Add benchmarking to Cycle Analytics
Problem to solve
Provide feedback to customers on how they compare to other GitLab users with regard to key metrics around productivity and velocity. It also can quantify the value of GitLab, making it easier to expand the use in a given customer account.
Further details
While at the Evanta CIO Summit in Boston (November 7, 2018), the CIO's talked about their challenge to know how they were doing with regards to DevOps and Agile. They struggle with metrics, but more importantly, want to know how they compare to their peers.
Proposal
The GitLab software collects metrics for cycle analytics. The proposal is that we anonymously collect that information from our SaaS customers and use it to report back how they compare to other GitLab users. Ideally, we should be able to categorize/filter by size of company (or number of developers/seats) and by industry. (If we collect SIC codes in SFDC, that information could be used to report by industry.) Capture snapshots on a regular basis to show trends.
There is precedent for this in the security industry. Fortify, Veracode and other Saas-based application testing vendors collect data from their customers to be able to create and publish annual reports on most common security threats that are seen across their customer base.
Make this a feature of Ultimate to add more value to the high price of Ultimate.
We can use the benchmarks ourselves in presentations at conferences to show trends and results from using GitLab.
I recommend engaging a Gartner or Forrester analyst to discuss the idea - let it become their idea so they help promote it. (@Tompsett )
What does success look like, and how can we measure that?
Customers view GitLab as a thought leader that helps them on their DevOps journey, not only with tools, but with processes and metrics. Measured by increase in Ultimate sales Measured by analysts, press and social media mentions about GitLab value/impact (by presenting results at conference and to analysts)