We’ve now watched roughly a dozen onboardings across teams of different shapes. There’s a consistent shape to them.
The first week is mostly observation. The new media buyer watches campaigns happen, asks questions, gets a feel for the verticals and the source mix. Nobody expects output yet.
The second week, they start touching things. Usually with a senior media buyer over their shoulder.
The third week is the cliff. Either they’ve internalized enough of the operation to make small decisions on their own, or they haven’t. Teams that get them across the cliff in three weeks scale. Teams that take eight weeks don’t.
What separates the two isn’t training quality. We’ve seen excellent trainers at teams where onboarding still takes eight weeks. We’ve seen mediocre trainers at teams where it takes three.
The difference is what the new media buyer has to remember on day fifteen. At the eight-week teams, they have to remember everything the trainer said. At the three-week teams, most of the rules have moved into the system. They have to remember less. The system enforces the rest.
It’s a small thing. It compounds.