Cadence

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On this page

• Overview
  • Cadence Definitions
  • Example of 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 Definitions

How elements of our cadence fit together over time:

1. Our Purpose is the reason GitLab exists. Our purpose is to help people increase their lifetime earnings through training, access to opportunities, and the DevOps platform.
2. Our Mission is the way we realize our purpose of increasing people's lifetime earnings. Our mission is to make it so that everyone can contribute by using our product, to our product, and to our company.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

Example of Cadence Flow

Below is an example of how we will accomplish our longer term cadence goals by successfully completing our shorter term goals.

1. Our mission is to do that by making sure everyone can contribute to our product and our company. Similar to our purpose, part of the achievement of this will depend on our product driving results for a larger audience of users.
2. Because our users contribute to our product GitLab has a high rate of innovation and we can have an ambitious scope for the product. The vision for the scope of our product is an AllOps solution – a single application for DevSecOps, ModelOps, and a Servicedesk. A Value Stream Delivery overview will be a key part of this platform.
3. Our strategy supports our AllOps vision. One of our strategic pillars is Customer Results. This includes extending Value Stream Management to provide more value to more users.
4. Our yearlies are how we're going to execute our strategy. 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.
5. Our OKRs are how we're going to make progress on our yearly goals. A CEO key result is to launch 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, mission of everyone contributing, and purpose of people increasing their earnings. 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 purpose
• Our mission
• 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.