Growing up, I was often told that first impressions matter most. I assumed that meant how I dressed when I walked into a room. What I did not know is that the same principle applied to probationary periods at jobs.
Early in my career, I treated those 90 days exactly the way the human resource team described it: onboarding.
I filled my calendar with one-to-ones, content audits, and decks, working on tasks assigned by stakeholders. I looked productive, but I was not strategic. I failed to realize that the first 90 days shaped not only my performance but also how I was perceived in my role.
According to HR Magazine, about 33% of people fail their probation. They react to what’s assigned. They don’t take ownership. They struggle to absorb the culture. This reactive approach is costly because when market downturns happen, the PMMs who do not have established credibility and relationships become the easiest to cut. Likewise, it shapes your perception as either merely an executor or a partner.
So, what significance do the first 90 days have? Beyond the relief of months of job search, the first emotion most PMMs feel when starting a new role is layered, initial excitement, fear, and courage.
You may find yourself second-guessing your capability or wondering if you can meet expectations. What you might not realize is that stakeholders are testing if you match the promise you demonstrated during the interview. Colleagues are quietly evaluating your performance.
During this phase, credibility is your currency. You are simultaneously absorbing a new culture and executing strategically. You are building a relationship with your manager, your product team, and the C-suite all at the same time, navigating the dynamics of the new relationship. It’s a lot of balls to juggle. And the PMMs who navigate it well are not the hard workers who take on all tasks, but those who are very strategic.
My experience changed my approach to the first 90 days. Because of this, I built the CORE framework I wish I had earlier. CORE stands for Cohesion, Observation, Results, and Elevation.
CORE was created with the motive that the first 90 days are not a reactive phase but an opportunity to lay a foundation that determines everything that comes after. Each pillar builds on the previous one. You cannot observe what you don’t understand, create results from observations you haven’t analyzed, or elevate without proven results.
It is a well-rounded framework that covers the necessary tools a product marketing manager needs to settle in, from getting the job offer to the third month. It came from mistakes, research, observations, and eventually developing insights into what success will look like in the first 90 days. What follows is what I would do now if I landed a new role.
C: Cohesion
Contrary to popular opinion, the path to success in a new role begins weeks before your first day at work. It begins as you mentally prepare for your new role and your laptop arrives in the mail. This stage is what I call Cohesion.
Cohesion is the pre-boarding phase that requires deliberate effort to prepare for your new role. This stage covers the necessary steps needed to align yourself with the business and its values.
The goal is simple: establish a thorough knowledge foundation from a wider lens before immersion in day-to-day operations. The company website serves as my primary starting point.
I study the positioning, messaging, and overall strategic direction for the current quarter and year. While some of this occurred during interviews, independent research allows me to build a fresh, personal perspective.
Next, I examine competitors to better understand the company’s place in the market landscape and identify unique product features. Listening to customers is vital, so I spend significant time reviewing their feedback.
Scanning platforms like Capterra and G2 helps me understand customer pain points. I look for recurring themes through a basic thematic analysis, noting any gaps between official positioning and real-world experience.
My research will answer these questions:
- How do customers describe the product?
- What outcomes do they value most?
- Is there an alignment between the company’s messaging and the customer’s experience?
Understanding the product itself comes next. I walk through the customer journey with fresh eyes, looking for friction in the signup process and assessing the overall user experience.
Finally, I begin building relationships by connecting with colleagues on LinkedIn. This provides valuable context for my future team. I also attend webinars and community events to build familiarity. To stay organized, I create a dedicated Notion workspace to track my goals, observations, and stakeholder notes throughout the 90 days.
In my previous role at an education council, I entered with a plan having completed the cohesion stage. I had done the research, connected with colleagues, and understood the positioning before day one. This made settling in much more seamless. I was able to contribute to tasks instead of spending my first months learning the basics.
Ultimately, the goal of this stage is not to prepare from a place of anxiety but from a place of knowledge. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The more context I build before my first day, the easier the transition is.
O: Observation
Following Cohesion is the Observation stage. Hattie the PMM describes it as the Listening Tour. Jobvite states that within the first week, 29% of new employees have decided if they are a great fit for the role.
