Consolidate Co-Create project management

Summary

Consolidate Co-Create project management from 7+ scattered documents into a single GitLab project, improving visibility, reducing manual work, and creating a reliable single source of truth.

Problem Statement

Current Systems

Project Status Tracking

  1. Status & Pipeline document: Master list of all potential customers and status with extensive data
  2. Co-Create program - End of Week updates: Weekly overview of all program activities + manual OKR status copying
  3. Developer Relations & Strategy - End of Week updates: Shared document for noteworthy updates across all programs / teams
  4. Cocreate tracking project: Auto-creates/updates issues based on the Status & Pipeline spreadsheet

OKR Reporting

  1. OKR per quarter: Updated weekly, details in comments
  2. Results sheet: ARR calculations from manually-run custom pipeline
  3. Notes - Strategy Programs Status Check-in: Manual OKR status copying
  4. Contributor Success & Programs Stand-up Weekly: Manual OKR status copying

Key Problems

  1. Status & Pipeline document limitations: While serving as the data source for multiple dashboards and pipelines, it lacks historical tracking (e.g., cannot see that "legal team replied on 2025/01/15 that CLA signature expected next week"). No quick project overview capability.

  2. Co-Create weekly updates issues: Document becomes cluttered when tracking individual customer progress (see updates from 2025-06-02 and earlier). Cannot retrieve project-specific history (e.g., "what was discussed about Project X six weeks ago?").

  3. Cocreate tracking project disconnect: Requires pipeline runs for status updates, creating delays. Splits the "single source of truth" between spreadsheet and GitLab project.

  4. OKR synchronization problems: Manual pipeline runs → manual calculations → manual copying to multiple documents at different times each week = guaranteed data inconsistencies.

Impact

  1. 8+ hours/week on manual updates - Synchronizing data across 7 documents and running manual pipelines
  2. Data inconsistencies - Different ARR numbers in different documents, outdated status information
  3. Cannot demonstrate program value - Fragmented data prevents clear ROI reporting to leadership
  4. Team collaboration barriers - Onboarding takes weeks; other team members cannot effectively provide backup support
  5. Lost historical context - No visibility into past customer discussions, decisions, or lessons learned

Proposed Solution

Phase 1: Establish Single Source of Truth

A. Create a centralized GitLab project for all Co-Create initiatives:

  1. Issues: One issue per Co-Create partner/project
  2. Comments: Track all communications, decisions, and status updates with timestamps
  3. Labels: Categorize by status (outreach/planning/onsite/...)
  4. Overview: Built-in dashboards using embedded views

B. Streamline weekly reporting

  1. Deprecate Co-Create program - End of Week updates
  2. Route noteworthy updates directly to Developer Relations & Strategy - End of Week updates

C. OKR Reporting (Quick Win)

  1. Stop manual copying to meeting notes documents
  2. Provide single link to live OKR

Phase 2: System Consolidation

A. Migrate from Status & Pipeline spreadsheet

  1. Archive the current spreadsheet after data migration
  2. Update all dependent dashboards/pipelines to use GitLab API as data source
  3. Maintain read-only access to historical data

B. Retire redundant tracking

  1. Deprecate Cocreate tracking project

Phase 3: Automation & Evaluation

A. OKR Reporting

  1. Implement automated OKR calculations via GitLab API
  2. Schedule automated weekly updates to OKR issue

B. Evaluate

  1. Confirm success criteria where met
  2. Brainstorm on possible further improvements

Success Criteria

  1. Reduce weekly reporting time from 8 to 4 hours
  2. Zero data discrepancies between reports
  3. Complete project history accessible in one location
  4. Automated OKR updates