I was recently working with a client who’d landed an exciting new Product Management role. We discussed what would be necessary to start it well. As two PMs might, we aimed to distill this down to the essentials.

Part 1 — There are typically four domains where you need to build an understanding of the new role:

1. People — which individuals and teams do I need to build relationships with?

2. Process — how does information flow, how are decisions made and how do things get done?

3. Priorities — what matters, and what matters most?

4. Product — how does our product work and how does it deliver value to users/partners/the business?

Often, clients and I conclude that these are four separate but intertwined projects… and during the early weeks and months of a new role it’s important to drive intentional progress in each of the four areas. If you focus on just a couple, perhaps the ones which come most naturally to you, you may well come unstuck later.

Part 2 — The path to making a strong contribution has five stages of engagement:

1. Watching, listening and asking questions (“That’s interesting — please tell me more…” is a great way to avoid leading the witness in this stage)

2. Sharing your observations ("I've noticed a pattern of X and Y")

3. Forming and expressing opinions ("My interpretation of the pattern of X and Y makes me think Z")

4. Offering suggestions ("Based on Z maybe we should do <ABC>?")

5. Making decisions ("I recommend we do <ABC>")

Bringing all of this together, you’ll go through the five stages of engagement across each of the four domains. Each domain will likely move at a different speed… perhaps if you’re very familiar with the product space, that will be a breeze for you. Don’t worry about the contrast in pace… it’s really important to move up through the engagement stages and not skip steps.

In some aspects of your role you’ll make rapid progress all the way through to stage 5, in others, perhaps the more nuanced topics, it may take a little while. There will be bumps along the way — you’ll perhaps make some flawed assumptions, or not notice something which turns out to be significant. That’s OK… it’s often how we learn. Don’t give up just because there are a few bumps.