Onboarding by Function: 30/60/90 for Engineering, Sales, CS, Finance
A generic 30/60/90 plan loses to a function-specific one every time. Here is the actual ramp shape for engineering, sales, customer success, and finance…
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- Generic 30/60/90 templates ramp nobody; function-specific ones work.
- Engineering ramps on shipping; sales ramps on pipeline; CS ramps on accounts; finance ramps on closes.
- Day-30 milestone matters more than day-90 review.
- The manager owns the plan, not HR.
Every company has a 30/60/90 template. Most of them are useless because they describe what the new hire should have learned about the company rather than what they should have produced. The plans that actually ramp people are function-specific and output-anchored.
Principle: ramp on output, not activity
An onboarding plan that lists meetings to attend is a calendar. An onboarding plan that lists artefacts to produce is a ramp. The shift from one to the other is the single biggest improvement most companies can make to their onboarding without buying anything.
Engineering
| Milestone | Day 30 | Day 60 | Day 90 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Output | First PR merged to production | Owning a non-trivial feature end-to-end | Carrying the on-call rotation independently |
| Knowledge | Codebase tour, deployment walkthrough | 1 system deep-dive presented to team | Architecture review with tech lead |
| Relationships | 1:1s with team + 2 cross-team | Paired with mentor on a real bug | Cross-team partner identified for ongoing work |
Sales
| Milestone | Day 30 | Day 60 | Day 90 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Output | First discovery call run unsupported | First deal in stage 3+ of pipeline | On-quota with full territory |
| Knowledge | Product demo certified, ICP defined | Top 5 objections handled smoothly | Competitive landscape internalised |
| Relationships | Shadowed 5 senior calls | Co-sold 2 deals with senior AE | Owns SDR relationship for territory |
Customer success
| Milestone | Day 30 | Day 60 | Day 90 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Output | Owns 5 named accounts | Owns full book; first QBR delivered | Renewal forecast accurate to ±10% |
| Knowledge | Product expertise verified | Industry-specific use cases mastered | Cross-sell playbook executed once |
| Relationships | Met all internal cross-functional partners | Executive sponsor relationships started | Expansion conversations live on 2+ accounts |
Finance
| Milestone | Day 30 | Day 60 | Day 90 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Output | First close cycle participated end-to-end | Owns one close-cycle area unsupervised | Owns a board-reported metric |
| Knowledge | Chart of accounts, systems landscape | Forecasting model owned | Audit and compliance posture understood |
| Relationships | Met budget owners across the company | Trusted partner to one VP+ | Recognised internal expert for one area |
Who owns the plan
The hiring manager owns the plan. HR owns the template and the process check-ins. If HR owns the plan, it becomes generic. If the manager owns the plan, it becomes real — because the manager is the one whose work will suffer if the new hire does not ramp.
Write the day-30 milestone before the offer letter is signed. Both sides commit to it. Nine out of ten ramp failures are caught in the day-30 retrospective, not the day-90 review.
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