possible.

Relevant to mention that (when it is possible), the plan should be actually started even before you do the job change (inside the company or to outside).

What should a 90-day plan include?

Some hiring managers ask candidates to think about and explain their potential 90-day plan as a new hire. They want to see if they can organize their time, prioritize the tasks they'd likely take on, and strategize an approach to the job description. For a new hire, a well thought-out 90-day plan is a great way to help the hiring manager visualize you in the role and differentiate yourself from all other candidates.

The purpose of your plan is to help you transition into your new role, but it should also be a catalyst for your career development. Instead of just guiding you over your job's learning curve, the goals outlined in your plan should push you to perform up to your potential and raise your bar for success at its every stage.

An effective 90-day plan consists of three larger phases — one for days 1-30, one for days 31-60, and one for days 61-90. Each phase has its own goal. For example, the goal in the first 30 days is to learn as much as possible about your new job. The next 30 focus on using learned skills to contribute, and the last 30 are about demonstrating skill mastery with metrics and take the lead on new challenges. Each phase also contains components that help define goals and describe desired outcomes.

Keep in mind that an effective 90-day plan will vary depending on your role, company, goals, and the individual’s needs. 

What includes the 90-day tool kit?

I was inspired by an article of Alexandre Siqueira and reviewed several articles form McKinsey, Harvard Business Review and read some books like "The First 90 days" by Michael Watkins, and "The new Leaders 100 day action plan" by Georg B. Brad, et. al..

Basically from the sources mentioned above (and some others), I built my own 90 days “kit”. My kit is consisted of 5 main tools or documents:

1. Phase Overview

2. Stakeholder Map

3. Interview Questions

4. Activity List

5. Action Tracker

Good to mention that the plan is a reference and not necessarily I follow it 100%. And it fits in any management position, i.e., not necessarily you need to head completly the IT department, it is just a matter of fitting it in the size of your hat and eventually discard some tasks.

What about your experience on this topic? Any tools or methods that minimize the natural challenges of a promotion or a new job?