How to write a 30-60-90 day manager’s plan (with examples)

It’s time to make a mark in your new role, job or department, but where do you begin? Writing a 30-60-90 day manager’s plan can help you hit the ground running while increasing structure and accountability in a new leadership role.

In this article, you’ll learn why 30-60-90 day manager’s plans are essential and how to write one. You’ll also see an example you can use to accelerate the process and get tips on making your plan even more effective using a CRM.

What is a 30-60-90 day manager’s plan?

A 30-60-90 day manager’s plan outlines your three-month goals, how you’ll accomplish them and ways to measure your success.

Each 30-day window has a specific focus. For example, managers might spend the first 30 days learning about their new organization, the company culture and internal processes. They spend the next 30 days implementing a change project and the final 30 days analyzing their success and making plans for the future.

Managers create these plans for several reasons:

• Interviewing for a new role. Prospective employers may require you to write a 30-60-90 day plan. Alternatively, you can write one to impress interviewers with your initiative and dedication.

• Starting a new job. A plan helps new hires navigate their first few months and impress stakeholders with their ability to take action.

• Moving to a new department. This plan is ideal for handling periods of change or when you need to get up to speed quickly.

• Seeking to improve skills. These plans don’t have to coincide with a career change. Start whenever you want to improve your output or demonstrate your capabilities to management.

Most managers write their own plans, but sometimes, a business owner or hiring manager creates them for new employees.

Benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan for managers

A 30-60-90 day plan gives new managers focus, encourages building relationships and shows their employer what they can do.

The specific benefits of a 90-day plan include:

Determining the scope of work

A 30-60-90 day plan reduces pressure when starting a new role. It lets you act with purpose rather than fretting about your job responsibilities and requirements.

It supports self-management and adds much-needed structure to your first days in charge. It doesn’t overwhelm you either since you’re only planning crucial tasks and not scheduling every second of your day.

Setting employee expectations

A 90-day leadership plan creates a productive and proactive work environment for your direct reports.

While a change in leadership can be destabilizing and nerve-racking for employees, a 30-60-90 day plan eliminates ambiguity in the short term while helping employees understand your goals and management style.

Teams are more likely to excel during managerial transitions if they see a driven, well-organized and thoughtful leader taking over. Prove you have these qualities with a 30-60-90 day plan. As a result, you can sustain or even increase productivity levels during the transition.

Making a great impression and building trust

A detailed and goal-orientated plan demonstrates to stakeholders and employees that you’re the right person to lead the team. If your employer didn’t ask for a plan, your initiative will assure them they made the right choice. If they did, it’s your first opportunity to prove you can deliver.

Build camaraderie with employees by meeting with them and asking for feedback during your first 30 days. It will show you’re interested in improving their existing processes rather than forcing through a regime change.

Defining goals and measuring progress

Finally, a 90-day plan gives you a yardstick to measure your success in a new role. It forces you to set goals and track your progress using milestones.

It also lays the foundation for continuous improvement. Measure your progress in the first three months and identify opportunities to improve.

What does a 30-60-90 day plan include?

30-60-90 day plans are most effective when you tailor them to your specific goals. Still, there is a standard structure to follow when creating one:

• Company’s mission, values and objectives. An overall aim keeps your efforts on track. Define what you want to achieve, then justify it by explaining how it will help your company’s goals.

• Days 1-30. Treat your first month as a research and education period. Learn as much as possible about your new company or team through meetings, feedback requests and performance reviews.

• Days 31-60. Take action in the second month. Check off some easy wins using your findings from the first 30 days and start to get feedback from direct reports.

• Days 61-90. Continue to take action in the third month, but analyze your results, too. How have the changes you’ve made affected the company? Is your team performing at a higher level? Use the answers to plan the following 90 days.

• Goals and objectives. Assign specific performance goals to each stage. They can depend on one another (requiring you to check off your first goal to move on) or be independent and unrelated.

• Resources. Index the resources you’ll need through your 90-day plan, including company training materials and employee handbooks.

30-60-90 day plan examples for managers

This 30-60-90 day plan template is for a manager starting a role with a new company. It will be more impactful if you tailor it to your goals. For example, it makes sense to shorten a plan you write for an interview since you won’t have access to all the necessary information.

View your 30-60-90 day plan as flexible rather than set in stone. Unforeseen events always happen, but they don’t have to derail you. Revise your approach if necessary, adjust your goals and review your new plan with stakeholders on your team.

How to write a 30-60-90 day plan

It’s vital to strike the right balance between detail and brevity when writing a 30-60-90 day plan. It needs to be clear, actionable and easy to follow. However, it must also include enough information to satisfy your bosses and direct reports. Follow the steps below to ensure that’s the case.

1. Define your employer’s expectations

Start by outlining what your new employer or manager expects of you and how you can fulfill those expectations. It will set the tone for your plan and keep overarching objectives in mind as you write the details.

