Rerun: Your first 90 days in product – Leah Tharin on The Product Experience
Apr 24, 2024
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Leah Tharin, Chief Product and Growth Officer at gotphotocom, shares insights on the first 90 days in a new product role, challenges traditional onboarding plans, and discusses gaining trust from your team. Other topics include navigating leadership, building trust, and identifying warning signs for career growth.
Establish trust in new roles by focusing on building relationships first, rather than rigid 30, 60, 90-day plans.
In leadership, prioritize building trust by celebrating team successes collectively, fostering open communication, and demonstrating care for team members.
Deep dives
Approaching a New Job: Building Trust and Understanding
Building trust and understanding in a new job revolves around not having rigid 30, 60, 90-day plans but emphasizing the importance of getting to know people and focusing on building trust first. The speaker advocates for being curious about others, especially in challenging conversations, to establish strong relationships. It's crucial to avoid pre-planned expectations and focus on building trust by being dependable and transparent in communication.
Leadership Expectations and Trust
In leadership roles, it's essential to understand that job titles don't define a role, and trust is a two-way street. The speaker highlights the importance of not taking credit for team successes but fostering a culture where success is collectively celebrated. Establishing clear expectations for oneself and others, ensuring transparency in communication, and being adaptable are key components of building trust as a leader.
Establishing Trust with Teams and External Stakeholders
Building trust with teams involves encouraging autonomy and open communication, ensuring that feedback is given thoughtfully, and creating a culture of transparency and accountability. The importance of being consistent in actions and communication, focusing on listening to others' concerns, and demonstrating genuine care towards team members play a significant role in fostering trust within the team.
Evaluating Job Satisfaction and Continuing Growth
Identifying warning signs in job roles, such as lack of impact, routine, or dissatisfaction with daily routine, signals the need to reassess job satisfaction. The speaker emphasizes the significance of ongoing personal growth, setting clear expectations for personal development, and actively seeking feedback to ensure continued professional fulfillment. Seeking learning opportunities, clarifying role expectations, and staying adaptable are essential for maintaining job satisfaction and personal growth.
If you’re starting a new role in product at whatever level, it can sometimes be difficult to get started, especially if you’re chucked in the deep end. In this week’s podcast episode, we speak with Leah Tharin, currently the Chief Product and Growth Officer at gotphotocom. She provides some insights on your first 90 days in a new product role, challenges the conventional wisdom of the 30, 60, 90-day plan, and goes into the best ways to gain trust from your new team.
Featured Links: Follow Leah on LinkedIn and Twitter | Leah’s website | Leah’s ‘Productea with Leah’podcast | ‘The Shit Sandwich and Other Terrible Ways to Give Feedback’ piece at I Done This Blog
Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.
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