#1 thing to do when you start a new job

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Topic

MarketplaceProductivity

Type

Quick take

Since we are continuously onboarding new team members, I would like to highlight the top thing (in my opinion) that every newcomer should do in a new job. This approach applies to every new job, not only in product management, as it is useful for every modern professional.

The most important thing that you should do as a newcomer is to understand how the industry of the business works.

If you’re already an industry expert, you won’t need to do much—mostly just adapt and update yourself on the current competition and challenges. This tip is more useful for people coming from other industries.

Most companies and teams have an onboarding process (we do as well) that presents the way they work. A typical process includes strategy & vision, planning processes, collaborative teams, goals & KPIs, and the list goes on. The onboarding process is good, but it will only help the newcomer understand WHAT processes are in place, rather than WHY they are in place. Understanding the industry will help you grasp many important things, such as why you work the way you do, what the main challenges are, the strengths and weaknesses of the competition, and a glimpse of the future based on where the industry is heading.

This approach will help you develop better product & business sense as well.

As a disclaimer, I don’t think anyone will ask you to understand the industry in order to work there. This is an approach for professionals who want to go the extra mile and amplify their impact in their job, especially in terms of product discovery. Here is another tip for success for a newcomer.

To do this effectively, I will break it down into three different sections and add examples from efood.

The Industry Fundamentals

First of all, you need to understand the industry. We are an online food delivery marketplace that operates locally in Greece and Cyprus. Here are some readings about the fundamentals of online marketplaces:

Aggregation theory (by Ben Thompson)
Top 100 Marketplace report (by a16z)
Marketplaces in the age of AI (by a16z)
The concept that explains everything about marketplaces (by Dan Hockenmaier)
20 best essays for Marketplace startups (by Andrew Chen)

Here are some insights from the reading above:

Our prioritization should be balanced across a triangle of:

Customers
Vendors
Business

Segment	Priorities
Customers	Customers want to open our app and find great deals and discounts from all the available restaurants while getting the best user experience without flaws or technical issues in order to place their order. Having low traction with customers will lead to an unwillingness of vendors to enroll in your marketplace and limited opportunities for business revenue.
Vendors	Vendors want to enroll in our service in a smooth and convenient way and get all the necessary guidance and tools from us to help them generate orders and revenue. Having low traction with vendors will limit the options (and potentially discourage) customers from ordering.
Business	Businesses want to generate revenue, keep operating costs low, build a great brand, provide value for both customers and vendors, have social impact, and attract and retain top talent. Having low traction in business revenue will not allow you to attract top talent and will limit your options in terms of promotional actions for both vendors and customers.

The Role Models

Are there any role models in your industry? A role model could be a company that has the same operational model as you but operates on a global level, is highly innovative, or has a great brand, etc. You have to set the role models; there is no default. In our example, DoorDash, Talabat, Baemin, Foodora, and Instacart can be good candidates for role models.

Role models show you the way and the future. You don’t necessarily have to religiously follow them and replicate all their features, but keep an eye on them consistently, especially for A/B tests & new initiatives, for inspiration.

Industry & competition

Since we covered the fundamentals of the industry, we need to understand how the industry that our business operates in works. In our example, efood operates in Greece, so our main direct competitors are BOX & Wolt. If there are indirect competitors, add them as well.

Study them.

Use their services.

Subscribe to their newsletters and social media profiles.

Read their financial statements.

Try to gather as much information as possible. Being on top of your competition will help you understand their strategy, their advantages & disadvantages, how they respond to your initiatives, and why people love (or hate) their brand.

Understanding what your competitor is doing better than you does not necessarily mean that you will copy it. Our main purpose here is to understand the opportunity or the problem, rather than to get the solution.

Questions to answer:

How do they acquire new users?
How do they retain their users?
What are the differences in the operational model?
What are their strong areas?
What are their weak points?
How would you position them against your business?
What are the gaps between them and your business?

Personally, studying the competition helped me a lot in comprehending the dynamics of both the competition and our business. It provided context for things that are very useful but outside of my job scope, and it greatly improved my product discovery skills.

Relevant posts:

[Notes] PM Habits Seminar: Get Shit Done by Shreyas Doshi