Key Meetings

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3. Finance
4. Key Meetings

Maintained by:

Paul Machle

@pmachle

On this page

• Purpose
• Key Metrics
• Timing
• Scheduling
• Invitees
• Meeting Format
  • Recordings
  • Automated KPI Slides
  • Google Slides
  • Leveraging Sisense in Google Slides
  • Performance Indicator Pages

Purpose

For each executive — and some department leaders — to discuss the key metrics of that department in order to:

1. Make it much easier to stay up-to-date for everyone.
2. Be accountable to the rest of the company.
3. Understand month-to-month variances.
4. Understand performance against the plan, forecast and operating model.
5. Ensure there is tight connection between OKRs and KPIs.

Key Metrics

1. KPIs of that function or department.
2. OKRs that are assigned to that function.

Timing

Meetings are monthly starting on the 10th day after month end. The EBA to the CFO is the Scheduling DRI for the Monthly Key Meetings.

Scheduling

Whereever possible, the goal is to have all Key Meetings in a large block of time. Having back-to-back Key Meetings has the following advantage:

• EBAs can add 1 hour prep time the day before for executives to prep for all the meetings, allowing them to be more prepared than they would be with less prep time for each meeting, leading to more effective meetings
• Some evidence suggests it can take upwards of 20 minutes to re-engage after context switching

This is preferred, not mandatory. The inability to consolidate Monthly Key Meetings should never block its scheduling but moving towards these is the goal.

Invitees

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:

• Corporate Development (Eliran Mesika - function DRI)
• Engineering (Eric Johnson - function DRI) - does not include Support or Infrastructure
• Finance (Paul Machle - function DRI)
• Infrastructure (Steve Lloyd - function DRI)
• Marketing (Todd Barr - function DRI)
• People Group (Carol Teskey - function DRI)
• Product (Scott Williamson - function DRI)
• Sales (Michael McBride - function DRI)
• Support (Tom Cooney - function DRI)

If you would like to be added to a function's Key Meeting post in #key-meetings on Slack.

Meeting Format

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:

1. Before every key meeting, the OKR page for the quarter should be updated with the current status of the KRs.
2. A document will be linked from the calendar invite for participants to log questions or comments for discussion and to any additional track decisions & action items.
3. Wherever possible, the KPI or KR being reviewed should be compared to Plan, Target, or industry benchmark.
4. There is no presentation; the meeting is purely Q&A. Of course, people can ask to talk them through a slide. If you want to present, please post a YouTube video like Todd did and link that from the slide deck, agenda, and/or Slack.
5. The functional owner is responsible for preparing the document 24 hours in advance of the meeting. The owner should update the meeting invite, send it to all guests so they know the materials are ready for review and, if possible, post the document in the #key-meetings channel.
6. All key meetings should be recorded and uploaded to the GitLab Unfiltered YouTube channel, it is the DRI's or their EBA's responsibility to ensure that the video is uploaded to GitLab Unfiltered using the private setting.
7. If the function DRI is not available to attend their key meeting then the function's leadership team is responsible for attending the meeting and providing updates.

Also see First Post is a badge of honor.

Recordings

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.

Automated KPI Slides

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:

• Month on the first slide
• Key Business Takeaways- should especially highlight any KPIs that need attention
• OKR statuses

The following Key Meetings are automated: (all links are internal)

• CEO
• Finance
• Infrastructure
• Marketing
• People
• Product

Google Slides

1. The functional owner will prepare a google slide presentation with the content to be reviewed.
2. The finance business partner assigned to the functional area will meet with the owner at least one week in advance and ensure that follow-ups from last meeting have been completed and that data to be presented has proper definitions and is derived from a Single Source of Truth.
3. The title of every slide should be the key takeaway
4. A label on the slide should convey whether the metric result is "on-track" (green), "needs improvement" (yellow), or is an "urgent concern" (red).
5. A blank template still needs labels.

Leveraging Sisense in Google Slides

To create these slides, you will need Editor access in Sisense.

• Edit the chart you're interested in.
• Click "Chart Format" (second tab on far right)
• Under Advanced, select "Expose Public CSV URL"
• Follow the instructions on pulling data out of Sisense
• Select the data set and add a chart to the sheet
• In the slides, Insert > Chart > From Sheets > find the one you're looking for

Video with explanation of this meeting format (GitLab Internal)

Performance Indicator Pages

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.