Cadence

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On this page

• Overview
  • Cadence Examples
  • Cadence Flow
• 30 years
• 10 years
• 3 years
• Year
• Quarter
• Month
• Week
• Gantt Chart

Overview

Everything in a company happens in a certain cadence. The period of each cadence differs. The timescale between periods are about 4x, varying from 3x to 5x. Below are the cadences we have at GitLab:

1. 30 years (3x 10 years)
2. 10 years (3.3x 3-years)
3. 3 years (3x year)
4. Year (4x quarter)
5. Quarter (3x month)
6. Month (4.3x week)
7. Week

Items on this page are grouped into a cadence based on the underlying period of time that the item pertains to, not based on when the item is updated. For example, our strategy looks three years out but is reviewed annually by E-Group and may be updated more frequently if the need arises.

Cadence Examples

How elements of our cadence fit together over time:

1. Our Mission is to make it so that everyone can contribute by using our product, to our product, and to our company.
2. Our Vision is what we want the product to evolve into in the next 10 years, AllOps - a single application for DevSecOps, ModelOps, and a Servicedesk.
3. Our Strategy is what we'll focus on over the next 3 years in order to make progress towards our vision. Our strategy is to be the leading DevSecOps Platform by focusing on our three strategic pillars: Customer Results, Maturing the Platform, and Growing Careers.
4. Our Yearlies are annual goals to make progress to our three year strategy. We have 3 goals per strategic pillar, for 9 goals in total.
5. Our OKRs are quarterly objectives to make progress towards the yearly goals. They have a hierarchy in them with which they flow from the CEO level to the level of teams.

How other elements relate to our cadence:

1. Top Cross-Functional Initiatives typically last a year and should be closely aligned to the yearlies.
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measures of performance for important things we do as a company all the time. If you want to change a KPI in a quarter this typically will be an OKR.
3. Our Values are the principles we follow in pursuing the items on this Cadence page but are not part of any cadence.

Cadence Flow

Below is one example of how the cadence items in cadence flow fit together to illustrate how we will accomplish our longer term goals by successfully completing our shorter term goals.

1. One part of our mission is everyone can contribute to GitLab, the application. By making innovation more accessible, we increase user contributions to the product, which creates results for a larger audience, which, in turn, allows more users to contribute to our product. This virtuous cycle drives a high rate of innovation for our product and allows more people to innovate and contribute.
2. One component necessary to achieve our AllOps vision is improving GitLab ServiceDesk, which helps connect external parties to the software development process, allowing more people to contribute. ServiceDesk is needed to provide a complete Value Stream Delivery overview, which should help more people manage the flow of innovation from idea to customers, which should lead to more teams and companies relying on GitLab as their AllOps solution.
3. One pillar of our three year strategy is Customer Results, which includes Proving Value with items like Value Stream Analytics to help a broader user base like managers and executives deliver value and innovation. Proving value to a broader user base moves us closer to providing a complete Value Stream Delivery overview, creating progress towards our AllOps vision.
4. One of our FY24 Yearlies is to increase NetARR from Ultimate up-tiers which we'll accomplish in part by providing more value to business users with features like Value Stream Dashboards for Executives. These features help extend Value Stream Management and, by extension, create progress for our Customer Results strategic pillar.
5. One FY24Q1 CEO objective is to increase adoption through customer results to increase operating income with a sub-key result of launching Value Stream Dashboards MVC 1 Beta in FY24-Q1.

Successfully achieving our KR of a beta value stream means progress against our Yearly value stream dashboard goal, strategic goal of extending value stream management to more users, vision of an AllOps solution, and mission of everyone contributing. While the KR is a single building block, our successful completion within the quarter leads to progress against our longer term goals.

30 years

• Our mission
• Our purpose
• Lifespan of the average company, 10 years to get into the S&P500, then 15 in it, and 5 of decline for a total of 30
• Lifespan of Amazon "Amazon is not too big to fail…In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years."
• Generation is also 30 years

10 years

• Vision
• Product vision
• Commitment of DZ
• Time needed for category creation

3 years

1. Our strategy
2. 3-year product direction strategy
3. Long range outlook
4. Restricted stock unit vesting after cliff of six months is passed
5. Average retention of team members is around 3 years, with reduced turnover (<16%). See actual reports

Year

1. Yearlies for setting annual company goals
2. Annual plan
3. 4 quarter rolling forecast
4. Most of Direction
5. Fiscal Year Product Investment Themes
6. Top Cross-Functional Initiatives

Quarter

1. OKRs
2. Board meeting
3. Sales targets (in Clari)
4. E-group offsite
5. GitLab Assembly
6. Quarterly Kickoff
7. Earnings activities

Month

1. Key Reviews
2. Release
3. Retrospective
4. Most KPIs

Week

1. 1-1 cadence with reports
2. E-Group Weekly

Gantt Chart

Below is a visual example of our cadence and is subject to change based on company and team schedules. Dates are approximate.