The GitLab Marketing team operates as one team and is organized by the following departments: Integrated Marketing, Brand and Product Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Operations, and Analytics, Sales Development, Growth, Corporate Communications, and Developer Relations & Community. This page documents our shared team philosophy and processes, while the individual department handbooks contain more detailed information.
GitLab is the leading DevSecOps Platform that empowers organizations to deliver quality software faster and more efficiently while strengthening security and compliance. The marketing team’s purpose is to amplify the value of the GitLab platform, authentically and transparently, by putting customers and the community at the center of everything we do.
As the GitLab Marketing team puts customers at the center of everything we do, the marketing strategy aligns with the customer journey. The journey’s purpose is to provide a clear and cohesive experience to a prospect/customer from the minute they become Aware of GitLab, to Considering the platform and Converting into a happy customer, and then of course Expanding over time and becoming an Evangelist.
Each stage has a purpose which is the guiding indicator for the marketing team to measure our success. Everything the team plans and executes in the short and long term will revolve around the customer journey, and we will also measure our success along each step to hold ourselves accountable.
Our FY24 Marketing Strategy and Plan can be found in the internal handbook.
Each quarter, the Marketing team creates OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that cascade from the CEO's OKRs.
Each department within the Marketing team manages their own cascading OKRs.
How we work as one team aligns with the GitLab Values.
Results - The team measures success together along the customer journey. Each quarter, we align CMO OKRs based on company goals set in the CEO OKRs. This helps us stay aligned with company-level goals while also understanding if what we are doing quarter over quarter is moving the needle on our marquee metrics along the customer journey. Being data-driven as a team is essential for team success.
Iteration - Like the rest of the company, we aspire to be agile and experimental where possible. In every area possible, we roll out campaigns, brand updates, messaging, etc. in small iterations, measure the success, and take next steps accordingly.
Transparency - We strive to be as transparent as possible in all areas of marketing. We welcome thoughts and feedback from each other, other GitLab team members, and the community at all times.
Collaboration - A major key to success is operating as one team. Leveraging the different backgrounds, cultures and, skill sets of an entire company and community, the marketing team operates in a way where everyone can contribute. Collaboration is key to taking Marketing to the next level.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) - With GitLab team members being located across the world, we strive to always keep DIB at the core of everything we do. Like the rest of GitLab, we follow asynchronous meeting principles, welcome diverse perspectives, and as marketers, foster an environment where quirkiness is welcomed.
Efficiency - We keep efficiency at the forefront of everything we do. Whether it is bringing in marketing technology to automate menial tasks and foster collaboration, finding ways to save cost, or simply doing the right things to be respectful of others’ time, efficiency drives faster results for marketing.
Goal: Align all Marketing team members on activities in progress to achieve our goals, and update the team on cross-functional items.
The meeting is 50 minutes and runs as follows:
All team members are encouraged to bring forward discussion topics that they want to share with the team or to have covered during the call.
Goal: Provide the team a smaller forum to ask any questions they may have, offer feedback, and brainstorm ideas directly with the CMO
Goal: Foster an environment to empower managers overseeing different functions to collaborate and share ideas and feedback.
Goal: For managers to work with direct reports on removing roadblocks, brainstorming, coaching, and providing/receiving feedback.
| Topic | Where to reach out | Sub-Team |
|---|---|---|
| Blog posts, webcasts, the newsletter or other marketing content | #content |
Content |
| Swag | #swag |
Brand strategy |
| Design requests, logo usage questions | #marketing-design |
Brand |
| External PR (public relations) agency, discuss GitLab media mentions, and evaluate speaking/podcasting/commentary opportunities | #external-comms |
Corporate Comms |
| Anything regarding the marketing website and website development | #digital-experience-team |
Digital experience |
| Questions about tools in the marketing tech stack, evaluating new marketing tools, marketing system process improvement | #mktgops |
Marketing Operations |
| Salesforce | #sfdc-users |
Sales Operations (not marketing) |
A complete list of marketing slack channels can be found here.
#marketing Slack channel for questions that don't seem appropriate to use the issue trackerPlease follow the CMO handbook for review request workflows, and communication guidelines.
All teams are responsible for requesting social posts themselves. If you are not the DRI on a specific category or campaign and want to request a social post, please reach out to the teams’ point person identified below as a first step. Team Members in these roles reserve the right to say no to your request. If they say yes, coordinate with them to create a new social request issue so that the social team can process the request and schedule the post(s). The point person on the team or a member of the marketing or social teams may adjust copy to ensure consistency in brand voice.
