Create required template for marketing Category Direction Pages - MVC

Purpose

Across GitLab category direction pages vary in content and organization but all aim to serve the same purpose: Provide our company, community, and customers with our vision, strategy, and roadmap for addressing the problems experienced by users of that functional market. Now that we've scaled it's important to drive consistency between direction pages.

We will be creating and rolling out a standard template for category direction pages such that they all have the same format and content.

What is the benefit of having a standard category direction template?

Our stakeholders which includes all GitLab team members, our community, and our customers will be able to clearly understand our approach in each functional market and find information across category direction pages.

Our leadership will be able to quickly access information (such as strategy or roadmap) when needed for customers or stakeholders.

Whats the plan?

We are going to update the current template with the new sections and definitions detailed below. We will pilot this with a few groups to work out any kinks before rolling out to the entire product organization.

What sections are critical to a direction page, what should they contain, and in what order?

Section	Description
Introduction
Strategy & Themes	Problems your category is solving for the market and your strategy for addressing them. Scope to 1 year.
1 Year Plan	1 year plan for what we will be working on linked to epics
What we recently completed	1-3 month lookback
What we are currently working on	Scoped to the current month. This section can contain the items that you choose to highlight on the kickoff call. Only link to issues.
What is next for us	3 month look ahead at what we will be working on linked to epics and issues
What we are not doing	Specific features or functionality we know customers and prospects are interested in but do not align with our vision or is not in scope for the next year
Best-in-class Landscape	Summary of the competiitve landscape for top 3 competitors. Identification of the competitor which we consider to be "Best in Class" and why. Link to epics/issues that would close the gaps between and us and that competitor.
Maturity plan	Indicate current maturity and link to an epic that details the plan to get to the next maturity
Target Audience	Links to personas that the category serves and a summary of the problems we are focused on solving for those personas

Format

Here is the format for the pages that shows how we want each section headed and indented.

• Introduction
• Strategy and Themes (1 Year at Category and Group, 3 Year at Stage and Section)
• 1 Year Plan
  • What we recently completed
  • What we are currently working on
  • What is next for us
  • What we are not doing
• Best-in-class Landscape (and plan to close gaps)
• Maturity plan
• Target Audience