The Learning & Development team has a number of resources to help team members learn new skills. Click the buttons below to learn more about each opportunity:
Why we exist
L&D is here to guide team members on their career journey. We strive to foster a culture of learning and development so that GitLab remains a great place to work. When our team members can do their jobs, our customers are happy as a result. This makes everyone at Gitlab happy!
Where are we going
GitLab seeks to be recognized as a top organization for remote learning & development. We aim for a future where everyone contributes to a culture of curiosity.
What we do
We empower individual contributors and equip leaders through self-service learning. We accomplish a culture of development by:
Performance indicators
Meaningful and relevant content. We deliver learning solutions that help you reach your professional goals.
Values aligned. Our learning solutions reinforce GitLab’s values and foster continuous learning and curiosity.
Diverse approaches to learning. We apply a blended learning model to find solutions to various individual needs.
Community. L&D offerings available to the public so that everyone can contribute.
Learn more about our FY22 Roadmap and tracking sheet.
Note: Learning & Development activities are subject to change
Internally, the GitLab People Group uses a calendar to track cross-functional efforts. Please see the People Group Page for more information.
We are a small team, but we've got a big role to play at GitLab!
Slack: #learninganddevelopment
Email Us: learning@gitlab.com
Request support/Collaborate on new learning content
Please take 5 minutes for a survey to tell us how do you prefer to learn!
To request support from L&D, please see the process for working with us. This page outlines issue templates and processes that are managed on our Learning and Development issue board.
We will review and classify your request based on the scalability and possible organizational impact: learning solutions that can be applied and used company-wide take priority.
This is the process:
All material in the handbook is considered training. The Learning & Development team pulls content from the handbook to build handbook first learning content. One of L&D's primary responsibilities is to ensure that content lives in the appropriate section in the handbook. In the below video, Sid, explains how the content of courses is not separated from the handbook to the L&D team.
Overview of the type of meetings the Learning & Development participates in every quarter:
| Meeting Type | Cadence/Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 | Weekly meeting/25 minutes | - 1:1 meeting between direct report and manager of L&D team. - Topics covered include: task management, career development, performance management, blockers, project updates, brainstorming, coaching, etc. - During the meeting, if their is an item that requires broader team collaboration it will be added to the bi-weekly team meeting. |
| L&D Team Meeting | Every two weeks/40 minutes | - Strategic items that have been brought up during 1:1 meetings that impact the team as a whole. - The meetings will cover items that are strategic in nature that require discussion, brainstorming, collaboration, and synthesis with the team |
| L&D Quarterly Strategic Meeting | Quarterly/90 minutes to 2 hours | - Review what was acheived in the quarter, what wasn't, and lessons learned - Team members will present plans on what they are focused on for the next quarter - Review team morale, team dynamics, learner satisfaction, long term impact, and alignment with Peope Group goals. |
The L&D team uses GitLab issue boards to track priorities, organize collaboration, and set due dates based on three-week sprints.
open list is a queue for issues that need to be addressed, but have not yet been assigned to a sprint, backlog, or priority.ld-backlog or ld-fyxx-q1-priority list. This will determine if the issue is a priority for the current quarter, or a backlog issue to be addresses as time allows.L&D Sprint # (Date Range)ld-backlog or ld-fyxx-q1-priority list to the correct sprint when they are ready to be assigned/addressed.L&D Requests list should be used to organize requests for L&D support or courses coming from other teams.manager-challenge list holds issues related to each Manager Challenge and can be hidden on the sprint board.advanced-software-engineering-course list houses issues related to external software engineer courses can can be hidden on the sprint board.Additional planning and notes around the sprint board can be found in this issue.
/estimate command to set an estimate for the project to be complete. After each working session, use the/spend command to track actual time spent.new-initiative issue template when planning a new learning initiative, engagement program, or program ideacontent-scoping issue template when proposing a new pathway, creating a new course, or building any new learning experienceIf you want the wider L&D team to be aware of your MR, please apply the ld-handbook-update label to the MR. This will trigger a Zapier automation that posts the MR title and link to the #learning-team Slack channel.
The L&D team freqently uses the following tools for creating and communicating learning opportunities at GitLab.
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Powtoon | Video Creation |
| LucidChard | Interactive Diagrams |
| Loom | Screen recordings |
| Canva | Image and infographic creation |
| Articulate/Rise 360 | Course Authoring |
If you are developing content to meet your learning needs or partnering with the L&D team, here are five key principles to consider when formulating a learning session:
Know Your Audience - Analyze and assess the course audience. Ensure that all audience needs are accounted for at every level in the organization you are delivering the training too.
