Listen, ask, understand, and then opine

Six months into my job at Lyft, I was given the opportunity to take over another large product area. There were several projects in flight and I had partial or no context on most of them. During my first week on the team, I was invited to many large meetings and discussions. One of my reflections was that I may have been too opinionated and have spoken too much in those meetings, before fully understanding the new domain, projects, and status. 

Without understanding, opinions aren't very helpful and possibly annoying. More opining, less listening and less asking slows down the pace of learning and understanding. It may also leave a bad first impression with your teammates, break trust, and hurt future collaboration. 

The strength of our opinions on a topic should correspond to our depth of understanding of a topic. When you are new, consciously listen, do your homework, ask and be curious. If you have ideas or opinions, offer them softly ("would it make sense to ..." etc.). 

A good leader doesn't come into a new team or domain with guns blazing.