#external-comms for assistance#social_media_action for assistanceSpeaking on behalf of GitLab at a conference, to media or on a podcast as a GitLab team member is a significant responsibility. Please see the Corporate Communications Handbook Page for guidelines and trainings.
Marketing Newsletter
Marketing and the Editorial team sends out a twice-monthly developer newsletter, called "DevSecOps Download", to our newsletter subscribers. The newsletter always includes information about the latest release post, links to our latest blogs, plus additional content for developers. The goal for this newsletter is thought leadership and awareness.
To add a content suggestion, please create an issue (no template necessary) and tag @sgittlen. Anyone in the company can add suggestions, but the Managing Editor of the newsletter will determine the final content.
Other Newsletter
To request a newsletter to be sent to an audience outside the newsletter subscribers, please create an issue in the Campaigns project, using the request_email_newsletter issue template.
Newsletter requests should be submitted no less than 5 business days before the intended send date to ensure there is enough time for Content and Marketing Programs Manager's (MPM) review and set up workflow.
We are happy to sponsor events and meet-ups where a marketing benefit exists, subject to approval by Field Marketing Managers. These sponsorships may be in cash or in kind, depending on individual circumstances.
Organizational or project sponsorships may also be considered where a marketing benefit exists. Typically, these sponsorships will be in kind - e.g., developer time commitments, or subsidized / free GitLab licenses.
Cash sponsorship of projects or organizations may be considered only in exceptional cases - for example, if a project or organization that GitLab depends on is struggling to survive financially.
We use Slack internally as a communication tool. The Marketing channels are as follows:
#marketing: General marketing channel. Don't know where to ask a question? Start here.#all-marketing: Read-Only channel for marketing team members, with the ability to post comments. CMO staff has the ability to post. Should a team member want to make a post, please reach out to our Marketing EBA with your written statement and as much as possible, provide an issue or MR with more details.#cfp: All call for speakers will be posted here.#cmo: CMO review requests and content shares.cmo-staff: (Private) CMO's private staff discussion room#content: Questions about blog posts, webcasts, the newsletter or other marketing content? This is the place to ask.#community-relations: A channel for the community relations team to collaborate.#demand-gen: Demand Generation team, including Campaigns, Digital Marketing, and Partner & Channel Marketing.#developer-evangelism: Discuss the latest tech in Dev, Sec, Ops and Cloud Native. You can request speakers and ask for technical content collaboration and guidance.#digital-experience-team: Channel for connecting with the website development and design teams#digital-marketing: Channel for all advertising, website analytic and general digital programs.#digital_production: Channel for communicating with the video production team#events: Everything you want to know about events.#external-comms: To collaborate with our external PR (public relations) agency, discuss GitLab media mentions, and evaluate speaking/podcasting/commentary opportunities.#fieldmarketing: Discuss, ask questions, stay up-to-date on events that are being organized by Field Marketing#fyi-only-all-marketing: This is an FYI only channel for CMO Staff to post important marketing only announcements#inbound-mktg: Growth Marketing channel, including global content, awareness campaigns, brand and digital design.#marketing-design: Discuss, feedback, and share ideas on Marketing Design here.#marketing_programs: Discuss, ask questions, stay up-to-date on campaigns and events that are being organized by the Marketing Program Managers#mktgops: Marketing Ops communication channel for questions and project updates#mktg-budget-holders: (Private) Discussion among all Marketing team members with budget responsibility#product-marketing: Discuss, feedback related to product news, features and vision#remote: Discuss and share impressions on the #allremote campaign, playbook and strategy.#sdr_amer: Americas team (North, Latin and South) all segnents#sdr_amer_commercial: Americas team (North, Latin and South) Commercial segment only#sdr_apac: Asia Pacific SDR channel - all segments#sdr_emea: Europe, Middle East and Africa all segments#sdr_emea_commercial: Europe, Middle East and Africa Commercial segment only#sdr_global: Worldwide SDR team channel#sdr_global_commercial: Worldwide SDR Commercial team channel#sdr_amer_east: Enterprise SDRs for Americas East (formerly NORAM - US East)#sdr_amer_central: Enterprise SDRs for Americas Central (formerly NORAM - US Central)#sdr_amer_west: Enterprise SDRs for Americas West (formerly NORAM - US West)#sdr-conversations: place for SDR team brainstorm & sharing of ideas#sfdc-users: Having issues with SFDC? Ask here first.#social_media_action: Use this channel to communicate and coordinate with the Social Media team. You can ask for amplification help and share cool tweets, posts, etc.#strategic_marketing: Slack channel for communicating with the Product and Solution Marketing team#swag: Request or question regarding swag.#website: Discuss topics related to website redesign project#wg_partners_website: Discuss improvements to the Partners portion of about.gitlab.comMarketing Functional Conversations are modeled after Group conversations. While Group Conversations offer high-level insights, Marketing Functional Conversations are meant to drill deeper into the various functions within the Marketing Department. The goal of Marketing Functional Conversations is to create increased awareness and mutual understanding of the functions within Marketing. Awareness and understanding is an essential building block for effective collaboration.
