First 90 days in a new role
For: Anyone in their first 90 days — new job, new team, new scope, new company
First 90 days set the trajectory. A 12-question check on whether you're learning fast enough, building the right relationships, choosing the right early wins, and spotting where you're already drifting off-course.
- 12 questions
- 4 dimensions
- ~4-5 min
- Self · Peer · Both
The first 90 days in a new role are the cheapest window you'll ever have to course-correct. Mistakes made here have small audiences and short memories; mistakes made after this window calcify into 'how that person operates.' But the operator inside the 90 days almost never has the bandwidth to step back and check the four things that actually matter: what they're learning about how the place works, which relationships they're investing in (and which they're missing), what early actions they're choosing, and how their own identity is — or isn't — shifting into the new role. This template covers all four. 12 questions, calibrated for self-use first; optional cross-view from your manager, peers, and team.
How it works
Best run somewhere between day 60 and day 90 — early enough that course-corrections are still possible, late enough that real signal has accumulated. Run it on yourself first; then send to your manager, 2-3 peers, and direct reports if you have any. The most useful gap is usually in 'early actions' — operators almost universally rate their own pace as 'balanced,' while observers more often see either over-cautious or over-eager.
What's inside — 12 questions across 4 dimensions
Learning curve
what you're absorbing about the system you've joined
Relationships built
the people you're investing in, and the ones you're missing
Early actions
what you're doing vs what you're observing
Self-orientation
your own state, identity, energy in the transition
The questions, in full
Every question is included below. You answer them yourself first, then send the same set to the people who've seen you work.
Learning curve
- Q1Rating (1-5)
This person has a clear, accurate picture of how this organisation actually works — not just how it looks on the org chart.
- Q2Rating (1-5)
This person knows who the real decision-makers are on the issues they'll be working on — including the informal ones.
- Q3Open answer
What's something this person assumed about the organisation that turned out to be wrong? What does that tell them about what else might be off?
Relationships built
- Q4Rating (1-5)
This person has invested time in the relationships that matter most for their role — peers, key stakeholders, their manager, their team.
- Q5Rating (1-5)
This person is asking for feedback proactively — not waiting for the formal review to find out how they're landing.
- Q6Multiple choice
Looking at this person's key working relationships in the first 90 days, the picture is...
- — Strong across the board — they know where they stand with everyone important
- — Strong with their team, weaker with peers / stakeholders
- — Strong with manager and stakeholders, weaker with their team
- — Mostly transactional so far — they haven't gone deeper
- — It's been head-down work; relationships have been on the back burner
Early actions
- Q7Rating (1-5)
This person is matching their pace of action to what the situation actually needs — not making changes for the sake of looking decisive.
- Q8Rating (1-5)
The early wins this person is aiming for are aligned with what really matters here — not just visible quick fixes.
- Q9Multiple choice
Looking at the early changes this person has made, the dominant pattern is...
- — Cautious — observing more than acting
- — Balanced — small early wins now, deeper changes later
- — Active — visible changes already in motion
- — Aggressive — fast restructure or repositioning
- — Mostly observational still — no real moves yet
Self-orientation
- Q10Rating (1-5)
This person is clear on what success looks like in this role at the 90-day mark — and they have a real read on how close they are.
- Q11Rating (1-5)
This person is in the right identity for this new role — not still operating as the person they were in their last role.
- Q12Open answer
What's the part of this transition that's been hardest for this person — and what would help them most right now?
The research behind these questions
Drawn from Michael Watkins' The First 90 Days (Harvard Business School Press) — the canonical framework for role transitions, including the STARS situational diagnosis and early-wins logic; Herminia Ibarra's INSEAD research on identity transitions in Working Identity and Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader; Sue Ashford's University of Michigan research on proactive feedback-seeking during transitions; the Heath brothers' Switch on scripting the critical moves through change; and Atul Gawande's work on the role of explicit checklists in preventing rookie failures. Each question targets a specific signal — diagnosis, relationships, action calibration, or identity — without conflating them.
References
- — Michael Watkins — The First 90 Days (Harvard Business School Press)
- — Herminia Ibarra — Working Identity / Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader (INSEAD)
- — Sue Ashford — proactive feedback-seeking research (University of Michigan, Ross)
- — Chip & Dan Heath — Switch
- — Atul Gawande — The Checklist Manifesto
Ready to run this round on yourself?
Sign up, pick this template, answer it about yourself, and send the same questions to the people who've been in the room with you. The gap between your view and theirs is where the actual learning lives.