Starting a new job can be exciting, but it can also feel like being dropped into the middle of a story that everyone else has already been reading. There are products you don't know, processes you haven't learned, acronyms you've never heard before, and conversations where everyone seems to have context that you don't.
It can be tempting to prove yourself quickly. Find something that's broken. Suggest a new process. Start making changes. But I think there's a lot of value in doing the opposite first.
Your first few months are a unique opportunity to observe, ask questions, build relationships and understand the bigger picture. You have a fresh perspective, but you don't yet have the full context. The trick is knowing when to use each. Here are a few things I've found useful while settling into a new role.
Get to know the whole product
Even if you've joined a specific team to work on a specific feature, take every opportunity you can to understand the wider product. How do the different products connect? Who uses them? What happens before and after the experience you're designing? How does the business actually operate?
You don't need to become an expert in everything. But having that wider context can completely change how you approach your own work. A feature rarely exists in isolation. Understanding what sits around it helps you spot dependencies, ask better questions and make better decisions.
And sometimes the most interesting design opportunities are hiding somewhere you weren't originally asked to look.
Observe before you change things
One of the best things you can bring to a new company is curiosity. Be hungry for information. Listen. Ask questions. Write down the things that stand out to you.
You might notice a process that feels unnecessarily complicated, an experience that seems inconsistent, or an opportunity you think could be improved. Keep a note of it. But resist the urge to immediately fix everything.
There is usually a reason something exists in its current form. You might not know that reason yet. Give yourself time to understand the history behind decisions, the constraints people are working within and the problems that have already been solved along the way.
Your first few months aren't necessarily the time to change the furniture. They're a chance to understand why the furniture is there in the first place.
Make friends
This one sounds obvious, but I think it's incredibly important. Get to know the people you work with beyond the immediate team you're assigned to.
I've been lucky to work alongside an incredible design team, but I've also made a conscious effort to get to know people across engineering, product and other disciplines. You're there because of your skills and experience, and of course you want to do great work. But you're also a human working with other humans.
Be curious about what people do. If someone offers to walk you through their work, take them up on it. Ask an engineer how something works. Ask a PM what they're trying to achieve. Have the conversation that isn't necessarily on the meeting agenda.
These relationships don't just make work more enjoyable. They give you context, help you understand different perspectives and make collaboration much easier.
Remember that it's give and take
When you're new, you're taking in a huge amount of information. But you also bring something valuable with you: a fresh perspective.
Companies change. Goals shift. Products evolve. People who have been there for a long time can sometimes become accustomed to the way things work, even when those things aren't working particularly well anymore.
As a newcomer, you're likely to ask questions that other people have stopped asking. If you're wondering why something works a certain way, there's a good chance someone else has wondered the same thing. So share what you're noticing.
You don't necessarily need to come in with a solution or tell people how things should work. Sometimes it's more useful to be a sounding board, connect two pieces of information, or help make something visible that wasn't being talked about. That can be a much more effective way of creating change than arriving with a list of things you want to fix.
Be curious, but also bring some energy
Starting somewhere new can make you feel like you need to have all the answers. You don't.
Being new is actually a pretty good excuse to ask questions, get excited about things and explore. Bring some enthusiasm with you.
Talk to people. Look at the products. Explore things you weren't specifically asked to explore. Get excited when you find something interesting. That energy is contagious, and it can also help you find the areas where you can make your biggest contribution.
Give yourself time
Six months sounds like a long time until you're living through it. You don't need to understand everything in your first week. You don't need to prove your value by the end of your first month.
Learn the product. Learn the people. Learn the problems. Then start connecting the dots.
The most valuable thing you can do when you're new isn't necessarily to make the biggest change. It's to understand the system well enough to know which changes are actually worth making.
And when you do start making those changes, you'll have something even more valuable than a fresh perspective:
context.