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GitLab Detective Champions Initiative

Description

GitLab Detective is still considered "experimental", but it is ready for customers to use.

We now need to help Support Engineers get used to identifying and acting on opportunities to recommend Detective to both customers and their peers.

This is part of the Customer Success Roadmap item Deploy GitLab Detective.

The initiative will run from October 20, 2025 - November 17, 2025.

Goals

Engage 6 "GitLab Detective Champions" within the Global Support team to:

  1. Introduce GitLab Detective to 18-24 customers total, counted collectively, over 4 weeks.
  2. Encourage other Support Engineers to try out GitLab Detective and recommend it to customers

Scope

This initiative will be limited to the Global Support team.

Plan

1. Identify and train Detective Champions

We're aiming to have 6 Detective Champions, ideally 2 per region.

Region Support Engineer
APAC @irisb
APAC @mlockhart
AMER @lmacrae
AMER @definitelynotsam
AMER @jgaughan
EMEA @onemoz
EMEA @bnyaringita

This initiative will last for 4 weeks. During the initiative, Champions will...

1. Introduce ~1 customer per week to GitLab Detective

Try to take assignment of 1-2 upgrade-related tickets each week.

As you work the ticket, assess whether GitLab Detective would be useful for the customer. If you think it fits their situation, use the Upgrade Instructions Zendesk macro as a starting point to introduce the customer to Detective. Adjust the default macro message as needed to fit their situation.

Tools to introduce GitLab Detective

How we will track progress

  • We will create a Zendesk view that filters for the presence of the upgrade-instructions Zendesk tag and for Champion's as assignees.
  • Tracking the tag is a proxy for measuring our goal of introducing 18-24 customers to Detective. We chose this solution to avoid adding more work to the Champions' plates.

2. Encourage other Support Engineers to recommend GitLab Detective

When pairing with other Support Engineers or answering questions in Slack, keep an eye out for customer tickets where GitLab Detective could be a good fit. When it makes sense, encourage the ticket assignee recommend Detective.

We intentionally do not have a metric and reporting mechanism for this goal. We're just trying to spread the word within Global Support that GitLab Detective can now be recommended to customers.

3. Provide feedback on the experience

  • Post feedback you receive from customers and other SEs in this thread
  • At the end of the initiative, we'll ask for your thoughts and insights gained from championing Detective.

2. Detective Champions do their thing

Weekly check-ins with Detective Champions to see...

  • How the initiative is going
  • If they have any questions
  • Any notable comments or questions from customers or fellow SEs

3. Assess outcomes and collect feedback

  • How many customers did our Champions introduce to Detective?
  • Any notable comments or questions from customers or fellow SEs when you suggested Detective?
  • etc.

Getting help

There will be bugs and questions. Here are resources to handle them:

TODO items

  • Enlist 2 volunteers from each region to be Detective Champions
  • Make sure each Champion fully understands the role and can commit to it
  • Create Zendesk view to track Detective introductions
  • Develop more detailed assessment/feedback plan
Edited by John Gaughan