Realignment to add resourcing for Fulfillment, Product Analytics, and Ecosystem
What are we doing and why?
We’re planning to move 20 people from various groups over to support Fulfillment, Product Analytics, and Ecosystem to help drive a series of mission critical business outcomes. Here’s a video from Sid explaining why this is important: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12LyQEL_C8c&feature=youtu.be
GitLab aspires to be a best-in-class public software company, in the same league as Okta, Coupa, and Slack. To do so requires a high ARR growth rate combined with high Sales & Marketing efficiency (meaning we continue to grow fast but with less Sales & Marketing investment per each $ of ARR). In FY22 we will be investing in 16 different initiatives to help us improve our Sales & Marketing efficiency. R&D will play a large role in supporting many of those initiatives, including:
- Build a cloud-based licensing & entitlement system to reduce manual intervention from Sales & Support, and improve the customer experience. We estimate this can help increase revenue between $2M-$4M over the next two years, through increased sales efficiency.
- Improve our self-service purchasing workflows, such that the vast majority of transactions do not require any manual intervention from sales & support, and improve the customer experience. We estimate this can help increase revenue between $5M-$15M over the next two years, through increased sales efficiency.
- Update our pricing tiers to remove Starter/Bronze, which we expect to materially increase our ARR and Average Selling Price (ASP) over the next three years. We estimate this can help increase revenue by ~$40M over the next two years if our assumptions around adoption and retention are accurate.
- Improve our ability to capture and leverage product usage data, to make better product investment decisions, and enable Sales & Marketing to more efficiently acquire new customers, drive upgrades, and retain customers.
Another strategic shift is that we are increasingly seeing opportunities to partner with other large companies like Atlassian which have deep relationships with our customers, and our current and prospective customers expect our products to work well together. We believe we can drive ~$2M in additional revenue on the Atlassian partnership alone by accelerating the delivery of a fully-featured Jira integration.
Great companies are willing to adjust their investments to match their highest priorities, and that’s what we’re doing with this realignment. That said, change can be hard, so thank you in advance to the individuals involved for leaning into this change with an open mind. You will all be working on product problems that will have a huge positive impact on GitLab!
Note
This realignment is an adjustment to the degree we allocate investment across our Product groups, it is not a cost-savings effort.
We want everyone at GitLab to be in a role they find interesting and rewarding and are will work hard to achieve that during this realignment. Aligning skills, interest, and preferences with GitLab's business needs is important to ensuring these transfers have the desired impact.
We are planning to get input from each team member involved and work hard to accommodate each person's preferences as much as possible.
Transparency
This issue is in a private project because it is discussing a planned reorganization. We should aim to move it to a public project as a confidential issue as soon as possible to ensure transparency amongst all GitLab team-members, and a non-confidential issue as soon as possible after that.
Retrospective
There is a retrospective issue to capture feedback for this change. Please provide feedback there to help improve our processes.
Who is being asked to transfer?
GitLab's product leadership have determined which groups are eligible to transfer.
- Eligible individuals will be asked their preferences of the roles available (in some cases their current team may be a possible choice).
- We will attempt to accommodate each individual's first choice.
- In cases where more individuals are interested in a role than there are positions available the hiring manager of the team will determine which transfer to approve (and the other individual will be asked to consider their next preference).
Members of these teams are eligible to transfer:
Team | Notes on transfer process specific to team |
---|---|
Dev:Manage:Analytics | @timzallmann + EM's identify 1 FE engineer to move to a Fulfillment group |
Dev:Manage:Import | @timzallmann + EM's identify 1 BE engineer to move to a Fulfillment group |
Dev:Create:Knowledge | Matt Nohr (EM for Knowledge:BE) will move to BE Ecosystem and will take the team of 3 BE engineers with him. EM for FE identify 1 engineer to move to a destination group and 1 to Ecosystem |
Dev:Create:Editor | EM identified 1 BE engineer to move to Fulfillment group |
Ops:Release (Release Management & Progressive Delivery) | Release teams will combine into one group. 3 BE ICs, 2 FE ICs, and 1 EM to transfer to Fulfillment team. Individuals will be asked their preference between staying in Release group or transferring to Fulfillment. We will also be considering skillset match (e.g. Ruby vs. Go experience) |
Enablement:Global Search | There is one recent resignation. The backfill headcount will go to a destination group and Global Search will not backfill. |
Enablement:Memory | Identify one engineer to move to Fulfillment group. |
Process for Individuals Transferring
If you are an individual considering transfers to a new team here are the steps to follow:
- Learn about open positions. We will hold two AMAs to help you learn about the positions and process.
