18F Product Guide

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Introduction

You’re an 18F product manager — now what? This guide will walk you through what it’s like to be a product lead at 18F and offer some tools you can use along the way. The tools you decide to use are up to you and your team.

Beginning your tenure at 18F is a lot like learning a language via immersion. Rest assured that your team understands that your first month will be filled with questions, form-filling, onboarding, and generally getting settled. Spend your first month thinking about and doing the following things:

  • Complete the checklist assigned to you in checklistomania.
  • If you have any questions, the #product channel on slack can help, or the #questions channel is great for more general help.
  • Take the mandatory GSA trainings and all of the onboarding classes in #18f-classes. This is when you actually have the time to make these a priority. Both are not specific to the Product Team, but they’re incredibly useful.
  • Familiarize yourself with the 18F Code of Conduct and the 18F Core Values, and ask any questions you may have in #g-diversity-coc or #wg-core-values.
  • If you have thoughts or feedback about your onboarding experience, the #wg-onboarding is a great place to start.

Most importantly, everyone has been right where you are. Use your first month to get acclimated to our culture, our pace, and our way of working with one another.