I'm a product manager, so I'll vary a bit from the development-specific things already listed. Basically, when I get a new product line (or company), it goes th

I'm a product manager, so I'll vary a bit from the development-specific things already listed. Basically, when I get a new product line (or company), it goes the same way: 1. Gather hate mail. Find whatever complaints you can about the product and team you've just inherited. 2. Use the product. Try and break it. Act like an angry QA engineer. 3. Find the person or people who support customers on the product. Ask them what makes their job suck. Ask what's broken. 4. Ask them why they think it sucks / is broken - preferably outside the office (coffee, lunch, etc). 5. Meet dev team. Ask them why the product matters. Gauge their interest and understanding of the problem and customers. Ask what they think is important to address as a team. 6. Combine answers to 3-5, identify common threads. Look for places where there are common blocking factors (cost, time, focus, politics, history). 7. Find something to work on with the team, that can be delivered fast. Talk about what you want to do with support folks (from q3). Sanity check, make sure dev team understands the value of what they are working on. 8. Check in with superiors. Make sure you understand what's important to them. Talk about what you've heard. I've found I can't come in and expect to be an expert in a given area overnight. But I can be good at asking questions and spotting painful things. (edit: formatting)