- Reach out to hiring managers for positions you are interested in. If you're not sure who that hiring manager is or would like an introduction to them tell Sam Goldstein in slack. Let the hiring manager know you are interested in their team and ask them if they think you have the right skillset and experience for their role.
- Communicate your top 3 role preferences to Sam Goldstein via slack. If you need more time let Sam know and we can work with you.
AMA sessions
We'll be hosting two AMAs to help folks learn about the teams with open positions. Members of those teams will share details about what is awesome and interesting about their teams and answer any questions.
Meeting Times and Agenda
- 7:30 Pacific Time on Wednesday, Nov 4th (EMEA friendly)
- 4:00 Pacific Time on Wednesday, Nov 4th (APAC friendly)
Timeline and Tasks
2020-10-26
-
@adawar Update background, timeline and tasks
2020-10-29
-
Review issue and approve content
Final Sign-Off
-
Get final sign-off in PM-Eng Sync - @sfwgitlab
2020-10-30
Inform EMs
-
Dev EMs - @timzallmann -
Ops EMs - @dcroft -
Enablement EMs - @cdu1 -
Ops and Fulfillment QEMs - @meks
Inform PMs
-
Inform Jackie Porter by @kencjohnston -
Inform Orit Golowinski by @kencjohnston -
Inform Viktor by @kbychu -
Inform Sarah by @kbychu -
Inform Tim by @kencjohnston -
Inform Christen Dybenko by @ebrinkman -
Inform Mark Wood by @ebrinkman -
Inform Gabe Weaver by @ebrinkman -
Inform Daniel Gruesso by @ebrinkman -
Inform Kai Armstrong by @ebrinkman -
Inform Eric Schurter by @ebrinkman -
Inform John McGuire by @joshlambert
Inform PDs
-
Inform Marcelvan Remmerden by @vkarnes -
Inform Rayana Verissimo by @vkarnes -
Inform Matthew Nearents by @mvanremmerden
2020-11-02
Inform Engineers
-
Manage:Analytics FE by @timzallmann -
Manage:Import BE by @timzallmann - will be informed 2020-11-03 -
Plan:Product Planning by @timzallmann -
Create:Source Code by @timzallmann - one engineer on PTO will inform next week. -
Create:Code Review by @timzallmann -
Create:Editor by @timzallmann -
Create:Knowledge by @timzallmann -
Create:Editor FE by @timzallmann -
Create:Static Site Editor by @timzallmann -
Release stage by @sgoldstein -
Enablement stage by @cdu1
Inform SDET Team members
-
Release Management group by @jo_shih
Increase Transparency
-
Confirm all directly effected ICs have been informed - @clefelhocz1 -
Move issue to GitLab-com/Product project at time TBD - @adawar -
Announce in Slack channels with link to issue - @sfwgitlab @edjdev -
Send invites for scheduled AMAs - @adawar
2020-11-03
-
Note: US election day. US GitLab team members are encouraged to take time off to vote if needed.
2020-11-04
-
Two time zone inclusive AMA Meetings including an overview of realignment process and team pitch section -
Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ieBuwIZMZK0-YGUrbt3n7xcDSIBP7bfkbBI0DupXpXk/edit?usp=sharing -
Proposed Schedule 7:30am Pacific (EMEA Friendly) and 4pm Pacific (APAC Friendly) - @sgoldstein - EMEA Friendly Recording: https://youtu.be/n8f8sCNgs3A
-
2020-11-05
-
Collect team member preferences from BE and FE Engineers who have two positions to consider (Hiring EM makes final decision in cases where more engineers are interested than positions available) - @sgoldstein
2020-11-06
-
Team preferences from BE and FE are finalized for EoA work. Legal and People Ops review of all transfers.
2020-11-09
- Team members for fulfillment EoA start in new roles with announcements of the change made using normal team change announcement communication.
2020-11-10
-
non-EoA Team preferences from BE and FE are finalized. Legal and People Ops review of all transfers.
2020-11-18
- Non-EoA Team members wrap up work in current role
2020-11-19
- Non-EoA Team members start in new roles with announcements of the change made using normal team change announcement communication.
