When I was at Olo, this 3-6 month plan was created for me. Overtime, I modified it to include additional resources that would be beneficial for new APMs and PMs coming in.

For reference, Olo is a B2B SaaS company that develops digital ordering and delivery programs for restaurants.

Make it your own - add other resources to tailor it to your experience and background so it is not overly cookie-cutter. Tailor to the strengths to level up at the outset and address the areas to grow in early (supply training resources and domain knowledge, for example).

This document is great for readily sharing your company principles (to reinforce them), establishing company networking early on, and establishing product resources/best practices that are available externally.


Regular 1:1 walking through this are essential - starting with each week and then revisiting this plan monthly in time.

I would recommend that you DO NOT handle this document async or through Slack/Teams.


Reflecting on the experience, I wish I more steadily/consistently followed months 3-6 when first joining the company. The consistency would have allowed me to reach certain goals faster.


Dan Lipsy

When I was at Olo, this 3-6 month plan was created for me. Overtime, I modified it to include additional resources that would be beneficial for new APMs and PMs coming in.

In the first month, the primary focus will be on an “outside, in” learning approach. While week 1 will be about integrating into our existing workflows, weeks 2 through 4 will focus on accumulating Industry and {your product domain} knowledge.

Assimilate into existing workflows and recurring meetings

Get acquainted with the {product engineering} team

Tentative plan for taking on responsibilities from {existing product manager}

Setup a weekly 1:1 with Manager: {Manager name}

Setup 1:1 with Engineering Manager – {Engineering Manager name}

Setup 1:1 with Designer – {Designer name}

Connect with {other product manager} now / when back from leave (created calendar intro)

Read through the Product New Hire Reference Guide Introduction

Engineering Manager: {Engineering Manager}

Recurring Meetings (Target week of {next week} to begin joining these meetings. Ask {Engineering Manager}/{existing product manager} to add you to the calendar invites.)

Backlog Refinement Meetings (Backlog Scrub)

Office Hours Link to Product Manager Calendar

Get familiar with the Customer requests for the {your product domain} team on the CS Kanban Board (instructions deck)

{your product domain} JIRA Roadmap (instructions doc)

Development Board for {your product domain}

Schedule (or be added to) Monthly Roadmap Review.

{company} as a Business (1 hour meeting with manager)

Core lines of Business & Platform Overview

The Restaurant Tech Industry (1 hour meeting with manager, self research)

{company} as an Organization (1 hour meeting with manager, 30 min. meetings with team members listed below). 

The following meetings should be scheduled in week 2, but do not need to take place in week 2.

{Name of key partnerships contact, if applicable}

When you meet with {Engineering Manager}, check in with the person on scheduling brief calls with other engineers on the team. Set for Thursday/Friday

{Intro to Project Manager, if applicable}

When you meet with {existing product manager}, check in with them on other folks that they work with closely that you should also meet those individuals. He mentioned {designer}, and I’ve talked to this individual but can plan to chat again once I have a better sense of how we can their expertise within the {your product domain} team.

{Manager} to add additional product managers for you to connect with.

{List 3-4 product managers to connect with for context/background on your domain and company culture}

Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager

What distinguishes the Top 1% of product managers from the Top 10%?

Visual guide to the best books on product management

Recommended Reading/Listening (links to Audible):

 by Melissa Perri - listening to now, 2 hrs 14 min remaining

Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love

Empowered: Ordinary People , Extraordinary Products

Product Manager Onboarding Plan

Product Manager Onboarding Plan at Olo

Month 1

End of Month 1 Goals:

Week 1 - Lay of the Land

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