If you keep up with me on Twitter you know that last Friday was my last day at Microsoft. I joinned Microsoft as a vendor in 2004 after I sold my company (dotnetjunkies.com) – I was hired in to fix a broken community program that dotnetjunkies had been part of, and a few months later accepted a full-time position to implement the supporting infrastructure. It was my second tour of duty (my first was in 1999-2000, where I met my dotnetjunkies partner). Over the past seven years I was fotunate enough to have some great experiences running a development team, and owning the product management of one of the most successful and widely used IDEs on the planet, Visual Studio. Itwas a good run, but it was time for a change.

Today was my first day as an empployee of Telerik – whom I believe to be a fantastic company that is doing some very innovative work, and working in a very agile way. While today was uneventful (travel day from Seattle to Boston for my onboarding and a management summit), it was a good day. I spent a lot of time thinking about what is to come. About the excitement the coming months and years will bring. I thrive in fast moving, agile, start-up style environments and expect that the culture at Telerik will suit me well.

There is of course an immense pressure that I feel as well – I supose anyone transitioning jobs, especially after seven years, is likely to feel a sense of pressure to prove themself quickly. My hope is to balance that pressure with the common sense to not try too hard too soon. A friend of mine gave me a book a while back – The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins. This is a great (and short) read for anyone moving into a new leadership postition either in a new company, or a company you already work at. The cornerstone is to understand why you were brought in, and implement a matching strategy for the first pivitol 90-days. The wrong strategy, while successful in another situation, could spell dissaster. The right strategy – one that matches the purpose for you to move into the role – should yield good or better (potentially stellar) results.

As I embark on my first 90-days, I plan to share what I can. Telerik has a reputation for being very connected to the community, as I have been for over a decade. If you’re interested, then plan to hear from me regularly as I share the amazing work we are doing here at Telerik.

D7