Recordings of the Marketing Functional Conversations can be found on the GitLab Unfilitered Youtube Channel
Product and Brand Marketing represents the GitLab story at the brand, solution, product, and technical levels. We accelerate GitLab’s path to market by developing market insights, leadership positioning, messaging, and narratives that elevate our brand, show value in our solution, and fuel demand for our platform. We activate brand ambassadors and customer advocates to show momentum and trust in the market. The team includes Solutions & Product Marketing, Brand Marketing, Design, and Content.
The Integrated Marketing team is focused on creating awareness, generating demand and collaborating with the broader ecosystem globally, through a co-ordinated and unified approach. We connect the dots and bring content and messaging to life by leveraging various channels as our levers to communicate across segments, regions and personas.
The team includes Field Marketing, Channel & Alliances Marketing, Corporate Events, Account Based Marketing, Campaigns, Lifecycle Marketing, Digital Strategy, Social Marketing and Digital Experience.
The Sales Development organization is focused on serving the needs of prospective customers during the beginning of their buying process.
The Sales Development department is composed of 2 groups: the SDR team who handles all the inbound interest and the BDR team who specializes in outreach of prospective customers.
When prospective customers have questions about GitLab, the SDRs assist them or connect them to a technical team member as needed. During the initial exploration, if the prospective customer is interested in continuing their exploration of GitLab, SDRs will connect them to an Account Executive (AE) or Strategic Account Leader (SAL).
BDRs contact people who work at large organizations to uncover or create early-stage sales opportunities for GitLab SALs. The BDR team will plan with their paired Sales counterpart to approach interesting accounts and develop a plan for prospecting including contact discovery, understanding enterprise-wide initiatives that GitLab could assist with, and ensuring accurate data quality of accounts and contact in salesforce.com.
Marketing Strategy, Operations, and Analytics includes Marketing Operations, Analytics, and Globalization and Localization. The team focuses on enabling efficient operations and actionable analytics insights, working across all Marketing teams. The team also owns the MarTech stack used by Marketing.
The GitLab Growth department is dedicated to making it easier for teams to find value and increased efficiency within the GitLab platform. We work across stages within the product experience to make the product as easy as possible to adopt and use.
Developer Relations & Community includes community advocacy, code contributor program and evangelist program functions. The team is focused on answering the following questions:
The mission of GitLab’s Corporate Communications team is to amplify GitLab's product, people and partnerships in the media, via social media channels and through award wins. This team is responsible for global public relations (PR), social media, and executive communications (speaking).
The marketing team utilizes a single all-marketing calendar where everyone can contribute, and we can answer key questions (using filters) related to upcoming marketing plans.
Please do not filter the entire doc (although Google Docs is now allowing personal filtering that doesn't affect all other viewers in the doc - need to test this!). Instead, you may use pre-set filter views (click down arrow selector next to the filter icon on the bookmark bar) to see activities grouped by GTM Motion, segment, region, team, funnel stage, partners, and more.
Below are some pre-set filter examples:
If there are other views you would find helpful, please feel free to duplicate an existing filter view, and include some sort of categorization (i.e. team, segment, etc.). You can do this by going to a simliar filter view, and clicking on the top right gear icon, then selecting Duplicate.
The marketing team utilizes a single all-marketing calendar where everyone can contribute, and we can answer key questions (using pre-set filter views) related to upcoming marketing plans.
Please do not filter the entire doc. Instead, you may use pre-set filter views (click down arrow selector next to the filter icon on the bookmark bar) to see activities grouped by GTM Motion, segment, region, team, language, and more.
Below are some pre-set filter examples:
If there are other views you would find helpful, please feel free to duplicate an existing filter view, and include some sort of categorization (i.e. team, segment, etc.). You can do this by going to a simliar filter view, and clicking on the top right gear icon, then selecting Duplicate.
