3.**Make partners the default extension of GitLab delivery and success.**
These are how we will move the Ecosystem “big rocks”: **AI / DAP (Duo/DAP), MSPs, end‑to‑end enablement, and services‑led adoption**.
-**Regional and partner flexibility.** AMER MSP‑heavy work will look different from an emerging‑markets resale motion in APJ. You are not expected to do every example every week.
-**Choose a healthy mix.** Over a typical week, your time should naturally include:
- Working with **ESMs and partners** to create/sustain pipeline and especially Partner Sourced revenue. Co-sell is important too. NetARR (growth revenue) is the primary metric.
- Shaping **partner services and SCOPE catalog entries** that support adoption and renewals.
- Connecting through Champions to activate new skills in your region
- Investing in **skills, Duo/DAP patterns, and reusable content** that make future weeks easier.
-**Qualitative guidance. Measurable value for GitLab.** We care most that your week tells a **clear and measurable story** about the value our Partner Ecosystem is generating for GitLab:
- How you helped partners create or progress opportunities.
- How you improved partner capability (presales, services, Duo/DAP).
- How you contributed to **SCOPE**, the **services solution catalog**, and the **SA operating model**.
## Example Focus Areas for a Strong Week
These are **examples**, not a checklist. Each ESA and region should choose the combination that best supports their **partners, regional plan, and current quarter priorities**.
### 1\. Partner Revenue & Opportunity Creation
You might choose to spend time on:
-**ESM - ESA working sessions and PAP updates.**
- Reviewing Partner Activation Plans (PAPs) with your ESMs.
- Create a Regional PAP for the ESMs you support. Probably it’s best to have one PAP for each ESM, though you maintaining a single PAP for all of your partners is ok too.
- Identifying which partners you will **activate or progress this week** for new opportunities or First Orders.
-**Customer‑facing work with partners.**
- Joining customer calls or demos where a partner is present.
- Ensuring the partner is clearly positioned as a **co‑seller** or **delivery owner**, not just an observer.
-**Qualitative pipeline hygiene.**
- Making sure partner‑involved opportunities are easy to understand:
- Who is the partner?
- Are they sourcing, influencing, or delivering services?
- Where are you helping shape scope, feasibility, or DAP usage?
Focus on **creating and improving opportunities**, not just counting meetings.
- Running or supporting sessions that move specific partner SAs from “curious” to “Value Ready” on GitLab and Duo/DAP.
- Reviewing partner demos or PoV plans and giving concrete, practical feedback.
-**DAP evaluation patterns.**
- Helping partners understand how to position **Duo/DAP** and how to run a clean evaluation alongside us.
- Sharing what you learn from these evaluations back into Jonathan’s DAP engagement and SA operating model work.
-**Preparing partners to lead.**
- Shifting from “ESA leads the demo” to “partner leads, ESA observes and tunes,” especially as partners grow in maturity.
The signal of a strong week here: **partners are more independent and more confident** than they were seven days ago.
---
### 3\. Partner Services, Adoption, and the SCOPE Catalog
Working through **Champions** to build the [SCOPE](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/partners/scope/catalog) services solution catalog is a major focus this year.
You might choose to:
-**Shape concrete service offers with Champions.**
- Spend time with a Champion or key partner to describe one **very specific** service:
- What problem does it solve?
- For which customer segment / tier / region?
- What does “good” look like at the end of the engagement?
- Turn that into a **draft catalog entry** that will live in SCOPE.
-**Map catalog offers to real customers.**
- Schedule time to work with field SA's, Staff SAs, or your regional Field SA Manager to review active opportunities or renewals, identify **which catalogued services** (or in‑progress SCOPE entries) would help:
- Onboarding and early adoption.
- Migration and upgrades.
- Ongoing optimization / managed service.
-**Collaborate with your ESM with your regional Engagement Manager on ROE‑aligned delivery.**
- Join CS or PS discussions where a partner should reasonably own delivery and adoption.
- Use SCOPE entries (even early drafts) to recommend **specific partners and offers**, not just “we should use a partner.”
Over time, these weekly actions should make SCOPE feel like a **shared system of record** for GitLab and partners, not an ESA‑only artifact.
---
### 4\. Contribution to the SA Operating Model
To stay fully inside Jonathan’s operating model, you might:
-**Work in the same ROE and language as geo SAs.**
- Engage primarily around Stage 2 scoping and structured evaluations.
- Use CSPs, PS data, and tech‑win definitions the same way the rest of the SA org does.
-**Improve patterns, not just help individual deals.**
- When you support an opportunity, ask: “Is there a **reusable pattern or catalog entry** hiding inside this that would help other SAs and partners?”
-**Capture** that pattern in meeting notes **and share** it with the team in Slack, our Weekly Team Notes doc, etc. to improve our team practices.
-**Make partner work visible in SA calls.**
- Ensure partner‑influenced wins show up not just in ecosystem stories, but in field SA team calls. With permission, **invite Champions to participate** on internal enablement, regional SA team calls etc..
