30/60/90 Performance Art
I get to be a new head of product multiple times a year doing fractional work - and (nearly) every CEO wants a 30/60/90 day plan.
I don't like them. They're performative. Every single one I've written as an operator I've thrown away almost immediately.
Here's what I do instead:
I focus on people -> process -> product, in that order.
Starting with people: I interview all relevant team members - leadership, PMs, designers, engineers, customer facing roles, key stakeholders, etc - 1x1 and ask them three simple questions related to product at the company:
What's working?
What's not working?
You can change anything - what would it be and why?
This gives me a good sense of where the real challenges and opportunities are, and builds trust and buy in with the team.
I then synthesize these interviews and bring all the participants back together in a group for a moderated - and often uncomfortable - discussion around the findings. The goal of this discussion is to formulate a plan of action around process and product that (most) people are bought into.
Usually, when product teams aren't performing at their best, there is a process element that is broken, and we'll shift gears into fixing that.
When I say process, I simply mean "how we agree to do product work at Company X."
Some necessary ingredients, one or more of which is usually missing:
Clear product goals and time horizons - all of these should be closely aligned with company strategy and financial objectives.
Simple but effective prioritization framework - every company has more good ideas than resources to execute. How we choose and commit to those priorities is very high leverage.
Basic product operations - how we execute and inspect the priorities once chosen.
I've tried pretty much all of the various methodologies, and the best one depends on the specifics of the company and team, but I've had really good luck with Shape Up recently, especially for teams that need to get their product mojo back quickly.
As we start banking process / how we work wins, the engineering team will start gaining momentum and operating with less day to day oversight. This frees up time to focus in on the product itself, and at this point I'll have a few months of detailed learning re: the company, the product, users, business model, etc.
In this third phase we'll look at:
Building out repeatable and effective user research practices.
Product strategy - thematic areas of focus that we believe will drive durable value over the next 12-24 months.
Prototyping and validating new product concepts or meaningful product changes.
It ain't rocket science - but it works every time.
I just can't guarantee it'll work on a 30/60/90 day clock.
