Implementation Manager onboarding plan
Implementation managers turn a signed deal into a working customer. Onboarding should combine deep product configuration knowledge with the handover rules between sales, implementation and customer success.
What good onboarding achieves
Lead customer implementations from kickoff to go-live on time, with clean handovers from sales and to customer success.
Week one example
- Day 1: Product admin and project tool access; team intros.
- Day 2: Implementation method, phases and templates.
- Day 3: Configure a test environment end-to-end.
- Day 4: Handover rules: what sales passes over and what CS expects.
- Day 5: Shadow a kickoff or go-live call.
30/60/90 progression
- Day 30: Supports implementations and configures customer environments.
- Day 60: Leads standard implementations independently.
- Day 90: Handles complex implementations and improves templates.
People to meet (examples)
- Implementation lead
- AEs who sell the deals
- CSMs who take over
- Technical support or engineering contacts
Systems to learn (examples)
- Product admin console
- Project tool
- Implementation templates
- Ticketing tool
Manager checkpoints
- Week 1: test configuration done
- Week 3: shadowed kickoff
- Day 60: first led implementation
- Day 90: complex project review
Common mistakes
- No test environment to practise in
- Unclear handover criteria
- Learning configuration on live customers
- No escalation path to engineering
Checklist
- Admin access
- Method reviewed
- Test environment configured
- Handover criteria known
- Kickoff shadowed
- Templates found
- Escalation path known
- First project assigned