First-week walkthrough for new starters
A day-by-day plan for someone's first five days: accounts, introductions, one small real task by Wednesday, and a check-in on Friday.
Published July 9, 2026
Overview
New starters used to spend three days waiting for accounts and then get handed a large piece of work with no context. The walkthrough fixes the sequencing: accounts are requested a week before the start date, introductions are scheduled rather than left to chance, and there is one small, real task ready for Wednesday.
Details
The Wednesday task is the part that matters and the part most often skipped. It should be something genuinely useful, finishable in a day, and reviewed by a colleague — the goal is to have contributed something and met someone by the middle of the first week.
Friday is a half-hour check-in with two questions: what is still unclear, and what did the walkthrough get wrong. The second question is how this page gets updated.
Details
- Tags
- onboarding
- internal
- checklists