Maximizing the First 90 Days: Accelerate Your Product Leader Hire

You’re making a powerful investment in your company's future when you hire a Chief Product Officer (CPO) or VP of Product. Rosalee Gordon, CEO and Executive & Leadership Coach of LaunchBrite Consulting understands the high stakes involved and the critical role a CEO plays in the success of their new product leader.

With years of expertise in scaling product teams and enabling early wins, Rosalee guides CEOs on how to maximize the impact of their product leader in the first 90 days. Let’s dive in…

Hiring a CPO or VP Product is a bold, high-stakes move that can significantly drive your company’s growth and expansion. So much rides on this new hire! You are betting the company on their success. You are excited about what your new product leader brings to the table.  Yet you have a niggling fear - what if they do not deliver as expected? It takes only a quarter to know if you have hired the right sales leader, but it can take almost a year to know if you have hired the right product leader. 

You need to see early indications - a rapid ramp up and early wins. So how can you enable your highly vetted, perfect match product leader to knock it out of the park in their first 90 days and beyond? What will they need from you to deliver the results you hired them for? 

The CEO plays a crucial role in setting up a new product leader for success in their first 90 days by providing the right guidance, resources, and support. Here’s how a CEO can ensure the new product leader is positioned to make their maximum impact:

1. Share a Clear Vision and Strategic Context

• Share the Company’s Vision and Goals: Share the high-level vision and strategic objectives so the product leader understands what the company is striving to achieve and how the product fits into this vision. Provide recent board decks, strategy docs, and roadmaps. 

• Share Success Metrics: Give clear guidance on what success looks like. Outline key financial targets for revenue, growth and profits. Share current product success metrics or OKRs tied to product performance.‍
• Highlight Potential Quick Wins: Identify areas where you think the product leader might find early wins, which can help build momentum and credibility with the team and stakeholders.

2. Spark Relationship-Building with Key Stakeholders

• Executive Peers: Introduce the new product leader to their cross-functional peers (e.g., heads of Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Customer Success, Operations, and Finance). This is their team #1. Success as a company depends on this team working in lock-step. ‍
• Other Key Contacts: Offer a list of other stakeholders the product leader should meet, including advisors, board members, and key customers or partners.

3. Provide Access to Resources and Support

• Allow for Discovery: Give the product leader the freedom to learn, observe, and immerse themselves in the product, team dynamics, market dynamics, and customer needs during the first month.
• Empower Decision-Making: Founder mode? Manager mode? Something in between? Clarify the product leader’s authority, helping them understand where they can make independent decisions and where they need approval or collaboration today. Expect this to shift over time as the product leader demonstrates market and product knowledge, and builds trust with you and the team. 
• Support with Financial and Human Resources: Make sure the product leader has the necessary budget, staffing, and tools (e.g., analytics platforms, user research tools, etc.) to execute effectively.‍
• Consider Coaching: The highest performers in the field do not get there alone. Consider including coaching in your total compensation and benefits package for a new product exec. One-to-one executive coaching for the first three to six months is a powerful accelerant. Also consider funding a membership in a professional peer group. Tap your own investors for their bench of operating partners and advisors who could work with your new product leader.

4. Expect Early Indications of Fit 

• Days 1-30: Learning Phase: Product leader demonstrates understanding the business, product, team, and stakeholders.
• Days 31-60: Planning Phase: Product leader starts to shape a product strategy, outlines quick wins, and establishes relationships with you and across the executive team. ‍
• Days 61-90: Execution Phase: Product leader starts to implement early strategies, deliver quick wins, and ensure alignment with you for the next 90 days.

The first 90 days is a crucial time for your new product leader to learn the ropes, build trust, and achieve early wins. It can be an uncomfortable liminal space, a risky period of uncertainty, for both the product leader and the whole executive team. By following these 4 onboarding principals you can better enable success, foster team cohesion, and help your product leader drive rapid business impact.