Working Groups

What's a Working Group?

Like all groups at GitLab, a working group is an arrangement of people from different functions. What makes a working group unique is that it has defined roles and responsibilities, and is tasked with achieving a high-impact business goal. A working group disbands when the goal is achieved (defined by exit criteria) so that GitLab doesn't accrue bureaucracy.

Roles and Responsibilities

Role	Required	Responsibility
Facilitator	Yes	Assembles the working group, runs the meeting, and communicates results
Executive Stakeholder	Yes	An Executive or Senior Leader interested in the results, or responsible for the outcome
Functional Lead	Yes (for each function)	Someone who represents their entire function to the working group
Member	No	Any subject matter expert

Guidelines

An executive sponsor is required, in part, to prevent proliferation of working groups
A person should not facilitate more than one concurrent working group
Generally, a person should not be a part of more than two concurrent working groups in any role
It is highly recommended that anyone in the working group with OKRs aligns them to the effort

Process

Preparation
- Create a working group page
- Assemble a team from required functions
- Create an agenda doc public to the company
- Create a Slack channel (with #wg_ prefix) that is public to the company
- Schedule a recurring Zoom meeting
Define a goal and exit criteria
Gather metrics that will tell you when the goal is met
Organize activities that should provide incremental progress
Ship iterations and track the metrics
Communicate the results
Disband the working group

Active Working Groups

Past Working Groups

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