Michelle says about the importance of signal flow knowledge. Knowing where your signal goes helps to find a starting ground in understanding your mix.
Getting the information ASAP is crucial, knowing the mixer you will be using allows you to research it's operations, reading manuals and online tutorials help with this.
She states some starting points of where to start on a new mixer, making sure everything is organised with labels and DCAs, knowing where your parameter controls are and finding out how to access your channel EQ. Most importantly make sure you save!