Observation is an opportunity to meet stakeholders and deepen the knowledge built during Cohesion. Success here requires active listening and curiosity to uncover what works and what doesn’t. It is about building mutual understanding rather than just absorbing information.
I prioritize meetings with cross-functional stakeholders, including the product owner, customer success manager, marketing manager, and head of sales. My goal is to see if internal views align with the customer insights I previously gathered. This involves scheduling one-to-ones and asking targeted questions.
When speaking with the product owner, I seek to understand the customer’s problem and the product’s competitive edge. I also dive into the roadmap and upcoming features.
Conversations with the Head of Sales focus on enablement assets and the current sales cycle to identify our win rates. With the customer success manager, I explore the onboarding journey and retention drivers. Meanwhile, I work with the Marketing team to analyze previous campaigns and key customer segments. These collective insights eventually inform my strategic priorities.
Building genuine relationships is just as important as the work itself. I take proactive steps to learn about colleagues’ hobbies and interests, fostering a positive environment for future cross-functional collaboration.
While the first 30 days often bring a flood of requests, I am responsible for prioritizing high-value work and setting boundaries. Managing expectations early positions me as a strategic partner rather than a reactive executor.
Ultimately, the Listening Tour culminates in a report that captures key gaps, potential opportunities, and the roadmap for the next phase.
R: Results
The Results stage is where my observations are executed. The focus will shift from understanding the business to identifying where I can make the most business-driven impact.
My first priority by day 60 will be to present my findings to my manager and align the insights from the Listening Tour to business priorities. My goal is not to fill all the gaps identified but to focus on one or two high-value tasks. This could involve refreshing the website messaging, conducting customer research, updating enablement assets, or improving customer onboarding content.
For example, in one of my previous roles, customer interviews revealed that onboarding emails had a low engagement rate. Based on this, I revised the onboarding messaging and customer journey.
As a result, activation increased by 14.5%, demonstrating how insights gathered during the Observation stage can be translated into measurable outcomes during the Results stage.
While output matters, I will not let perfection become a barrier. The quicker I can deliver quality, the faster I build my credibility. I will leverage AI to accelerate and automate repetitive tasks, allowing me to focus on strategic thinking. My one-to-ones with my manager will continue to review progress, gather feedback, and maintain alignment with business goals.
The outcome of the Results stage is for you to build a clear action plan, deliver results, and build confidence in where product marketing can drive the greatest value.
E: Elevation
The final stage of the framework is Elevation. This is the final thirty days. Here, my focus will shift from proving competence to building authority and influence with cross-functional teams.
I will build momentum with regular delivery of quick wins and high-impact projects. As credibility grows, opportunities to contribute to high-impact cross-functional tasks are more frequent, and the delivery of these tasks builds influence.
I will also create systems that make success repeatable. I will build playbooks, AI workflows, and templates that make repetitive tasks such as customer interviews, competitive intelligence, and market research quicker.
The goal is to simplify and build processes that allow product marketing to operate effectively. On day 90, I will want to be seen as someone who doesn’t just deliver work but as someone who contributes strategically to the direction of the business.
By the end of the Elevation stage, I will schedule a one-to-one with my manager to get feedback on the first three months. The feedback will serve as a guide to the next 90 days leading to my probation. It will reveal strengths and areas for improvement.
Why this matters
The first 90 days are not about doing every task assigned. It is about understanding where your effort creates the most value in the business.
That is why I created the CORE Framework. Not because onboarding can be reduced to four stages, but because having a structure makes it easier to focus on what matters when everything feels new and unfamiliar.
Of course, every company is different, and every onboarding experience is unique. This framework will look different in practice depending on the business, the team, and the challenges in front of you. But if I got a Product Marketing Manager role tomorrow, CORE is the framework I would use.
When you approach your first 90 days strategically, build knowledge before arrival, identify gaps before executing, you become the PMM who shapes strategy instead of responding to it. You become the one retained when markets shift. You become the one who builds a career that matters. That is the difference the CORE framework makes.
