The First 90 Days - My Big Failure

Introduction:

I’ve been a software writer for 7+ years now, and I have worked in 5 different companies so far. In my last company, On Running, I had the roughest start of all. There are multiple reasons that this happened, and I see that it was mainly my fault. Today I’m sharing my experience so you may avoid walking in my shoes on a path of a bad start that I once had

Why did I have a rough start?

There have been different reasons for this, and as I mentioned above, I dug my own grave for this. That led to me feeling stressed and so out of place, as I have never experienced a slow start before.

Even though things got much better onward. I still think about how could things been different, and how I could have had a much better time when I first joined

Reflecting on my start with On, I find there were many different reasons why it was rough:

Moving from startups to medium-sized companies: In all my previous companies, the largest headcount that I worked with was +40 employees. Moving from this to +1000 people company is very different. Communication, a variety of tools, team structure, and roles, were all that I needed to re-learn from scratch. Back when I worked in startups. It was so easy to hit the ground running. know everyone, your work is easily recognized, know who to ask when you have a problem, and to contribute starting from your first week and to feel impactful. Working in bigger teams, and more complicated codebases. You need your get dopamine and your sense of achievement differently.
Not knowing which work really mattered: It took me quite some time to understand which work really requires a good amount of attention and dedication and which is not a priority. You can argue it’s that the team/product role to determine that. But in my case, understanding the key components early could have helped me have a more fruitful discussion with the product and my team
Took me longer than I should know the key stakeholders: As it was a very large company compared to where I worked before. Determining the key stakeholders was not an easy task. Getting to early know who the key stakeholders are can speed boost your productivity and understanding of the business, and have such a great start
Underestimating the challenge of moving to a non-English speaking country: When I was living in Dublin, I took many things for granted. How to easily speak, navigate and understand people. Easy to understand the paperwork needed. And ever the random chat encounters. And much, much more Going from this to Berlin, was brain-wrecking, to say the least. The culture is radically different. The anxiety of opening your mailbox for receiving a handful of letters you don’t understand (Yes, they still heavily use the post in Germany) I didn’t much account that this change will take a huge toll on how I enjoyed the country and my work.
Expectations not communicated: Something I need to determine, and quickly, of what expectations lays on me when I first joined. Even if I was performing. I didn’t really know if that was the case. As the team was going through a big re-structure. I needed to request more 1:1 with the senior people around to understand this. It has much proper structure now, but back then I needed to put effort into understanding the expectations of my direct manager in every phase
Stick to the old ways: What made me productive in my previous companies, wasn’t necessarily what would make me productive at On. I needed to unlearn many things and adapt to the new company culture and workflow But before I’ve done that. I was tunneled visioned on how I do things. Being more flexible and absorbing the new culture quicker could have definitely helped

Areas of focus when onboarded to a new workplace/team:

Be Present: Always be there in your first weeks to absorb as much as you can. Ask as many questions as you can. Meet with your teammates in your tribe and other tribes. And try to get your team to know you too Many people underestimate having the camera on for example. And as you shouldn’t be pressured to have it on by any means, it makes a difference to have it as a habit when you do pair programming or in meetings (I hope you have less of the latter)
Know your team: In your first weeks, talk to as many people as you can. Understand what they like, what they don’t like, what makes them productive, and what holds them back. This information can be so valuable in understanding the business and how you should approach your work, and how to
Know the business: I found it odd that many of us do not put the effort into understanding how the company works in the bigger picture. Questions like what makes the company profitable, what moves to profitability, how different teams work, what are the bottlenecks, who are our biggest competitors, and what are the future plans. These are all questions you should know the answers to, even on a basic level, and this is just the start of many questions that you should know the answer to.
Ask what made your team feel successful: This is very important. As different teams have different cultures and ways of working. You need to quickly adapt and potentially improve the current process. But before you need to understand it. Make sure you know what makes them feel successful and productive, and follow the same way with adding your little bits and pieces, if needed
Ask what made your team feels that they undelivered: Get a sense of what may make the team unproductive and avoid it
Read postmortems: A lot of valuable information can be found in postmortems. Go through it so you get context when something comes up
Document and fill the gaps: Coming with no knowledge about how things work. It's a unique, one-time chance to easily fill any gaps in the documentation of everything you’re using Acting like the reviewer of these docs. Your team and your future self will truly appreciate that
When things go south, stay calm and make a comeback: First impressions last for some time. But people change and so do we. If you had a rough start, it’s not the end of the world Minimize the losses, try to understand why you failed, and make it better. And make sure there is always constant communication with your team in that kind of case. Be transparent and responsible whenever you communicate with your direct manager. Build trust and start from there

And lastly, be kind to yourself, and enjoy this unique opportunity you’re given. Don’t waste it on stress or distorted thoughts.

These challenges are how we grow as humans and you’re lucky enough to have a handful on your plate. So make the best out of it :)

Stay happy and healthy wherever you are