Some expectations will be obvious. They’re written in the job description and referenced during the interview. However, more nuanced expectations can be more difficult to gauge, so it’s essential to have genuine conversations with your new bosses and other stakeholders.

2. Interview team members and stakeholders

A 30-60-90 day plan works best when it’s collaborative between the manager, stakeholders and direct reports.

Arrange a series of one-on-one meetings before writing your plan and ask these questions:

• What do you think is the most important thing to achieve?

• What are your goals for the next three, six or 12 months?

• Where can we improve?

• What did the previous manager do well?

• What could the previous manager have done differently?

Meeting as many people as possible will also help you foster the strong relationships you need to succeed.

3. Set measurable goals to track your success

Pre-defined and realistic goals give you something to aim for and a way to evaluate your plan’s success. It’s sometimes easy, especially if you’re hired for a specific purpose, like growing a new sales territory. In any case, make sure your goals align with the expectations in step one.

Set SMART goals as part of your action plan to check off at the end of every 30 days. SMART goals are:

• Specific. Have a clear goal with a definitive path to achieving it

• Measurable. Ensure you can measure your progress

• Attainable. Avoid making it too challenging

• Relevant. Ensure it matters to your team and business objectives

• Time-bound. Provide a timeframe to complete every step

Take your team’s goals into account, too. While achieving your personal goals is important, you’ll win more respect and loyalty if you help everyone achieve their goals simultaneously.

4. Describe how you’ll reach each goal

You have your objectives. Now, it’s time to work backward to outline how you’ll complete them. This section will form the bulk of your 90-day plan, so make sure it’s specific and actionable.

For example, if your goal is to optimize one process by day 45, you’ll need to complete these tasks:

• Analyze existing processes

• Create custom reports to identify weak points

• Design a solution

• Get sign-off

You’ll have a list of tasks for each 30-day segment and feel better about meeting your goals.

5. Identify resources

Before rolling up your sleeves and diving in, collect all the resources you’ll need over the next 90 days, including:

• Onboarding and training materials

• Customer contact information

• Employee email addresses

• Software log-in details

Also, send out meeting requests to team members. Scheduling these one-on-ones now will ensure you learn about your team, its prospects and processes early in your first 30-day sprint.

How to use a CRM to build a successful 30-60-90 day plan

Technology will help you create and execute a 30-60-90 plan for managers in sales, marketing or another customer-facing department. Here’s how a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can make the process easier.

Review resources to understand the company, clients and processes

CRMs hold a lot of company and customer data, making them a great place to educate yourself about your new employer.

Review information about your existing customers alongside internal documents like ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas. You’ll learn what your target customer looks like and how they move through the customer journey.

Next, analyze current team performance. Within the first 30 days, create activity reports to determine the effectiveness of existing processes, identify top performers and understand how your direct reports currently measure their performance.

This process will help you implement changes in your second 30-day period. You may spot a problem you can rectify immediately. For example, if deals get stuck at a particular pipeline stage, you can use sales training to give team members the skills to keep deals moving.

Manage and track your plan with a project management tool

Rather than relying on paper or spreadsheets, use project management software to map out your plan. It will centralize your efforts in a cloud-based platform that you, your boss and your direct reports can access.

Projects by Pipedrive is a CRM-based project management solution that lets you:

• Create to-do lists

• Assign and schedule tasks

• Upload and share files

• Track progress

The drag-and-drop dashboard makes it easy to create your plan during the first 30-day sprint. You can also redesign your plan quickly if you need to pivot due to an unforeseen incident.

Track performance with customized reports and dashboards

Ongoing evaluation and feedback are core parts of a successful 30-60-90 day plan for new managers.

Use a CRM with sales reporting and dashboard functionality to track you and your team’s performance throughout the 90-day plan.

If you’ve set customer or sales-related goals or KPIs, CRM reporting will monitor those performance indicators in real time. You’ll get the feedback you need to evaluate your progress every 30 days.

Pipedrive gives you complete control over the look and content of reports, so you can customize it to show the metrics that matter. Use dashboards to report your progress to stakeholders.

Centralize data from multiple sources

Merge data into one tool to overcome information overload. A CRM that integrates with third-party applications like Microsoft Teams, Slack and QuickBooks centralizes the data you need to create and execute your plan.

It makes a single source of truth that you, your team and your managers can reference. There’s no flicking between applications or siloed data because you have everything you need.

Automate manual work processes

With so much on your plate at the start of a new job, automating repetitive tasks lets you see the big picture.

Workflow automation can eliminate many of your day-to-day tasks like:

• Updating contact information

• Writing follow-up emails

• Reviewing team performance

It also means you don’t have to manually handle tasks or processes. For example, a sales manager can set up deal flows to automatically change deal status in their pipeline.

Final thoughts

A 30-60-90 day manager’s plan is your roadmap as you move into a new role. It encourages you to take action, build trust and make a great impression.

Using a CRM to learn about your new company, manage your workload and track your performance will make your plan more manageable to create and execute. Register for a free 14-day Pipedrive trial to improve your 30-60-90 day plan today.