Onboarding to a new team while WFH (during a pandemic)

I started leading UX for the Google Support team the day we went into mandatory WFH. The team was trying to learn how to WFH, how to deal with a pandemic, and how to work with a new lead. I ensured that third one needed the least effort.

Things I did and learned: 

🌱 Carry the burden of onboarding. In a normal scenario I would have asked for teams to present me their work in detail. These were no normal times and no one had time or bandwidth for that.

I onboarded as much as I could using docs, videos, user research, product exploration. 

🌱 I prioritized the team learning about me. Psychological safety was the first priority. I created a Manager Read Me doc (shared on my site if you’re curious) and shared a version with the team. I learned this was appreciated by the team. 

🌱 I paced me learning about the team over a month. I did this via light weight product demos, 1:1s, Office Hours etc. I did a time analysis and realized I spent 30% of my time in team 1:1s. I avoided group gatherings. It would’ve saved my time but wasted theirs. 

Breakdown of my calendar for the first month on the new team

🌱 I did not add extra processes or meetings till about a month in (and even then it’s an hour a month). This meant the team didn’t need to learn to adapt to yet one more new thing. 

🌱 I focused on the people. Frequent reminders of focusing on their health. Check-ins. Leading by example, sharing my story etc. Anything I could do to emphasize that their health should be first priority. 

🌱 Bottomline: I went slower than I would under normal circumstances. Change management is hard. I wanted to ease the team into this transition because there were other, more dire transitions happening to all of us. 

🌱 On the flip side, the team was awesome through all of this. They were going through so much yet they were all instantly welcoming, warm, and open to help me onboard. #blessed non ironically ❤️ 

🌱 I thought I had prepared for this. But the whole playbook went out the window when the pandemic hit. Do share other tips you might have for onboarding while remote (outside of just working remotely). 🙏🏽🙏🏽