For each executive — and some department leaders — to discuss the key metrics of that department in order to:
Meetings are scheduled monthly starting on the 15th day after month end.
The EBA to the CFO is the scheduling DRI for the Monthly Key Meetings, with the exception of the Sales Key Meeting, the EBA to the CRO is the scheduling DRI for the Sales Key Meeting.
A Key Meeting should not be cancelled, permission to cancel or make changes to the Key Meeting schedule must be approved by the CFO. If the CFO is not available the CEO will make the decision. Requests should be posted in the #key-meeting Slack channel. All changes to the Key Meeting schedule and/or invites have to be posted in the #key-meeting Slack channel.
Each month's Key Meeting schedule will be posted in the #key-meeting Slack channel on the first Monday of each month (if that Monday falls on a holiday it will be posted on the next business day).
Required invites are the CEO, the CFO, and the function head. Optional attendees are all other members of the e-group. The meetings are open to all team members who are interested. The meetings are also to be livestreamed to GitLab Unfiltered.
Functions that have these meetings are:
If you would like to be added to a function's Key Meeting post in #key-meetings on Slack.
We expect that All-Directs have a general understanding of the business beyond their function. They are GitLab leaders who often have to work cross-functionally and need business context to guide their teams. Key Meetings are a forum for understanding what is happening in other functions. The Key Rotation is designed to encourage All-Directs to make time to learn about what is happening in other functions.
Each month, one All-Direct will join the Key Rotation. This person should plan to attend all Key Meetings in that month. The team member is encouraged to contribute questions and comments to the agenda in each of these meetings. The team member is also encouraged to bring takeaways back to the team member's E-Group manager and teams.
A rotation includes 10 meetings–each 25 minutes long. The meetings tend to be spread over two weeks. A participant may want to spend some time in advance prepping for these meetings.
Participants can sign up in the Key Rotation Schedule by making an MR to this page and assigning to the EBA of the CFO in the #key-meetings Slack channel. The EBA to the CFO will add participants to meetings.
| Month | All-Direct |
|---|---|
| 2021-02 | Christie Lenneville - VP UX |
| 2021-03 | Michelle Hodges - VP WW Channels |
| 2021-04 | Steve Loyd - VP Infrastructure |
| 2021-05 | Danielle Morrill - Sr. Director Inbound Marketing |
| 2021-06 | Mek Stittri - Director of Quality |
| 2021-07 | David Sakamoto - VP Customer Success |
| 2021-08 | AVAILABLE |
| 2021-09 | AVAILABLE |
| 2021-10 | AVAILABLE |
| 2021-11 | AVAILABLE |
| 2021-12 | AVAILABLE |
There are three meeting formats. The preferred meeting format leverages the KPI Slides project which uses Reveal JS to automate the slide preparation and leverages version control to provide a history of changes over time. Other teams leverage Google Slides for their meetings. Some teams leverage Sisense's existing automation functionality to prepare Google Slides with automated charts.
Important notes:
Also see First Post is a badge of honor.
Function DRIs are expected to use their function's Key Meeting deck and recordings for their scheduled Group Conversations. Group Conversations should follow Key Meetings, please see the Group Conversation schedule. The goal for these meetings are to discuss what is important and the decks should be the same. You can add additional slides to the Key meeting to give more context, not all slides have to relate to KPIs and OKRs. The difference between the two meetings is the audience, the GCs are for a wider audience of the entire company.
To view a recording of a key meeting, visit the playlist on YouTube Unfiltered titled Key Meetings. If you are unable to view a video, please ensure you are logged in as GitLab Unfiltered.
Key Meeting recording links should be shared in the #key-meetings Slack channel by the functional department EBA within 24 hours of a Key Meeting being completed.
The original demo and proposal of using the KPI Slide project is on GitLab Unfiltered (internal).
The KPI Slides project is a GitLab-internal project since it includes KPIs that are not public. Those slides are deployed to GitLab pages (also internal, you must have access to the project to see the website). Each group that presents has one markdown file with their KPIs. Every month, groups create an MR to update that markdown file. The following slides need to be updated with an MR:
The following Key Meetings are automated: (all links are internal)
To create these slides, you will need Editor access in Sisense.
Video with explanation of this meeting format (GitLab Internal)
Many functions or departments now have Performance Indicator pages that allow one to move top-to-bottom in the handbook to see both KPIs and PIs. Here is an example of the VP of Development presenting the Development Department's KPIs and PIs in advance of their monthly Key Meeting.
This method is ideal, as it is handbook-first and makes it easy for everyone to contribute. Commentary can be added via an MR to the data/performance_indicators.yml file. The executive summary section can help consumers of the information understand where to dig in futher.
The difficulty in using performance indicator pages for Key Meetings is for groups who have a signficant number of Performance Indicators that cannot be public. For folks looking to consume this information quickly, having to 2FA into Sisense to see the information can be frustrating. For functions or departments for which this is true, it is recommended to use a different key meeting format.
OKR slides should:
At the end of each meeting, all atendees should be able to clearly answer what we are trying to achieve and whether we are on track. The key meeting immediately following the close of quarter should address not only new OKRs but also include an update on scoring of what we have achieved in the previous quarter.
