I vividly recall the outbursts several team members had as they reacted to protect their ideas and defend their plans.Īll the while, Jason just continued to ask smart questions and strive for clarity.Įventually, we all realized that even though Jason was totally new to the team, his outside perspective was critical for us to realize something we were too close to the problem to see. The tension in the room was palpable as we processed those questions. These were questions like, “How does the software you are creating integrating with what that team in Division X is building? Have we reviewed and gotten agreement on this plan by our new Chief Architect? Why not? Wouldn’t we be better off waiting to release the software until we had more features and completed the customer scenario? Why are we rushing to ship? Are we sure the design approach is the best one, this other team is using a different approach?” He asked probing questions that caused us to scratch our heads and think. However, that is specifically what Jason did. How could the new guy challenge our supposedly well-thought through plans? We were all in a rush to get a “beta” (early) version of our software in the hands of customers.Īs the new guy on the team, I fully expected Jason listen and learn during the meeting, the purpose of which was to review our plans and prepare for the start of coding for our next development milestone. He had experience running his own company, something few of us in the room had. He was brand new on the team, but full of experience leading several other teams at the firm. Jason, a senior leader of our company, walked into the room full of engineers and marketing people, of which I was one.

First 90 days in a new job