Bringing people along for the (onboarding) ride
Even when it's messy and you absolutely, definitely don't have it figured it out yet.
I’ve written three Substack posts in the last month.
And, I’ve published none of them.
They felt like filler content, like I was posting just to stay visible or relevant, not because I had something meaningful to share.
So instead of forcing it, I waited until I had something useful to say.
And what’s useful right now is this: I’m in it. Mid-onboarding. Drinking from a firehose. Immersing myself in a new culture, a new team, and brand new customers. I’m about 45 days into a new role, and I feel both energized and exhausted.
But, I’m doing something new that’s been really helpful and I want to share it here, for those that could use some onboarding inspiration, beyond your standard 30/60/90.1
Learning vs. Executing
Recently, I was coaching a client on the tension between learning and executing during the onboarding process.2 There’s so much pressure, particularly for PMs, to ship as soon as you can. IMO, that’s the ideal scenario. However, teams and roles are rarely setup to empower new hires to do that easily.
When I’m coaching someone though onboarding, the main role I play is to level with impatient, ambitious, need-to-prove-myself PMs that want a gold star, yesterday.3 I remind them that learning takes time. That shipping takes time. That good things happen to those who stay patient.
But guess what: I’m not feeling so patient. 😬
I’m feeling eager to ship big things and make my impact known. My sound advice for others isn’t landing well with me.
We put so much pressure on ourselves to ship fast, for good reason. Delivering something concrete early on is one of the fastest ways to earn trust and show value. But it’s not always possible. And it shouldn’t be the only bar.
Learning is also incredibly important in this onboarding moment.
What’s changed for me in this role is how visible I’ve made my learning.
And today, I’ll share how I’m learning out loud and bringing my teammates on the journey.
Learning Out loud
I’ve written extensively about how to onboard with intention: how to build trust, gain context and start shaping strategy early.
In past roles, I’d spend a great deal of time talking to coworkers, stakeholders and customers. I’d read industry reports, sign up for every google alert, and study internal decks. I was incredibly studied. But I rarely shared what I was studying.4
These days, I’m not learning in silence. Rather, I’m inviting others into the process.
I’m helping my team and my leaders see my wheels turning, in real time.
Not to prove I’m working. But, to expose and develop the perspective only a fresh pair of eyes can bring.
Steal This ⤵️
Here are 3 things I’m doing that make my “invisible” learning much more visible:
1. Weekly Learning Diaries
Every week, I write up a short summary of key insights, questions, and surprises from the week. It’s for my leadership team but I could easily do this for anyone who wanted a peek into how my perspective is developing.
I include:
Key Highlights from conversations I’ve had with customers or my network, articles/books/podcasts I’ve read + what they all mean to me and why
i.e. I spoke to this person and they confirmed our hypothesis around building X. It’s got me thinking, we’re heading in the right direction but could use more of Y.
Options to go deeper on topics (via 1:1 convos or async threads)
I usually give a quick headline or TL;DR and link to my raw notes that show how and why I dove into a particular topic. It’s organized and so helpful, allowing my GPTs to play assistant so I can move quicker.
A short Loom voiceover
I’m big on multimedia voiceover because it delivers the nuance that static, written text could never. Plus, it makes my work more human and invites others into the conversation.
Aside from being useful, it’s been incredibly fun to track my progress and see how my perspectives have shifted week over week. I’m in deep discovery mode and my Learning Diary makes my learning legible and collaborative. Set in a simple Google Doc, I let others weigh in while my perspective is still forming and invite them to tap in with comments.
2. Sharing Work in Progress
I’m fighting my tendency for perfectionism and I’m sharing what I’m thinking about, even if its not spot on.
Building on my weekly diary, I shared early hypotheses, ideas I’m excited about and theories I’m chasing down in a company All Hands. I talked through some explicit customer research I conducted in my first few weeks. And, it was a great way to show the team what I’m working on plus set expectations for my role.
Sharing work in progress was a little uncomfortable but forced me to articulate early insights. It ended up driving momentum and forcing some interesting conversations about the product.
And, because I shared insights from direct customer interactions, it was also a healthy reminder to start with customers whenever you can.
3. Invite others to learn with you
After our team onsite, which was energizing to say the least, I invited teammates to read a book with me. The book deep dives into what we’re trying to build: strong, interpersonal group experiences. And it felt like a low-stakes way to create new conversations across teams that might not have otherwise happened.
We ended up ordering copies5 for everyone at the onsite to take home and we’ve got our first bookclub date on the calendar.
I’m so excited to start book-clubbing some of my learning with team members who have been in this space for some time. I can’t wait to host our first meeting.6
Sometimes the best way to learn fast is to learn with others.
If I didn’t have a book I wanted to read, I might have started with something light, like an article or a podcast episode. I’d keep it approachable and invite people to engage with you in what you’re most excited about. For me that happened to be a 300+ page book.
I have to say, this approach has made my onboarding richer because it’s been more collaborative. In that, it’s helped me feel less alone. Because let’s be real, transitioning into a new role is hard and lonely as hell, even with a great team.
So, if you’re onboarding or leading someone who is, make learning visible and collaborative. Bring people along for the ride. Even if you don’t have all the answers. But, especially when you don’t have all the answers.
And to those of you following along here, thanks for being part of the ride, too. I realize that posting about learning out loud on a public Substack is really meta.
Speaking of onboarding, check out the latest episode of Supra Insider that came out this week where I chat about starting at Hampton. Shouts to Marc Baselga and Ben Erez for hosting me.
Hi - I’m Jori and I’m a Product Coach. If you’re Product Leader or on a Product team looking for support - drop me a note.
Also, a relevant resource from this spring: https://joribell.substack.com/cp/161027921
It hit me how meta the moment was: I coach people through this exact transition all the time. And now I’m the one dogfooding my tools. Humbling, to say the least.
Also, how I identify.
The rare exception. This was a good one.
Shoutout to Maya for being my first yes!