Onboarding New Hires

---
name: "onboarding-new-hires"
description: "Design a high-signal onboarding experience and produce a New Hire Onboarding Pack (preboarding checklist, first-week plan, buddy/first-pair plan, listening tour kit, working agreement, 30/60/90 + 1y/2y success plan, 30-day state-of-the-union memo). Use for onboarding, first 90 days, new hire ramp, manager onboarding plan, and joining plans. Category: Hiring & Teams."
---

# Onboarding New Hires

## Scope

**Covers**
- Designing onboarding for a new hire’s first **day / week / 30–60–90 days**
- Creating a **context pack** (team operating manual, mental models, decision history) to reduce “hidden curriculum”
- Ensuring **belonging + social integration** (buddy + “first pair”, introductions, routines)
- Running a structured **listening tour** and synthesizing what’s learned into a crisp summary
- Aligning on a **working agreement** (relationship design: expectations, communication, escalation)
- Producing a concrete **30/60/90 plan** plus **1-year / 2-year** trajectory expectations

**When to use**
- “Create an onboarding plan for a new PM/engineer/leader joining my team.”
- “Build a 30/60/90 plan and first-week schedule for this hire.”
- “Design a listening tour + stakeholder map + synthesis template for a new leader.”
- “Create a buddy/first-pair plan so they don’t feel alone on day one.”
- “Write a working agreement / relationship design conversation guide for me and my new report.”

**When NOT to use**
- You need to define the role outcomes or write the job description (use `writing-job-descriptions`)
- You need to evaluate candidates or decide who to hire (use `conducting-interviews` and/or `evaluating-candidates`)
- You need to run organization-wide culture change (this skill is for *per-hire* onboarding systems)
- You need legal/HR compliance advice (this skill is not legal advice)

## Inputs

**Minimum required**
- Role + level + function (e.g., “Senior PM”, “Founding Designer”, “Eng Manager”)
- Start date + location (remote/hybrid/in-office) + any time zone constraints
- Manager + team context (mission, current priorities, what’s hard right now)
- What “success” means at **30/60/90 days**, and at **1 year / 2 years** (even if rough)
- Key stakeholders (internal + external) and any known sensitivities/politics to handle carefully
- Constraints: urgency, confidentiality/PII, systems access constraints, onboarding time budget

**Missing-info strategy**
- Ask up to 5 questions from [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md) (3–5 at a time).
- If success metrics aren’t known, propose a **draft success definition** and label assumptions clearly.
- Do not request secrets. If context is sensitive, ask for **redacted** or **high-level** summaries.

## Outputs (deliverables)

Produce a **New Hire Onboarding Pack** in Markdown (in-chat; or as files if requested):

1) **Onboarding brief** (role outcomes, success definition, constraints, risks)
2) **Preboarding checklist** (docs, access, equipment, meetings, comms)
3) **First-week plan** (day 1 + week 1 schedule; introductions; “first pair” plan)
4) **Context pack outline** (team operating manual + mental models + “how decisions get made”)
5) **Listening tour kit** (stakeholder map, schedule, question guide, synthesis table)
6) **Working agreement** (relationship design conversation summary: working style + expectations)
7) **30/60/90 + 1y/2y plan** (phased objectives, deliverables, check-ins, guardrails)
8) **30-day state-of-the-union memo** (what I heard, themes, proposed focus, open questions)
9) **Risks / Open questions / Next steps** (always included)

Templates: [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md)  
Expanded guidance: [references/WORKFLOW.md](references/WORKFLOW.md)

## Workflow (7 steps)

### 1) Intake + role success definition (don’t skip)
- **Inputs:** user context; [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).
- **Actions:** Confirm role, seniority, start date, manager, and constraints. Draft success definitions for 30/60/90 + 1y/2y (or confirm existing ones). Identify onboarding risks (ambiguity, politics, skill gaps, time constraints).
- **Outputs:** Onboarding brief (draft) + assumptions/unknowns list.
- **Checks:** You can state “what great looks like” in 5–10 bullets across 30/60/90 + 1y/2y.