Location for inputs: In your Google Drive, search for (and bookmark) FY24 All-Marketing Calendar SSoT.
This is where all teams will input and categorize planned activities - with filters that align to key pieces of information (GTM Motion, Alliance Partners, Sales Segments, Regions, Language, and more). This will be iterative and everyone should feel open to share their feedback and ideas - comment in the issue to sare your thoughts!
The instructions below are to be followed by marketing team members. Add a row at bottom of All-Marketing Calendar spreadsheet or insert in the appropriate date (either way, this will be re-sorted by marketing periodically). If you don't have all the details, don't worry - fill in what you can and work together to outline the information that is valuable for integrating our marketing tactics as a team.
BASIC DETAILS
placeholder with focus on <add topic> if not yet determined)
KEY LINKS
GTM & PARTNER ALIGNMENT
AUDIENCE DETAILS
SUPPORTING TEAM COMMITMENTS
In the future, the goal is to visualize these inputs in a calendar format with filters (based on columns in the doc) to allow the team to see the plans in Sisense. View the Basic Mockup in Mural!
Currently, the GoogleDoc has pre-set filter views to help you see plans by Region, Segment, etc. to be added by team members for their respective activities.
Instead please see All-Marketing SSoT Calendar section (above)!
Marketing uses GitLab for agile project management including groups, projects, epics, roadmaps, issues, labels, and boards. Read through the documentation on each of these GitLab features if you are unfamiliar.
Marketing Departments collaborate to produce Integrated Campaigns. An Integrated Campaign is a communication effort that includes several campaign tactics such as blog posts, emails, events, advertisements, content on about.gitlab.com, videos, case studies, whitepapers, surveys, social outreach, and webcasts. An Integrated Campaign will have a campaign theme that summarizes the message we are communicating to our market.
Have a new campaign idea? Make a suggestion
We cultivate a deep understanding of our own product by using GitLab to manage our planning, collaboration, and execution of Marketing activities.
The latest Project Management recommendations can be found here from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
The latest recommendations for Milestones from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
Within the www-gitlab-com repo (parent repo to Marketing) there are weekly milestones, which some teams use plan a weekly sprint cadence. Each of these sprints begins with "Fri:**" for the Friday upon which that sprint ends, making them searchable in a list here.
Each week on Monday, any open MRs and issues still assigned to the previous week's milestone are bulk moved forward to the next week, and the previous milestone is closed out. This is a manual process currently performed by Danielle.
The latest recommendations for Groups and Projects from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
The latest recommendations for Epics and the latest for Issues from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
/promote quick command.)
CMO label. (Don't apply the CMO label to other epics.)The latest recommendations for Labels and the latest for boards from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
mktg-status:: and one of four statuses. Status labels should be used on all issues within the Marketing group:
mktg-status::plan - work that is proposed, in an exploratory state.
mktg-status::plan to mktg-status::wip and creating an merge request (MR), if appropriate. The plan status is optional, as issues that don't require formal planning can be opened and labeled mktg-status::wip.mktg-status::wip - work in progress that has been accepted and assigned to a DRI.
WIP:. At GitLab we allow reviewers to start reviewing right away before work is complete.mktg-status::review and WIP: should be removed from the title.mktg-status::review - work has been completed enough that it is ready for formal review and approval.
mktg-status::scheduled - work that is complete but should be scheduled for a future date.
closed - when work is delivered the issue should be closed.Each Department within Marketing can have "additive" labels - meaning they are used to enhance the tracking and workflows for that respective team. These "additive" labels are used in conjunction with the broader Marketing labels. The Department label usage is documented on each of the respective handbook pages:
All of the projects within the Marketing subgroup include default issue text to ensure the Department labels are applied consistently and broader adoption of the global Marketing labels.
When a new issue is opened in any project, the issue description will contain a small snippet of text applying that teams' label & Marketing scoped mktg-status::plan label.
Apply Template and continue as normal
The default text is minimal and generic. Any team can make the collective decision to update the text. Access to modify the text may be limited based on group/project permission level, if you do not have access to the General settings section, please reach out to @mktg-ops via slack.
Please note this is not an issue bot there is no dynamic functionality. The default issue text applies to all issues opened within that project and the text should be broad enough to encompass a roles within that team.
GeneralExpand next to Default Issue Templatemktg-status::plan label in that sectionSave changes. The changes be applied immediately to any new issue opened.
If you have any issues &/or questions, please reach out to the MktgOps team (@mktg-ops) via slack.
