Development Director Shadow Program

Why do we have a Development Director Shadow Program?
Benefits
- For the shadow
- For the engineering director
Criteria to be a shadow
Process for requesting to be a shadow for GitLab team members
Process for requesting to be a shadow for non-GitLab team members
How does the shadowing work?
Handling of confidential information
What this program is not
Preparing for the program
What to do after you participate
Are other directors in engineering also allowing shadows?
Shadow Alumni
Schedule

Why do we have a Development Director Shadow Program?

As an Development Director at GitLab, Wayne got massive value out of participating in our CEO Shadow Program when he did it in July of 2020.

Since the launch of the engineering director shadow program in September of 2021, Wayne has received great feedback from the shadows from various departments that have participated (marketing, professional services, development, and customer success).

Some blogs from previous shadows:

Benefits

For the shadow

Mentoring
Learning opportunities
Career development exploration

For the engineering director

Learning via reverse mentorship
Feedback

Criteria to be a shadow

I am in the Eastern US (GMT-4) and my work hours are 8 am to 5 pm; however this varies on a day-to-day basis. The shadow must be available during some (but not all) of these hours.

For GitLab team member prospective shadows:

You have been with GitLab for at least one month.

For non-GitLab prospective shadows:

You must be willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement - this is required so that we can protect confidential information.
You must describe why you want to participate in this program, including what you would like to learn.
You must complete free GitLab TeamOps training before your shadow week.

Process for requesting to be a shadow for GitLab team members

Check the schedule below for availability.
Create an MR to add yourself to the table for the weeks in which you want to shadow via an MR. To get started, you can edit the page here
Obtain written approval from your manager that they are ok with you participating via your manager commenting in the MR that they approve, as your workload may need to be significantly reduced for the shadow program duration.
After your manager approves, assign the MR to me to review and merge.

Process for requesting to be a shadow for non-GitLab team members

Check the schedule below for availability.
Fill out this form to apply.

How does the shadowing work?

The engineering director shadow will have a chance to work alongside engineering director Wayne Haber in the following ways:

The shadow will participate remotely.
Attend all meetings that are public
Review and collaborate on public issues and merge requests
Keep track of time and provide warnings allowing meeting participants to wrap up the meeting before the meeting end time comfortably
Provide opinions during meetings with your thoughts and/or add your thoughts in the meeting notes
You can be a shadow for as little as one week or as much as two weeks in a six-month period. The weeks do not need to be sequential.
Review the roles of those with who Wayne will be meeting in order to have more context.
Review Wayne's GitLab history
Feel free to introduce yourself in a meeting when you feel this is appropriate (especially when there are only a few attendees). Tell participants who you are, what your non-shadow role is, and that you are a shadow in this meeting.
Even in meetings where you are unfamiliar with the subject matter, there is an opportunity to learn, document, and shape the evolution of GitLab's values.
Please let Wayne know if you notice him interrupting speakers, speaking too quickly, or not pausing often enough. These are things he is working on improving.
Remind Wayne periodically to use his standing desk.
Ask me questions via Slack in #wayne_shadow_program, after a meeting concludes, via scheduling a meeting with me, or via an ad-hoc Zoom discussion. This slack channel will not include discussions of confidential topics because it will include non-Gitlab team members via adding them to slack as a "one channel participant".

For GitLab team member shadows:

Attend all of the scheduled meetings which are not marked as private that Wayne has accepted. You can attend 1-1s, group meetings, and much more.
Review documents linked to the meetings.
Take notes in the meeting documents in order to collect main points and outcomes.
Review Slack messages I have written in public channels.
Review Wayne's assigned issues, assigned merge requests, and merge requests for review

For non-GitLab shadows:

Attend all meetings where you are invited that are not public. Wayne will invite you to non-public meetings where the topics are not confidential and the meeting attendees are ok with having a non-GitLab shadow present.
Take notes in a Google document that is in the GitLab Google instance and is shared with the shadow so they can edit the document. This will allow the shadow and the engineering director to collaborate on these notes and for the engineering director to review the notes for information that should not be present (such as confidential information).
Review Wayne's public assigned issues, assigned merge requests, and merge requests for review

Handling of confidential information

non-Gitlab shadows will not have access to confidential information
Some meetings will discuss confidential information. In those cases, I will ask the meeting attendees if they are ok with a GitLab team member shadow being in the meeting (and if they are ok with the shadow having read or read/write access to the meeting notes document).
Meetings that have content that is on a need-to-know basis (such as discussions of potential acquisitions) will not include shadows.
Only GitLab team members who are designated as insiders will be allowed access to MNPI (Material Nonpublic information) or discussions.

What this program is not

For Gitlab team members, it is not a performance evaluation or a step for a future promotion. For non-GitLab team members, it is not a direct path to a job at GitLab.

Preparing for the program

Complete free GitLab TeamOps training before your shadow week.
Plan to observe and ask questions
Reduce your workload by at least 75% during the shadowing time period. Don't plan to do your normal amount of usual non-shadow work.
Review my readme.
Read GitLab's values prior to your shadow rotation, and be mindful of new and inventive ways that CREDIT is lived out during the meetings you attend.
Slack me in #wayne_shadow_program to let me know a couple of days before your first shadow