Onboarding a New Team Member: 30-60-90 Day Plan
Design a 3-phase leadership onboarding plan: Learn (30) → Contribute (60) → Own (90) — instead of leaving the new member to "figure it out alone".
Goal
Design a structured onboarding path for a new team member as their direct leader (not HR), reducing time-to-full-productivity via clearly staged goals.
Steps
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1
Define for days 1-30: what must the member understand (context, tools, key relationships)? No production tasks yet.
Expected Outcome
Evidence base
School: Onboarding / Leadership Transitions
Founders: Michael Watkins (2003)
Based on Michael Watkins's "The First 90 Days" (2003), which documented that the first 90 days determine success or failure of any role transition, and lacking a phased plan doubles the risk of early failure.
Keywords
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