It may be superficial, but when I show up on my first day I want my desk to be ready. I don't want to spend my first 2 hours on the job chasing for a keyboard, an ethernet cable, etc. Same with all the credentials to access to the git repo, or the bug tracker, or the inbox, and etc.
In your case it may not apply if it's really your first tech hire.
I guess spending some time to give a tour of the industry, then of the share of the market you're going after, then of your product.
We decided to give everyone a laptop so hopefully we just need to hand her the wifi password and she can enjoy the unboxing and new laptop smell!
Great idea on giving an industry/market intro! I was also thinking of trying to give a large overview on a whiteboard of the architecture of the entire system then slowly cover each area so she has an understanding of how her pieces will interact with everything else.
Do you feel it's important to have a production-running commit (no matter how small) in the first week to start feeling ownership?
Regarding production-running commit - No, not really. She should definitely be working on something serious before the end of the first week, but it doesn't have to de deployed necessarily. Depends on the type of product you have. If it's a SaaS with rolling release, sure why not.
In your case it may not apply if it's really your first tech hire.
I guess spending some time to give a tour of the industry, then of the share of the market you're going after, then of your product.