What pointed recommendations do you have on gaining influence as a new member of an organization or as a junior product management team member?

Question

Natalia Baryshnikova · Accepted Answer

Your ability to create value quickly will depend on how quickly you can identify the problems and gaps in ways your organization operates today, and demonstrate progress towrds fixing them. Here's how you can do that:

1. When you join an organization, schedule introductory 1-1s with a wide variety of stakeholders in your first couple weeks, and ask everyone about what problems they wish they'd see fixed. After 10+ conversations, you'll see clear patterns.
 2. Identify 1-3 small improvements (low hanging fruit) that you can deliver on quickly. Note that for a product manager role, often the best value add you can bring is not about shipping something, but an improvement in product org processes, sharing learnings, improving collaboration with engineering and design etc. So don't just look for roadmap quick wins, but rather how might you make your teammates more successful - this will allow you to capture a broader set of improvement ideas.
 3. Deliver and communicate the delivery of 1-3 improvements within your first 90 days on the job. This is important - your reputation will be formed quickly, so you want to create value quickly too. I have see many folks making a mistake of picking up a giant, challenging problem early on that is exciting but will take years to deliver on. Don't do that - focus on small, albeit potentially less exciting items, and get them done. And once you get them done, don't be shy to share it - let the team know you have solved a problem based on their feedback.

Melissa Ushakov · Answer

Before gaining influence, you have to gain your team's trust. One question I love to ask when I join a team is: "What are the biggest challenges the team experiences? How can I help?". Gather this information from many members of your team and people the team collaborates with. Usually, I can derive a list of action items based on their answers, and I can suggest a few more things that I can do to help. In this initial conversation, focus on what you can do and not what you think they could change. Then follow through on your action items, using your best judgment and discretion if there are sensitive topics. This simple process allows you to learn more about team challenges, demonstrates your commitment to the team, and will help the team improve. This leads to increased trust, which leads to increasing your influence.

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