Update PM onboarding template to better align with value based goals in the first 30 to 90 days at Gitlab
Problem to solve
The current PM onboarding template is a good starting point to being a Product Manager (PM) at GitLab, but recent feedback has suggested that there could be some improvements made.
Initially, our aim is to begin by listing out tasks that PMs should undertake during their first few months at GitLab. These tasks would be product specific, and our vision is that goals would be set between the onboarding PM and their manager.
Suggested Goals
Understand Strengths and Weaknesses of your group's product
It is imperative to understand not only the fantastic new features of your group's product, but to also have a good understanding of the weakness and problems. Some suggested ways to achieve this understanding are:
- Talk to your support stable counterparts
- Schedule customer interviews with both existing customers, and new customers and pay attention to what needs are being met, what needs are not being met, and what barriers there are to entry.
Understand how your group's product stacks up to the competition
No matter how great our product is, there are strong competitors in the marketplace, and we should never discount their influence and innovation. In that regard, we should strive to understand what makes our competition better than us, and how we can best prioritize features to ensure we strategically compete. Some opportunities for this include:
- Talk with analyst relations and product marketing stable counterparts
- Create walkthroughs of competitive products and highlight our strengths and weaknesses observed through this exercise
Understand how your group's product fits within GitLab
It's easy to focus entirely on your own group when starting your PM journey at GitLab. However, one of our main competitive advantages is that we have a single application. Because of this, as a GitLab PM, we need to have a good understanding of adjacent pieces of our product in order to ensure we complement one another.
- Collaborate with adjacent stage PMs
- Spend time actually using different portions of the product to better understand where your group's contributions may fit in for additional cross-stage collaboration.