### 2) Build the context pack (reduce hidden curriculum)
- **Inputs:** existing docs (or none); org norms; key decisions.
- **Actions:** Create a context pack outline the hire can read pre-day-1: team mission, current strategy, decision history, glossary, key metrics, meeting cadence, “how we work”, and the manager’s/product philosophy and mental models.
- **Outputs:** Context pack outline + reading list + glossary seeds.
- **Checks:** A new hire could answer: “What matters here? How are decisions made? Where do I find truth?”

### 3) Preboarding + day-1 belonging plan
- **Inputs:** start logistics; access dependencies; people map.
- **Actions:** Create a preboarding checklist (accounts, equipment, repo/docs access, calendar invites). Design day-1 + week-1 plan that maximizes belonging: assign a buddy and a “first pair”; schedule introductions; ensure meaningful collaborative work in week 1.
- **Outputs:** Preboarding checklist + first-week plan + buddy/first-pair plan.
- **Checks:** No “sit alone and read docs” first day; social integration is explicit and timeboxed.

### 4) Plan the 0–30 day listening tour (diagnose before treat)
- **Inputs:** stakeholder list; context pack.
- **Actions:** Build a stakeholder map and a listening tour schedule. Provide a question guide and note template. Emphasize learning: constraints, incentives, pain points, and “what good looks like” from others’ perspectives.
- **Outputs:** Listening tour kit (stakeholder table, schedule, question guide, notes template).
- **Checks:** The tour covers all critical interfaces; questions force specifics (examples, trade-offs, metrics).

### 5) Synthesize learnings → 30-day state-of-the-union
- **Inputs:** listening notes; artifacts from week 1–4.
- **Actions:** Synthesize themes, tensions, and opportunities. Write a crisp “state of the union” memo that reflects what was heard, acknowledges trade-offs, and proposes a focus area list (with open questions).
- **Outputs:** 30-day state-of-the-union memo (draft).
- **Checks:** Stakeholders feel “heard” and can point to what changed in understanding.

### 6) Relationship design + 30/60/90 + trajectory plan
- **Inputs:** manager + hire expectations; constraints; learnings.
- **Actions:** Run (or prepare) a relationship design conversation and document a working agreement. Finalize a phased plan:
  - **Days 0–30:** learn + map + de-risk
  - **Days 31–60:** align on direction + plan + early delivery
  - **Days 61–90:** execute + systemize + handoffs
  - Add **1-year / 2-year** expectations, check-in cadence, and guardrails (“what not to do yet”).
- **Outputs:** Working agreement + 30/60/90 + 1y/2y plan.
- **Checks:** Objectives are measurable; responsibilities and decision rights are explicit.

### 7) Quality gate + finalize the pack
- **Inputs:** full draft pack.
- **Actions:** Run [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and score with [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md). Add **Risks / Open questions / Next steps**. If important inputs are missing, propose the smallest next action to resolve them (one meeting, one doc, one data pull).
- **Outputs:** Final New Hire Onboarding Pack.
- **Checks:** The plan is realistic for the hire’s seniority + context; it contains concrete calendars/docs, not just advice.

## Quality gate (required)
- Use [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md).
- Always include: **Risks**, **Open questions**, **Next steps**.

## Examples

**Example 1 (manager onboarding plan):** “We’re onboarding a Senior PM starting Feb 5. Create a full onboarding pack: preboarding, first-week plan, listening tour schedule, working agreement prompts, and a 30/60/90 + 1y/2y success plan. We’re remote across PST/EST.”  
Expected: a complete pack with calendar-ready steps and role-specific success definitions.

**Example 2 (new leader joining):** “A new Engineering Manager is joining a team with morale issues. Build a 0–30 listening tour kit and a 30-day state-of-the-union memo outline, plus a cautious 30/60/90 plan that prioritizes trust.”  
Expected: stakeholder map + question guide, synthesis template, and guarded plan that avoids premature changes.

**Boundary example:** “Write a generic onboarding checklist for all roles.”  
Response: ask for role + context; propose a minimal universal skeleton and require role-specific tailoring before finalizing.