Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

The Fatal Mistake New Executives Make in Their First 30 Days | Alex Triplett

18 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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Alex Triplett, a new executive at Udemy, spends his first 30 days doing 45+ one-on-one meetings with staff and customers instead of making immediate changes. He starts with a 4-6 week research phase studying competitors and positioning, then immerses himself in the product. Understanding people, product, and customers first prevents the fatal mistake of acting before you know what's broken.

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How did you get the current team to know you, to like you, and to trust you? And then how long did it take, or how long did you give yourself before you started to make big decisions?
I did a bit of outside-in for about 4 to 6 weeks. So thinking about Udemy.com before I joined, doing as much research as I could possibly, you know, what do we do? What's our positioning? Who do I know within the company? Who are competitors? Who are the alternatives? And then the first 30 days of my 90 days is all about listening. I talked to as many people as I possibly could. So within a company at the time of 130 people, I talked to probably 45 people. I did one-on-ones with 45+ people. I talked to as many customers as I could. I got as close to the products as I could. So I just fiddled around and read and touched the products because businesses at the end of the day all boil down to people, products, customers. And so to me, the first 30 days as an executive is get close to those 3 things and do it in a very organic way.