Make new friends, but keep the old

Thank YouLately I’ve had many blessings to be thankful for. I just welcomed my new son to the world and I’ve been enjoying my new job at CA Technologies (CA) tremendously. I’m now one of the Product Owners/Sr. Product Managers for CA Agile Central!

With new changes come new learnings, and one of my favorites so far is in the CA onboarding plan. In it, there’s explicitly a step to say thanks to the folks who helped you get your new job. I think it’s a great to call out this important step in the journey of taking a new role. Although there will be many new friends and colleagues in a Product Manager’s new position, it’s vital to maintain the older relationships for future networking and growth opportunities. So, if you’re building an onboarding plan for a new Product Manager, think about making an action to have them send thanks to those who gave references, advice, and encouragement for their journey. It’s also a great time to get stable ways to contact them, like their personal email, LinkedIn connection, or Twitter handle.

Thanks to you for reading this blog too! Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it over the last year. I look forward to sharing more thoughts and learnings as I begin my career with CA.