Here, a strong week means **your work would make sense to another SA leader looking only at SA metrics and epics.**
---
### 5\. Learning, Content, and Long‑Term Leverage
Finally, a healthy ESA week includes space to **get better and make work reusable**:
You might choose to:
-**Invest in product, cloud, and Duo/DAP skills.**
- Take time for structured enablement on new GitLab releases, DAP features, or AWS/GCP integrations that matter for your partners.
-**Build or refine one reusable asset.**
- A demo, reference architecture, discovery guide, or short “how we use this partner service in deals” note.
- Something that helps **other ESAs, SAs, ESMs, or partners** move faster next time without needing you present.
The weekly bar here is simple: you should be able to point to **at least one small thing to improve scalability** that will make a future week easier for someone else.
---
## How Managers and ESAs Should Use This
-**For ESAs:**
- At the start of the week, choose a **small set of focus areas** from this page based on:
- Your top partners and PAPs.
- Your region’s maturity and current quarter priorities.
- At the end of the week, be able to tell a short story:
- “Here is how I helped partners create or mature opportunities.”
- “Here is how I advanced services and SCOPE.”
- “Here is how I stayed inside the SA operating model and improved patterns.”
-**For managers:**
- Use this as a **qualitative lens**, not a scorecard.
- In 1:1s, ask:
- Which parts of this week looked strongest for this ESA?
- Where did they flex for their region in a way that still ladders to Alex and Jonathan?
- What should we dial up or down next quarter?
The **goal is not identical calendars**. The goal is that, across very different markets and partners, **the shape of our ESA weeks clearly supports FY27 Ecosystem, SA, and your Geo sales leader strategies**
@@ -37,95 +37,54 @@ On Partner Sourced Opportunities, where a partner sources a new opportunity, the
ESAs seek to document all customer interactions and quickly hand off partner-aligned opportunities to Field SAs early in the sales cycle as possible to drive the opportunity with the partner and customer. The ESA will not retain primary opportunity responsibility beyond GitLab deal Stage 2 unless approved by both the Global Ecosystem SA Manager and the Regional SA Manager. This handoff process is a key point of integration with the Field SA team. ESAs can also provide backup to the Field SA community in support of partner-aligned opportunities.
## MBO Guidelines
The charter of the Global Ecosystem Team is to develop a partner ecosystem that can **scale the number and size of GitLab opportunities**, engage with customers for rapid and widespread adoption, and create GTM solutions driving mutual revenue growth. This indirect path to GitLab revenue necessitates an objectives-based compensation model for the team, including ESAs.
### Payout
#### Amount
**25% of the variable Bonus component** of ESA compensation is awarded based on the completion of quarterly SMART Objectives. Approximately four quarterly SMART Objectives are assigned by the Ecosystem SA Manager to each Ecosystem team member. These objectives vary quarter over quarter within major themes to align with changing business needs. Payout is a single payment after the quarter concludes. The MBO payout evaluation is holistic, with different percentages awarded based on whether the team member does not meet (0%), meets some (75%), meets majority (100%), or exceeds majority (110%) of expectations.
The data of the actual payout amounts can be found in Xactly Incent and Xactly Objectives. The former can be accessed from the Okta dashboard (search for "Xactly"). The latter can be found by clicking on the 9 dots icon in the upper right corner of the page in Xactly Incent and selecting Objectives.
To find the numbers for yourself:
1. Open Xactly Objectives. Your quarterly results are there under "My Objectives". By clicking on each, you can see the individual breakdowns.
2. Open Xactly Incent. In the left sidebar: myIncentives -> Incentive Details.
1. To the left: select a month in the Period dropdown.
2. Order the resulting table by Payment, in descending order. The MBO payout for the given month should be somewhere in the first couple of rows.
3. If it's one of the first two months of the quarter, it'll have every other column empty, other than "Draw".
4. If it's the final month of the quarter, then the value of the "Customer" column will be "Q\<quarter number\> Partner Ecosystem MBO".
5. If you are not getting paid in USD, the exchange rate is in the "Payment FX Rate" column.
#### Cadence
Using an example of 10k annual MBO broken down to 2500 per quarter dispersed to MBO payments, the 2500 is then divided evenly between the 3 months allocating $833.33 to each month. ESAs receive 50% of that amount as a draw in months one and two so $416.67 each month.
If we use Q3 as our quarter for the example: the ESA would be credited $416.67 for August (which is paid in September) and September (which is paid in October). Once October comes, they get paid on "actuals" or in other words, the complete quarterly attainment. If the ESA reached a goal of 100% they would be paid their full $2500 for the quarter minus their draws (416.67+416.67) so their October commissions amount released (which is paid in November) would be $1,666.66.
### MBO Categories for FY26
#### Strategic Partner Activation
Partner Activation Plans (PAP) in place to drive mutual partner technical relationship goals against an agreed timeline. Leverage the PAP to track partner capabilities, champions, people resources, and Activation Outcomes.
