30-60-90 day onboarding plan
A 30-60-90 plan splits the first three months into learn, contribute and own. It works when each phase has concrete outcomes the manager and hire both agree on, not a list of activities.
Key takeaways
- Days 1–30: learn the context and do supported work.
- Days 31–60: contribute independently on defined work.
- Days 61–90: own an area and improve something.
- Write outcomes, not activities.
Days 1–30: learn
Understand the product, customers, team and tools well enough to do supported work. Outcome example: can explain who the customer is and complete core tasks with review.
Days 31–60: contribute
Take on defined work independently, with the manager reviewing outcomes rather than steps. Outcome example: handles a normal workload in one area without daily guidance.
Days 61–90: own
Own an area end-to-end and suggest one improvement based on fresh eyes. Outcome example: is the go-to person for one process and has proposed a change.
Example: sales
30: knows the ideal customer and runs discovery calls with a peer. 60: runs their own pipeline and first deals. 90: forecasts their pipeline accurately.
Example: engineering
30: has shipped small changes and understands the deployment path. 60: delivers a scoped feature. 90: participates in on-call or owns a component.
Example: operations
30: understands current processes and metrics. 60: runs a recurring process alone. 90: has improved one measured bottleneck.