First 90 days that actually retain people. Pre-boarding, ramp plans, mentors, and the metrics that matter.
For: HR, managers, ops
A blueprint for pre-boarding, week one, and the first 90 days — built around the moments that decide whether someone stays.
Up to 30% of new hires consider quitting before their first day. Pre-boarding — the period between offer acceptance and start — is the highest-leverage and most underused phase of the employee lifecycle. This is the week-zero playbook used by Stripe, Airbnb and modern people teams.
The 30-60-90 day plan is the most common onboarding artifact and the most commonly mis-done. This is a working template adapted from McKinsey's Michael Watkins (The First 90 Days), with role-specific variants for ICs, managers and executives.