How to Create a 30-60-90-Day Onboarding Plan

Starting a new job, especially in a startup, feels a lot like moving into a new house. You walk in and see everything that needs to be done. ✅ Walls need to be painted. ✅ Boxes need to be unpacked. ✅ Furniture needs to be arranged. ✅ Appliances need to be installed. ✅ And that weird light switch? No idea what it controls. You want everything to be perfect right away. But if you try to tackle it all at once, you end up exhausted, frustrated, and sitting in a pile of half-unpacked boxes, unsure what actually moved the needle. That’s exactly how week two at a startup marketing role feels. There’s so much to do and so much you want to do, but if you try to tackle everything at once, you’ll never make real progress. How I’m approaching this 👇 To avoid “shiny object syndrome” and keep myself focused, I built a personal 30/60/90 structure as my guardrails for prioritization. 📌 First 30 Days: Lay the Foundation & Find Quick Wins My job right now isn’t to overhaul everything. It’s to deeply understand the business, align with leadership, and set up a roadmap for long-term success. 🔹 Align with GTM & Leadership Teams • Deep-dive into the CEO’s vision, past marketing, and strategic priorities • Meet with key GTM leaders, sales, and vendors to understand historical context • Flipping from the agency side, I can now really see how important it is to get in early with budget owners. POCs change, and those relationships matter 🔹 Establish Marketing Foundations for the Future • Run a marketing analysis to determine areas of focus for the next 60+ days • Identify budget allocation needs, including hiring, freelancers, and program spend • Outline Q2 goals and begin refining prioritizes • Establish my marketing engine framework, a structure that defines foundational work, programs, initiatives, and where they fit in a maturity timeline • Audit data systems and create an improvement plan • Build my personal marketing metrics dashboard, including KPIs and supporting metrics I’m tracking 🔹 Find Early Wins to Drive Momentum Too often, marketing leaders focus only on long-term strategy early on and forget to create early impact. I’m prioritizing quick, meaningful wins that drive performance while setting up longer-term systems. Because early success doesn’t just build momentum, it builds trust. 📌 60 Days+ (a preview) • By this point, I want a clear roadmap of campaigns, brand initiatives, and experiments • I’ve also carved out time for creative brainstorming because sometimes the best ideas come when you let your brain wander (and chip away at this now for some fun!). If I could spend all day on this, I would I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to chase every exciting idea. But without prioritization, nothing moves forward. So I remind myself: “Not everything needs to be perfect right away.” Some things will stay in the box a little longer, and that’s okay. Because the goal isn’t to fix everything at once. It’s to fix what matters first.

Deborah Liu was a long-time VP at Facebook where she built and launched multiple billion-dollar businesses, including Facebook Marketplace. Prior to Facebook, she was a Director at PayPal and eBay. She now serves on the board of Intuit and, for the past 3.5 years, has led Ancestry as CEO. In our conversation, we discuss: 🔸 Why you should PM your career like you PM your product 🔸 Advice for succeeding as an introvert 🔸 Strategies for incubating new products within large companies 🔸 Creating a successful 30-60-90-day plan 🔸 The pitfalls of perfectionism 🔸 The value of resilience and turning failures into stepping stones 🔸 How to leverage coaching in your career development 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gvpRD46V - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gqEQUcKQ - Apple: https://lnkd.in/gmNhk9f2 Some key takeaways: 1. Treat your career like a product roadmap. Start by defining your long-term career goals and envision where you want to be in 5 or 10 years. Break these goals down into smaller, actionable milestones, similar to setting quarterly objectives for a product. Develop a career plan that includes key skills to acquire, roles to target, and metrics for success. Regularly review and adjust this plan based on your progress and any new opportunities or changes in your industry. 2. Introverts need to learn to speak up. Whether you like it or not, the business world favors extraversion. So if you don’t share your opinions and market your wins, you’ll limit your career progression. If you’re a leader, focus on creating an inclusive environment where your entire team has an opportunity to speak up, not just those who are naturally confident in group settings. 3. If the idea of self-promotion makes you feel uncomfortable, consider changing your perspective on what this process achieves. Think about it as a way of advocating for your team’s needs and resources, or sharing important metrics you’ve all achieved. When we shift the focus from “This is about me” to “This helps everyone,” the value of self-promotion becomes far clearer—and much more palatable. 4. When starting a new role, create a structured 30-60-90-day plan: a. 30 days (listening and learning): Meet with as many team members and stakeholders as possible (aim for 50 to 60 people) to understand their perspectives, challenges, and wish lists. b. 60 days (aligning and planning): Based on your learnings, identify one or two areas where you can make a tangible impact in the short term. Develop a plan to address these areas and present it to your team. c. 90 days (execution and impact): Begin implementing the plans and changes that have been agreed upon. Focus on delivering quick wins to build credibility and demonstrate value. At the end of the 90 days, review your achievements and the feedback received.

Stop crafting the perfect cover letter. Start creating a 30-60-90 day plan instead. This one shift has helped my clients land offers over more experienced candidates time and again. What to include: FIRST 30 DAYS: • Learning company systems and processes • Meeting key stakeholders • Understanding immediate challenges • Setting baseline metrics DAYS 31-60: • Implementing initial solutions • Taking ownership of key projects • Building cross-departmental relationships • Providing early impact analysis DAYS 61-90: • Introducing innovative strategies • Measuring impact of changes • Identifying optimization opportunities • Mentoring/supporting team members This shows you're thinking beyond getting the job to actually excelling in it.