Onboarding - Big Thinking for New Hires

When a new hire joins one of my teams, I try to start their employment with a special assignment before asking them to dig into ongoing work. For that person, it gives them a chance to understand the product and team within which they now belong. It gives me a chance to get to know them - what type of work they gravitate toward, and how they go about problem solving. In boom times, we have a few associates joining if quick succession, allowing them to work with another new employee while I get to observe how they negotiate a team environment.

In this example, the assignment was: provide the top three changes in our UI that would have a positive impact on our JD Power score. While a clear answer is elusive, the team gets intimately familiar with our product and how it perceived by experts. My role is helping to make important introductions, resolving sticky spots and setting up the final readout to senior management. This is a great way for folks to meet our executives as well as provide real, actionable recommendations.

Process

The first thing that this cohort did was to unpack JDPower’s methodology and which levers were most likely to have a material impact.

In essence, with an understand where to place a bet, they then leaned into understanding our sphere of influence and where our team could directly impact UI and UX. The following are ‘ Range of services…’ scored against criteria they defined that would provide maximum return on investment.

They then created a journey map,

Then continued refining where we should see the greatest impact for the least amount of effort.

As the team was starting to gain confidence, I really wanted them to be able to exact moments / screens to these insights, to demonstrate that there findings were truly actionable, not academic. After several weeks, they were able to pinpoint specific details that they (we) believed JD Power was using in their assessment that we could change.

Below is an example of one of those opportunities that we were able to have prioritized and eventually fixed for our customers.

As evidenced by this screen grab - the team found an opportunity - outdated messaging - and realized the gain. 

Outcome 

This is a great way to start a career. You’ve been in the trenches with a new colleague, immediately created lasting value (JD Power score) and demonstrated your capabilities to senior management. I’ve run 4 cohorts through a similar exercise, and each time been extremely proud of what the team accomplished. In this particular case, improving our performance in Alerts and Notifications in the eyes of JD Power.