-
Make this issue public (transparency) @adawar -
Comment with link to retro issue for them to provide feedback on @sgoldstein
Requests from Priority Teams
Team (by Priority) | BE IC | FE IC | FE EM | BE EM | PM | SDET | PA | Team Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Fulfillment | 9 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15 |
2. Product Analytics | 8 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 15 |
3. Dev:Ecosystem | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Role Totals | 20 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 35 |
What we can plan to provide
Although the requests are reasonable, we are unable to fulfill all the needs. This is what we plan to do.
Team (by Priority) | BE IC | FE IC | FE EM | BE EM | PM | SDET | PA | Team Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Fulfillment | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
2. Product Analytics | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
3. Dev:Ecosystem | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Role Totals | 13 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
Team member Current size(Number removed) in each group to support requests
Team | BE Dev | FE Dev | EM | PM | SDET | UX | Team Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Dev:Manage:Analytics | 3(1) | (1) | |||||
2. Dev:Manage:Import | 3(1) | (1) | |||||
3. Dev:Create:Knowledge | 3(3) | 2(2) | 1(1) | (6) | |||
4. Dev:Create:Editor | 2(1) | . | . | . | . | (1) | |
5. Ops:Release:Release Management, Progressive Delivery | 7(3) | 3(2) | 2(1) | 2(1) | 1(1) | 1(1) | (9) |
6. Enablement:Global Search | 3(1) | . | . | . | . | (1) | |
7. Enablement:Memory | 3(1) | . | . | . | . | (1) | |
Role Totals | (10)+(2)=(12)* | (5) | (2) | . | (1) | (20) |
- Will move 1 open PM req and one open UX req to Fulfillment that can be converted to dev headcount
UX team member changes to support requests
Team | Description |
---|---|
Release Management | Move designer to Runner/Testing |
Runner/Testing | Backfill - Shifts to Release |
Progressive Delivery | Backfill - Shifts to Growth to achieve 75% gearing ratio (currently 50%) |
Knowledge Management | Move designer to Fulfillment to achieve 75% gearing ratio (currently 50%) |
Other changes happening locally in Dev or Ops teams as a result of these realignments
Dev
- Source Code, Editor, and Static Site Editor will be realigned to focus on our strengths by creating new groups focused on Source Code, Code Review, and Editor.
- Knowledge PM Christen Dybenko will transition to the Portfolio Management PM role and we will undo the merger of Portfolio Management and Certify. Mark Wood will continue to own the three Certify categories, but will transition to primarily serve as the Gitaly PM. This aligns well with PM skill set and subject matter expertise. Requirements Management is a seedling we should continue to nurture and is best run by Mark Wood.
Knowledge categories will move as such:
- Design System - category removed and deprecated. We have not started work on this category, so there is minimal impact here.
- Design Management - category kept and moved to Portfolio Management in order to keep subject matter alignment with Christen. The category is based on attaching design to issues (and soon epics) so there is decent enough subject matter overlap. The external plugins shipped by the team, such as the Figma plugin moves to Create:Ecosystem as part of the Integrations category.
- Wiki - category moved to the Create:Editor team as there is synergy between the other work happening on Web IDE and Static Site Editor.
- Justin Farris will become the GMP for Fulfillment. We will not backfill his role and will instead have the remaining two Plan PMs report into Jeremy Watson who will lead Manage and Plan.
Ops
In order to balance the re-alignment appropriately amongst the Section, we'll move the Release Management categories to other groups. The below lists is of the impacted groups and their relative prioritization of the new categories.
- PACKAGE:PACKAGE | Container Registry, Package Registry, Dependency Proxy, Release Evidence, Dependency Firewall, Jupyter Notebooks, Helm Chart Registry, GitLFS,
- RELEASE:RELEASE | Continuous Delivery, Feature Flags, Advanced Deployments, Release Orchestration, Review Apps, Pages
- CONFIGURE:CONFIGURE | IaC, Kubernetes Management, Secrets Management, Cluster Cost Optimization, Auto DevOps, Serverless, ChatOps
- MONITOR:MONITOR | Incident Management, Runbooks, Metrics, Logging, Error Tracking, Tracing
Enablement
This is a relatively simple change for Enablement.
- Enablement:Memory - One engineer transfers to one of the destination groups.
- Enablement:Global Search - We had a recent resignation, the vacancy will transfer over to one of the destination groups.