The 30/60/90-day checklist every PM should use
When I started in my new Product Manager role at StackAdapt, I felt a healthy dose of nerves. Most people do when they’re starting something new.
New industry. New team. New problem space.
What grounded me was a simple document my manager Ryan, shared on Day 1: a 30/60/90-day checklist.
It was the clearest onboarding I’ve ever had.
Whenever I felt overwhelmed with too many tabs in my brain open, I went back to the checklist to anchor me and make sure I was staying on track.
So today, I’m sharing a generic version you can adapt for yourself or your team.
✅ Why you need a 30/60/90 day checklist
If you’re a manager, this is a great way to set expectations and milestones for new hires.
If you’re a PM starting a new role, you can build your own version and review it with your manager.
Either way, it creates shared clarity, and that’s what great onboarding is all about.
🔎 0-30 Days: Understand the Team, Product & Industry
Your main goal: build context. Don’t rush this phase: a strong foundation now will empower you to operate with clarity and confidence later.
Meet your entire engineering and design team one-on-one.
Meet adjacent product teams to understand overlap and dependencies.
Connect with UX Research, Data & Analytics, Product Marketing, Product Ops, Sales/Marketing, and Customer Success to learn how you’ll work together.
Read everything: product docs, PRDs, user stories, past strategy decks.
Read & absorb as much as you can about the industry
Watch customer calls and user research sessions to absorb pain points.
Create a living “PM brain” doc of notes and questions you can CTRL + F later. Document all the answers you get in this doc.
Learn your product’s profitability model and ensure you can explain how the product drives revenue or value to the organization.
Map your key metrics (e.g., activation, retention, NPS) and ensure you know how they’re tracked.
Understand your tech stack and architecture: core systems, data flows, and constraints. (Ask for a whiteboard session with one of your senior engineers to walk through this, and take detailed notes + pictures).
Study the competitive landscape and what truly differentiates your product.
Shadow team rituals: sprint planning, standups, retros.
🛟 30-60 Days — Dive In & Start Contributing
Your goals: drive small wins and demonstrate ownership. Dive in before you feel ready.
Understand the roadmap and vision: learn the “why” behind priorities.
Move from learning to doing. Start owning smaller features or experiments.
Identify “quick wins” to take on, like quick UX or process fixes to build early credibility.
Write your first PRDs or user stories: even if imperfect, it accelerates learning.
Understand the organization’s release process and what PMs are responsible for: training & documentation, feature flags, marketing, etc. Every org is different so ensure you cover this with your manager once you start owning some features.
Map your core product metrics and if a dashboard doesn’t exist, build one or partner with Analytics to get the views you need.
Begin to question roadmap priorities using data, user insights, and competitive context.
Shadow sales and customer success calls to stay close to customer feedback.
Interview customers for feature discovery or test new features with customers.
🚀 60-90+ Days — Own the Product & Influence the Roadmap
Your goals: operate independently, influence strategy, and deliver measurable impact.
Fully own your product area and roadmap.
By now, you should have shipped a few small features and seen the product lifecycle from discovery to launch.
Lead feature discovery and define clear requirements and success metrics.
Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Sales, and Operations to plan launches.
Present your roadmap in a product review to leadership: defend trade-offs and priorities.
Create or refresh the Product Vision & Principles to codify long-term direction.
💡 Final Takeaway
Whether you’re stepping into your first PM role or joining a new org, remember this:
Starting something new is hard. But clarity through having a checklist can make it a lot easier to stay the course.
When you know what success looks like, you can focus on delivering it.
💬 What would you add to this checklist? Would love to hear from you in the comments below!