The PlatoHQ Program has a total of 10 Engineering Managers/Senior IC's participating. The program exists of both self-learning via an online portal and 1-1 sessions with a mentor.
The 7CTOs Program is run with 4 Senior leaders in Engineering. The program exists of peer mentoring sessions (forums) and effective network building.
The CTO is an executive sponsor for selected customers.
A shadow program is available to everyone in engineering (especially senior leaders) in order to have an opportunity to observe and participate in one of the executive sponsor meetings. Doing so can be a great way to hear directly from customers about what they like about GitLab and about what we can improve. (This program is similar in some ways to the CEO Shadow Program.
If you choose to be a shadow, your responsibilities will be:
To request to be a shadow: Post a message in the #cto Slack channel, indicate your timezone, and CC the CTO's EBA Kristie Thomas.
There is a program to find a mentor or to become a mentor at GitLab described on this handbook page.
You can find more information on this experimental program on the Development Director Shadow Program handbook page.
Engineers can gain significant insight from observing customers while they use the portions of the product that those engineers develop. Engineers interested in doing this should contact their team's assigned UX Researcher to get involved with upcoming customer sessions and access previously recorded sessions.
If a team does not have a UX Researcher assigned, they should reach out on the #research Slack channel to express interest. A UX Researcher can jump in and set them up to observe a participant session.
If there is a specific request to shadow a customer as they use the product, this should be coordinated through the team's assigned Product Manager.
