Cadence

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2. Handbook
3. CEO
4. Cadence

On this page

• Overview
• Day
• Week
• Month
• Quarter
• Year
• Strategy
• Vision
• Mission

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. Day
2. Week (5 workdays)
3. Month (4.3 weeks)
4. Quarter (3 months)
5. Year (4 quarters)
6. Strategy (3 years)
7. Vision (10 years, 3.3x)
8. Mission (30 years, 3x)

Day

• Group conversation
• Company call
• Breakout call

Week

• 1-1 cadence with reports
• Measure growth of early startup, 10% WoW, for example Meltano

Month

• Metrics call
• Release
• Retrospective
• Most KPIs

Quarter

• OKRs
• Board meeting
• Sales targets (in Clari)
• E-group offsite

Year

• 4 quarter rolling forecast
• Annual plan
• Most of Direction

Strategy

3 years

• Most of strategy
• Some of Direction
• Option vesting after cliff of 1 year is passed
• Average retention of team members is around 3 years, with reduced turnover (<16%). See actual reports

Vision

10 years

• Product vision
• Time needed for category creation
• Investor fund time limit
• Commitment of DZ

Mission

30 years

• Time to realize our mission
• BHAG
• 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