6.6Creating a Learning Plan

Your first 90 days will expose gaps in your knowledge -- tools you have not used, domains you do not understand, processes that are new to you. Create a structured learning plan rather than trying to learn everything at once.

Learning Plan Template

Week	Focus Area	Learning Activity	Milestone
1-2	Product knowledge	Use every major feature, read documentation	Can explain the product to a new hire
3-4	Test framework	Read all test code, run locally, modify a test	Can write a new test independently
5-6	CI/CD pipeline	Read pipeline config, trigger builds, review artifacts	Can troubleshoot a pipeline failure
7-8	Domain-specific testing	Study the business domain (finance, healthcare, e-commerce)	Can identify domain-specific test scenarios
9-10	Architecture	Understand service interactions, data flow, deployment topology	Can draw the system architecture from memory
11-12	Advanced tooling	Learn any tools new to you (monitoring, performance, security)	Can use each tool independently