# Executive Onboarding Playbook

Plan a VP or CPO 30-60-90 day diagnostic onboarding path.

- Repository: https://github.com/deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills (7825 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-10-16
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill executive-onboarding-playbook -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill executive-onboarding-playbook -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill executive-onboarding-playbook -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills --skill executive-onboarding-playbook -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills`

## Description

Plan a VP or CPO 30-60-90 day diagnostic onboarding path. Use when entering a new executive product role and avoiding premature change.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

## Purpose

Structure the first 90 days of a VP or CPO transition as a diagnostic process, not an execution sprint. The single most common failure in senior product leadership transitions is acting before understanding, changing structures, replacing people, or announcing strategy before building the evidence base that makes those decisions defensible.

This playbook runs in three phases: **Diagnose** (Month 1), **Validate** (Month 2), **Act with Evidence** (Month 3). Each phase builds on the last. Skipping phases doesn't accelerate results, it guarantees expensive reversals.

This is not a 100-day plan for impressing your new boss. It's a diagnostic protocol for making durable decisions.

## Input

**Works best with:** The role you're stepping into (VP or CPO) and basic company context, size, stage, how the product org is set up.
**Also useful:** How far you are from Day 1 (offer stage, pre-start, week 3), known landmines, and what the CEO says success looks like.

Anything supplied with the invocation itself, text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line, counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.

**Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The playbook opens by asking your start date and company context, then anchors you in the right phase.

**Example invocation:** `I start as VP Product at a 300-person Series C in 3 weeks, first product exec hire, founder currently runs product. Build my 30-60-90.`

## Key Concepts

### The Consultant Mindset

Enter every new VP/CPO role as if you're an external consultant hired to assess the organization, before you're the person responsible for changing it.

The rest: https://github.com/deanpeters/Product-Manager-Skills/blob/HEAD/skills/executive-onboarding-playbook/SKILL.md