Ask HN: How to onboard yourself to a new product/industry in a new job?

E.g. I've never been strong at finance (always at the bottom of the class) but I've joined a startup 2 months back that makes a b2b saas fintech product, to lead marketing (first mktg hire in in a total 12 member team). I've worked with the founder before and I like the company. The founder has mentioned that it'll take time to learn the nuances of the product/industry but since I'm a somewhat senior person (9 years exp.), I wanted to see if there are any best practices out there to increase the speed of knowledge transfer/onboarding so that I can connect the dots faster, so to speak.

We do have a set of required reading material that I've gone through, along with product demos, and even 2 VC books that have been recommended on the subject. But unfortunately, I still feel left behind. I need repetition to understand something deeply. Kind of like rote.

The lack of knowledge is obviously going to affect my growth somewhere down the line as well as in identifying opportunities for the company's growth.

I'm looking for advice on what can I do more from folks who joined a company/product/industry that they knew nothing about and how long it took you to get comfortable with it?

I have a very specific (and pretty easy) strategy for this when I join a new org. Technically you could do this at any time, but you generally have a "grace window" when you're new where people are happy to go out of their way to meet you and teach you.

First, meet 1 on 1 with every member of your immediate team. This of course serves as a "get to know you" meet, but your real goal is to get them to explain their work to you. Have them go into as much detail as time allows on whatever they're currently working on. Ask followup questions that start with "why" on everything. Have them show you their part(s) of the product, have them share as many docs as they're willing to (for you to read async later), etc.

Put aside whatever ego you may have, and just get into a beginner's/learning mindset. Ask all the stupid questions.

Then, at the end, ask them who else they're working with from other teams. Put those names on a list, and rinse and repeat with them. This way you'll start local to your role and work your way outward in the company. Eventually you'll find people that are doing nothing particularly relevant to you and you can decide to stop.

If it's a larger company, this is also where you establish your understanding of the org chart and who does what in it, and also makes you known to a ton of folks who may want or need to work with you in the future - which is invaluable in and of itself.

OP is in marketing, not eng, FWIW.

> Putting in time to learn the product as a user of it before trying to develop for it is time well spent

This should always be priority #1 when you first arrive. Not only is it beneficial for understanding your work, but you can never get back that opportunity to see through the eyes of a real user. Once you get used to a product, the warts will be less apparent.

Put the product through it's paces, and take notes on what's confusing or unintuitive. You don't want to tell everyone their baby is ugly immediately, but you can slowly address at least some of the issues over time.

I'm facing a similar challenge, but for Sales within the defense industry.

I've approached it by reading and thinking about the company's relationship to it's stakeholders. Understanding and writing mini-essays on the current customers and their pain points, the main competitors and their products, the history of the industry/segment and more.

Information sources include YouTube, podcasts, press releases, news articles from niche sites, research paper summaries and various websites.

Networking of course plays a role, where I've sought out friendly people a few years ahead of me when it comes to industry knowledge. Mostly through existing contacts I'd do this again if I needed to, and would make sure to leverage each new contact to introduce me to further relevant people.

I've asked ChatGPT specifically to detail out how a MBB-consultant would approach the knowledge acquisition challenge, as they are adept at quickly navigating and learning a new field in a short amount of time. This has helped somewhat and suggested I'd sit down a perform a few different types of analyses.

As for rote learning, I've bought into the Anki flashcard system where i study acronyms, enemy materiel NATO designations, specifications and more.

To wrap up, I've studied finance myself and I have a strong feeling that there's a low correlation between financial-academic success and proficiency in marketing in the industry... Best of luck!