**Q3 Requirements:**
1. Ensure that 80% of your top partners as agreed with your manager are represented in Partner Activation Plans.
1. Incorporate common elements from other team members’ plans
#### Partner Contribution to Pipeline
Elevate partner technical presales capabilities through a structured readiness program defined in the PAP that generates qualified pipeline and revenue contribution
**Q3 Requirements**
## Partner Activation
1. Account in Rattle your support of at least 2 Partner Sourced new First Order (FO) opportunities
1. Document in PAP, conduct, and account in Rattle, at least 8 Partner Activation sessions that build partner “Demo Ready” presales skills, marketing / tech evangelism events, or tech enablement to drive partner sourced business
### Partner Activation Planning
#### Ecosystem Services Capability
The primary content the team leverages for activating partner team members to be able to effectively pitch and demo GitLab is the [Partner Onboarding Workflow & Enablement Resource (POWER) guide.](/handbook/resellers/partner-enablement/power/)
Accelerate customer onboarding and adoption through integration of services offerings in customer account relationships
A well 30-60-90 day plan for partner onboarding is being developed in this [Onboarding Blueprint](https://content.gitlab.com/viewer/c6d3f8818abe58bb3ee4bba266c4e6c4). It provides a concise approach to consume the content from the POWER guide above.
**Q3 Requirements**
### DRIVE the Champions Program
1. Ensure that 80% of your top partners (as agreed with your manager) have a PAP documented plan for compliance with program certifications
1. Support and account in Rattle at least 4 opportunities advising field teams where a partner can propose services
The GitLab Partner Champions program is described on [its own handbook page](/handbook/resellers/partner-champions-program/) which includes the overall vision of the program as well as the onboarding process for new Champions. A collaboration group and project have been established at a [public group here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-partners-public/gitlab-champions/champions).
#### Commitment and Advocacy
In general to maintain the program over time we seek to:
Leverage the GitLab Champions program to drive high-value technical investment and advocacy from partner technical resources
* Distribute Champions call responsibilities
* Rationalize the active Champions participants
* Implement expectations for Champions
* Validate the value of the program to GitLab
* Enable Champions collaboration and call session topics
**Q3 Requirements**
## ESA Processes
1. Collaborate with at least one Champion to deliver a technical session or create a high-value advocacy artifact (e.g., a workshop, demo, or whitepaper) that is directly linked to a solution or service being offered by the partner.
1. Document Champions in PAPs and identify gaps needing Champion recruitment
### Ecosystem SA Operating Rhythm
## Partner Activation
As practical guidance on the role of an ESA, we have developed this guide to inform your [weekly operating rhythm](ecosystem-sa/esa-operating-rhythm.md)
### Partner Activation Planning
**Alignment first, not rigidity.** Use this to check that your weekly activities clearly support our three FY27 ESA Strategy pillars:
The primary content the team leverages for activating partner team members to be able to effectively pitch and demo GitLab is the [Partner Onboarding Workflow & Enablement Resource (POWER) guide.](/handbook/resellers/partner-enablement/power/)
***Build a scalable ecosystem activation engine (“force multiplier”).**
***Make partners the default extension of GitLab delivery and success.**
A well 30-60-90 day plan for partner onboarding is being developed in this [Onboarding Blueprint](https://content.gitlab.com/viewer/c6d3f8818abe58bb3ee4bba266c4e6c4). It provides a concise approach to consume the content from the POWER guide above.
These are how we will move the Ecosystem “big rocks”: **AI / DAP (Duo/DAP), MSPs, end‑to‑end enablement, and services‑led adoption**.
### DRIVE the Champions Program
**Regional and partner flexibility.** AMER MSP‑heavy work will look different from an emerging‑markets resale motion in APJ. You are not expected to do every example every week.
The GitLab Partner Champions program is described on [its own handbook page](/handbook/resellers/partner-champions-program/) which includes the overall vision of the program as well as the onboarding process for new Champions. A collaboration group and project have been established at a [public group here](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-partners-public/gitlab-champions/champions).
**Choose a healthy mix.** Over a typical week, your time should naturally include:
In general to maintain the program over time we seek to:
* Working with **ESMs and partners** to create/sustain pipeline and especially Partner Sourced revenue. Co-sell is important too. NetARR (growth revenue) is the primary metric.
* Shaping **partner services and SCOPE catalog entries** that support adoption and renewals.
* Connecting through Champions to activate new skills in your region
* Investing in **skills, Duo/DAP patterns, and reusable content** that make future weeks easier.
1. Distribute Champions call responsibilities
2. Rationalize the active Champions participants
3. Implement expectations for Champions
4. Validate the value of the program to GitLab
5. Enable Champions collaboration and call session topics
**Qualitative guidance. Measurable value for GitLab.** We care most that your week tells a **clear and measurable story** about the value our Partner Ecosystem is generating for GitLab:
## ESA Processes
* How you helped partners create or progress opportunities.
* How you improved partner capability (presales, services, Duo/DAP).
* How you contributed to **SCOPE**, the **services solution catalog**, and the **SA operating model**.
### The Streamlined Portal for ESA Authored Content (SPEAC)
@@ -185,8 +144,7 @@ So, while an initial upload of a content piece might be for GitLab Internal Only
We have created Digital Rooms in Highspot with the Partner Enablement team that are shared through the Partner Portal for additional security:
