onboarding-plan-author
Build-an-X workflow that produces a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan for a newly hired QA engineer - takes seniority level (junior / mid / senior / lead) plus the team's hiring rubric and emits phase-gated ramp milestones, competency targets mapped to the rubric axes, mentor cadence, and success criteria per phase. Distinct from `calibration-guide-author` (which closes the interview loop before hire) and `hiring-rubric-author` (which scores candidates during the loop); this skill produces the post-hire ramp artifact. Use when a QA engineer has been hired and the hiring manager or team lead needs a structured first-90-days plan before the new hire's start date.
onboarding-plan-author
Overview
Hiring ends at offer acceptance; onboarding is where the competency signal from the rubric is converted into a development plan. The 30-60-90 day framework - originally popularized by Michael Watkins' The First 90 Days (2003, Harvard Business Review Press) as the canonical structured-transition framework for new organizational members - divides the ramp into three equal phases: learn (days 1-30), integrate (days 31-60), and contribute independently (days 61-90). Each phase has a distinct focus, observable exit criteria, and a handoff to the next. (Notion blog on the 30-60-90 day plan framework: https://www.notion.com/blog/30-60-90-day-plan; Wikipedia, "Onboarding": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onboarding.)
The plan this skill produces anchors each phase's competency targets to the six rubric axes from hiring-rubric-author: test analysis and design, defect lifecycle, test code conventions (automation roles), tooling depth, communication, and domain reasoning. Rather than treating onboarding as a generic HR checklist, the plan treats it as a continuation of the structured-interview signal - a hire scored 2 on "test code conventions" during the loop gets targeted development investment in exactly that axis during phase 2.
The PractiTest 2026 State of Testing Report found that nearly 40% of individual contributors feel "test strategy" is underdeveloped in their teams, and that practitioners who pivot toward strategy earn a +10.6% income premium versus those who remain in pure technical execution (https://www.practitest.com/state-of-testing/). The plan's day-61-90 phase directly addresses this gap by pushing the hire toward strategy ownership proportional to seniority.
When to use
Do not use this skill to:
Step 1 - Capture the inputs
Required:
| Input | Notes |
|---|---|
| Seniority | junior / mid / senior / lead - the same axis used in the hiring rubric |
| Role variant | manual-qa-engineer / qa-automation-engineer / sdet / test-lead - determines which rubric axes are load-bearing |
| Rubric scores | The per-dimension hire scores from hiring-rubric-author - axes scored 2 ("borderline") get targeted phase-2 development plans, not just the default milestones |
| Team context | Stack, CI toolchain, domain (fintech / consumer / B2B SaaS / etc.) - informs phase-1 environment setup and phase-2 tooling targets |
| Mentor availability | Whether a dedicated senior QA mentor is available, or whether the new hire will pair with an engineering team member |
If rubric scores are not available (e.g., an informal hire), the plan defaults to treating all six axes as equally weighted development targets and flags this assumption explicitly in the output.
Step 2 - Determine the seniority multiplier
Seniority changes the pace and scope of the plan, not its three-phase structure. The table below describes the expected exit state for each seniority at day 90 - the plan's success criteria derive from this:
| Seniority | Day-30 exit | Day-60 exit | Day-90 exit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior | Environment set up; first test case authored and passing in CI; has read the team's test conventions doc | Owns one test suite with no supervision; contributing to defect triage meetings | Participating in test planning for a sprint; mentor cadence reduces to fortnightly |
| Mid | Environment set up; first test authored and reviewed; independently diagnosed one CI failure | Owns a feature's test coverage from planning through execution; identified at least one test-architecture gap | Leads test planning for a sprint; peers consult them on test design questions |
| Senior | Environment set up; independent on toolchain; has reviewed one teammate's test PR and provided actionable feedback | Owns test strategy for a component or service; running the weekly test review meeting | Driving test strategy for the team; mentoring junior or mid QA hires; identifiable as the quality signal for a release |
| Lead | Independent on toolchain and team norms; has mapped the team's test coverage gaps; has met all stakeholders (product, engineering, support) | Owns the test strategy document for the quarter; running test-planning ceremonies | Quality-gate ownership at the release level; proposals for tooling or process changes with team sign-off |
[author opinion] These exit criteria follow the general "learn - integrate - contribute" arc described in the 30-60-90 day literature, adapted to QA-specific observable outputs. The pace should be recalibrated if the team's domain or compliance environment (e.g., healthcare, finance) has an unusually long environment-access ramp.
Step 3 - Author the three-phase plan
For each seniority, the skill emits three sections. The structure below is for a mid qa-automation-engineer; adjust the target values per the multiplier table in Step 2 and the rubric scores from Step 1.
Phase 1 (days 1-30): Learn
Focus: environment, context, and first contribution. Per the 30-60-90 day framework (https://www.notion.com/blog/30-60-90-day-plan), this phase centres on acquiring the knowledge and role clarity needed to begin contributing - not on producing output.
Milestones:
Competency targets (rubric axes - first contact):
| Rubric axis | Phase-1 target |
|---|---|
| Test analysis and design | Can name the technique used when authoring the first test (boundary, equivalence partition, or decision-table) |
| Defect lifecycle | Writes a bug report that includes steps to reproduce, expected vs. actual, environment, and severity - reviewed and accepted by a senior |
| Test code conventions | First test passes lint and follows the team's naming convention |
| Tooling depth | Can run the test suite locally, filter by tag, and read a CI run log |
| Communication | Attends ceremonies and asks one clarifying question per session |
| Domain reasoning | Can describe the product's user journey at a feature level |
Mentor cadence (phase 1): 30-minute daily check-in for the first 2 weeks; 1-hour weekly thereafter. Mentor reviews all authored tests before merge.
Success criteria for phase-1 exit: First test merged to the main test suite; bug report accepted without revision; mentor confirms independent environment operation.
Phase 2 (days 31-60): Integrate
Focus: applying skills under supervision and owning a bounded scope. Per the 30-60-90 day framework, this phase shifts toward integration with the team and application of the new hire's existing skills, moving from supervised contribution to scoped ownership.
Milestones:
Competency targets (rubric axes - applied):
| Rubric axis | Phase-2 target |
|---|---|
| Test analysis and design | Applies at least two ISTQB techniques (from CTFL Ch. 4: equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision table, state transition - https://astqb.org/certifications/foundation-level-certification/) independently to a real feature |
| Defect lifecycle | Owns the defect-triage process for the owned feature suite; can distinguish defect vs. failure per ISTQB glossary terminology |
| Test code conventions | Test PRs pass review without convention-related comments on second PR and after |
| Tooling depth | Can diagnose a flaky test (identify root cause from the CI log) and open a fix PR without mentor assistance |
| Communication | Delivers the knowledge-share session without material feedback from the mentor |
| Domain reasoning | Can map a new user story to the affected test boundary without prompting |
Targeted development for rubric-axis score of 2 (borderline at hire): For each axis where the hire scored "borderline" during the loop, the plan adds a specific paired-learning task: e.g., a score-2 on "test code conventions" triggers a required code-review pairing with a senior on two consecutive PRs; a score-2 on "defect lifecycle" triggers a defect-retrospective exercise where the hire re-examines three historical bug reports and identifies the point of detection vs. the point of failure.
Mentor cadence (phase 2): 1-hour weekly; mentor shifts from prescriptive reviewer to code-review approver. Mentor stops blocking on approvals by day 45 (the hire uses the team's standard PR review process).
Success criteria for phase-2 exit: Owned feature suite green in CI with no unreviewed failures; architecture-gap document shared and acknowledged by the team; knowledge-share delivered.
Phase 3 (days 61-90): Contribute independently
Focus: independent contribution and the beginning of strategy ownership proportional to seniority. Per the 30-60-90 day framework, this phase prepares the hire to lead their first project or initiative - moving from "applying skills" to "driving decisions."
Milestones:
Competency targets (rubric axes - owned):
| Rubric axis | Phase-3 target |
|---|---|
| Test analysis and design | Authors a test strategy note for a sprint (not just individual test cases) - identifies which techniques apply and why |
| Defect lifecycle | Tracks defect escape rate for the owned suite over two sprints and presents the trend to the team |
| Test code conventions | Test PRs pass review first-pass on average (no convention-related revision comments) |
| Tooling depth | Has extended or configured at least one existing test-infrastructure component (e.g., added a new test tag, extended a shared fixture, or updated a CI step) |
| Communication | Written sprint test-coverage summary shared with product and engineering without prompting |
| Domain reasoning | Can identify the highest-risk user flows for a new feature with no rubric reference - asks product or engineering for confirmation, not instruction |
Mentor cadence (phase 3): Bi-weekly 30-minute check-in; mentor role shifts from reviewer to consultant. New hire sets the agenda. Formal mentor relationship closes at day 90; standard peer-review process applies thereafter.
Success criteria for phase-3 (day-90) exit - the success criteria double as the hiring manager's 90-day review inputs:
Step 4 - Emit the plan
The output is a single markdown document with:
## HAND-OFF
1. Share this plan with the new hire on or before day 1. The plan is not confidential - the hire should know the success criteria they are being evaluated against.
2. Hiring manager reviews phase-exit criteria at day 30, 60, and 90. Any unmet criterion triggers a targeted conversation, not a performance note.
3. If any rubric axis remains at "borderline" at day 60, schedule a second targeted-development pairing before day 75.
4. At day 90, archive this plan alongside the rubric output in the team's hiring record. The three artifacts (question bank, rubric, onboarding plan) together form the hiring-to-ramp provenance trail.Anti-patterns
| Anti-pattern | Why it fails | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Identical onboarding plans regardless of seniority | A lead who spends 30 days on environment setup and basic test authoring is wasted and will disengage. | Step 2's seniority multiplier sets phase-exit expectations; senior and lead plans front-load ownership. |
| Ignoring the rubric scores | The structured interview identified the hire's weak axes; not acting on them is the most common onboarding gap. | Phase 2's targeted-development section is mandatory when any axis scored "borderline" at hire. |
| Treating "success criteria" as aspirational | If the 90-day criteria are not measurable, the hiring manager and hire will disagree on performance at day 91. | Step 3's success criteria are observable artifacts (merged tests, written documents, peer feedback), not feelings. |
| Over-loading phase 1 | New hires cannot absorb toolchain, domain, team norms, and first contribution simultaneously. | Phase 1's milestones are sequenced: access and environment first, first contribution second, ceremonies third. Defer strategy discussions to phase 2. |
| Closing the mentor relationship before day 90 | Phase-3 mentoring shifts to consulting cadence (bi-weekly), not zero. Early closure removes the safety net for the hire's first strategy-ownership attempt. | Mentor cadence is explicit per phase; the formal relationship closes only at the day-90 review. |
| Re-running the onboarding plan as a performance plan | This plan covers the ramp to independent contribution, not ongoing performance management. | If the hire meets the day-90 criteria, transition to the team's standard career-ladder process. If they do not, that is a separate conversation outside this skill's scope. |