Figuring out how where and how to create a board, epic, label can be confusing. The following diagram is a very high level example of how it all fits together. If there are questions please ask in the #mktgops slack channel (*must be GitLab team member for active link).
Please Note: We are transitioning from the use of Campaign Tags to Allocadia IDs for campaign expense tracking purposes. As a result, we are still detailing out the process below by referencing both Allocadia IDs and Campaign Tags at this time, but eventually we'll be deprecating the use of Campaign Tags.
Marketing Managers track costs associated with campaigns - such as events, content, webcasts, etc. Allocadia IDs/Campaign Tags can be applied to Expensify reports, Coupa PO's, corporate credit card charges, and vendor bills processed by Accounts Payable. Campaign expenses that are incurred by independent contractors should be clearly noted with the appropriate ID/tag and included in their invoices to the company. We then use these accumulated costs for budget to actual analysis as well as to update the Salesforce campaigns with actual costs.
Marketing tracks campaign costs utilizing Allocadia line items. Once you have created your line item in Allocadia, follow these instructions.
Note: As we move from campaign tags to Allocadia IDs for tracking campaign costs, the below section will eventually be deprecated.
GitLab makes use of campaign tags throughout our systems in order to better track associated costs. For consistency, we use the naming convention of ISODate_Campaign_ShortName. More details on the ISO Date:
ISO 8601 provides a standard cross-national approach that says:
- A general-to-specific approach, forming a date that is easier to process - thus, the year first, followed by month, then day
- Numbers less than 10 preceded by a leading zero
- Years expressed as "0" prior to year 1 and as "-1" for the year prior to year 0 (and so forth)
- Thus, March 30, 1998 would be: 19980330.
Once you have created your Campaign Tag, follow these instructions.
If your event or tactic gets postponed to a new date, you only need to request an update to the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag date in this tracker if the date pushes more than six months from the original tactic date. If postponement date is within six months of the original date, no requested adjustment is required to the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag.
Travel expenses (food, hotel stays, arline tickets, etc.) must also be tracked utilizing Allocadia IDs/Campaign Tags. You will include the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag in the classification field in Expensify when you are completing your expense report. The instructions for how to request the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag be created in Netsuite > Expensify can be found here. Additional information regarding travel can be found here.
There are times when a rapid response is needed to address industry changes, competitive moves, news about the company, and other opportunities to provide comment or thought leadership. In order to effectively respond, GitLab marketing needs to monitor, create and publish quickly. Additionally, GitLab marketing needs to support GitLab executives with content, data and soundbytes for interviews, blog-posts, etc.
If a rapid response opportunity arises, please alert the head of corporate communications (or CMO if head of corporate communications is unavailable) via slack or text message. Rapid response collaboration will happen in either the #competition channel (if it is competitive) or in the #external-comms channel (if it is about other news). The head of corporate communications will propose a recommendation on how to best proceed with an external company message and recruit the resources to accomplish the plan (this becomes the #1 priority for each resource, unless physically impossible or their manager provides a replacement). A template for a rapid response can be found here.
The head of corporate communications will assess the rapid response request within 1 HOUR (9amEST-6pmPST). Urgency will be assessed and will be determined to be 3 HOURS (ASAP) or 24 HOURS turnaround, and the action plan will be scoped accordingly - with a bias towards releasing an MVC as soon as possible, and iterating as more news becomes available. Any disagreements on urgency or action will be escalated immediately to the CMO for a final decision.
While each response will be a custom plan, the rapid response team will leverage appropriate resources to execute on the agreed upon plan:
Please have the author of the statement/blog post comment with their approval on the MR before merging, even if you have received approval in other, non-public channels.
GitLab's Marketing team maintains a list of agency and partner firms in a protected Google Sheet (only accessible to GitLab team members).
The purpose of this list is to provide transparency to GitLab team members on agencies and partners onboarded to work with us. If you are considering an agency or partner to scale your team and create additional resource leverage, check this list first. If you have onboarded a new partner or agency, please add them to this list for others to view. We create added efficiency by sharing our recommended partners internally.
In order to focus our efforts around investments the company should make per country, worldwide, it was important that sales and marketing leadership agreed to countries to prioritize (P0, P1, P2, P3 and P4).
The investment checklist at each priority level is a wishlist of how we are aiming to localize in those areas. For example, in market sales and SDR support is included in P0 as well as much higher level of translations. More details can be found internally on the tracking sheet.
Get to know the people who work in GitLab's marketing team by visiting our READMEs.
Check out the handbook page on the marketing career development program.