Define Learning Objectives - Highlight the learner outcome. Consider developing two to three broad overall statements of what the audience will achieve.
Break Down Complex Information - Consider breaking down complex information into easy to digest visuals or text. Reference the handbook but do not be afraid to create a visual representation or use storytelling for the audience.
Engage the Learner - Adults learn through practice and involvement. Consider using tools to engage learners in a virtual setting like Mentimeter or Kahoot to stimulate interactivity. Ask the L&D team for more insight on learning engagement tools. There is a lot you can leverage!
Implement Blended Learning Course Content - Give the audience some pre-course work to read and review before the learning session. Use off-the-shelf resources and ensure the content is applicable to what will be covered in the session. Follow up with the audience following the session to gauge how they've applied what they've learned on the job through surveys and questionnaires.
Adults learn differently in the workplace than in traditional learning environments or how they learned growing up. If you are developing training, consider applying principles related to Adult Learning Theories, those include:
Transformative learning: The learning experience should aim to change the individual through transformative learning approaches. Start with learning experiences that appeal to your specific audience, and then move to activities that challenge assumptions and points of view.
Self-directed learning: Most of the learning that adults do is outside the context of formal training, so there should be an emphasis on augmenting those informal learning experiences. Infuse applications of pre-reads and post-course follow up. Have the participants bring up examples of self-directed learning that they have taken that is related to the training course.
Experiential learning: Adults learn through experiences and by doing. When designing a learning experience, apply activities to stimulate learning by doing through role-playing, simulations, virtual labs, case studies, etc.
Andragogy: Recognize that adults learn differently than children. Design learning experiences with the assumption that your participants will come to the table with their own set of life experiences and motivations. Adults tend to direct their own learning, tend to learn better by doing, and will want to apply their learning to concrete situations as soon as possible.
If you are developing training, add learning objectives to the beginning of the content to state a clear training outcome. A clear learning objective describes what the learner will do upon completion of a learning/training activity. Good learning objectives are what you want team members to learn or achieve.
Steps to creating learning objectives:
Sample learning objectives:
The L&D team uses a formula to describe the optimal sources of learning at GitLab. It shows that team members obtain 70 percent of the knowledge from job-related experiences, 20 percent from interactions with others, and 10 percent from formal learning events. The model is intended to show that hands-on experience (70 percent) can be one of the most beneficial for team members because it enables them to discover and refine their job-related skills. Team members learn from others (20 percent) through a variety of activities we offer every week. Lastly, the formula holds that only 10 percent of professional development comes from traditional live learning and eLearning events.
The Learning & Development, Field Enablement, and Professional Services teams hosted an Instructional Design 101 session on 2020-10-28 to better understand concepts of adult learning theory and instructional design. Check out the video to learn how to apply instructional design to learning content.
| Term | Definition | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Training | The action of teaching a team member a particular skill or behavior | Varies |
| Bite-sized learning | A short course to learn a skill. Bite-sized can be a compentent of training or a separate learning element (i.e. a video, a PDF cheat-sheet, an infographic) | Max 15 minutes, 5 to 10 minute average |
| Self-paced course | Learner has the control over the amount of material they want to consume and the duration of time needed to learn the new information. | Pre-defined by the designer (i.e. hours, days, etc.) |
| Curriculum | A series of learning paths that comprise a course of study on a skill-based topic | Varies |
| Certification | See definition on the certification page | Varies |
| Learning Path | A chosen route taken by a learner through a range of learning activities to build knowledge progressivley | Varies |
This terminology is distinct from our Learning Experience Platform, GitLab Learn, which has it's own glossary of terms.
| Term | Definition | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor-Led Training (ILT) | Practice of training and learning material between an instructor and learners. Face-to-face training (classroom training) | Varies |
| Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) | Training that is delivered in a virtual enviornment (i.e. training in Zoom) | 1 to 3 hours |
| E-Learning | Learning based on traditional learning theories which takes place electronically, often via the Internet. | Varies |
| Blended Learning | Training that uses multiple methods to teach the new information to learners. It can includ ILTs, self-paced materials, VILT sessions, etc. | Varies |
| Webinar | A seminar conducted virtually to a large audience | 3+ hours |
| Workshop | Hands-on or virtual demos, problem solving, tutorials where team members engage in discussion and activity on a particular subject | Varies |