Sales Kickoff is too big to have a single DRI for everything. The Field Enablement leader is ultimately accountable for delivery of a successful, on-budget SKO and will be responsible for the following:
See the SKO 2023 parent epic. Additional SKO responsibilities will be split into 3 sub-teams with category DRIs responsible for specific aspects of SKO as outlined below. The SKO core team will include the following sub-teams, all of which have supporting team members underneath them:
The SKO core team also includes an executive sponsor (VP, Field Ops) with responsibilities that include:
Sub-Team | Responsibilities | Key Collaborators |
---|---|---|
Event Support & Logistics | - Brand / Design - Budget management - Venue details - Partner Summit logistics - F&B (onsite & offsite) - Registration - Run of show - Event check-in - Signage - Mobile app - Ancillary events (if applicable) |
- Brand - Field Enablement - Channel Programs |
Content | - Mainstage content - Non-mainstage content - Partner Summit content - Awards & Compensation - Production Video ** see additional details in the Content Sub-Team Deeper Dive section below |
** see additional details in the Content Sub-Team Deeper Dive section below |
Communications | - Comms plan - Event copy - Slack channels - Survey planning & execution - Post-event content sharing - Event summary / wrap-up |
Events |
Content Type | Responsibilities | Key Collaborators |
---|---|---|
Mainstage | - Keynote content - Customer and/or partner speaker sessions - Motivational speaker |
- Events - Corp Comms - Execs |
Non-mainstage | - Role-based breakouts - Birds of a Feather sessions |
- Events - Portfolio Marketing - Field org |
Partner Summit | - Partner Summit sessions - Partner sponsorships |
- Events - Portfolio Marketing - Field Enablement |
Awards & Compensation | - Tracking final results - Awards - President’s Club winners - Comp Overview |
- Events - CRO leaders |
Production Video | - Video for mainstage sessions - Video content production for SKO and Partner Summit, Event recording, and Other |
- Events - Digital Production - Field Enablement - Channel |
Scheduling and logistics are managed in a Sales Kickoff (SKO) 2023 Agenda & Logistics Google sheet, while actual work is managed in GitLab.
SKO work within GitLab is managed in epics and issues (see SKO 2023 meta epic). Sub-team DRIs are empowered to manage their child epics and issues as they see fit.
The Sales Kickoff (SKO) 2023 Agenda & Logistics Google sheet contains:
The sub-team DRIs are responsible for maintaining the efficacy of this document unless there is a core team member directly responsible for all of the contents of a tab (i.e. Partner Summit, Ancillary Events, Breakouts).
The SKO planning team has one 50-minute planning meeting that includes ALL DRIs and sub-DRIs + team members leading planning and content for keynote sessions.
In addition, the SKO planning team delivers CRO Leader Status Updates in the following cadence:
In order to drive relentless prioritization based on GitLab Sales Kickoff (SKO) theme/sub-themes/goals, gather content in a timely manner and secure executive consensus early, the SKO Core Team implements a "Call for Content" for SKO breakout sessions. A secondary benefit of this process is that it gives Field Enablement a strong backlog of well-rounded training and enablement topics for topic submissions not selected or prioritized for SKO (e.g. webcast topics, etc.) in future months/quarters to support continuous education initiatives for the field organization. There are two types of breakout sessions:
Note that we will also use the Call for Content submission form for Mainstage sessions to tease out the learning objectives and outlines, but we will not implement a formal selection process as there is already a prescriptive "formula" for which speakers/teams give keynotes.
Field Enablement Program Managers send a "Call for Content" for their relevant segment areas (ENT, COMM, Customer Success, Channel & Alliances) and give DRIs/team members 3 weeks to send in submissions. Submissions are then prioritized based on a set list of criteria and relevance to the SKO theme. Any sessions not chosen are put into a backlog for consideration in fast-follow enablement/reinforcement activities following SKO. Please see below for a more detailed overview of the process.
Below are the activities that Field Enablement Managers and Sales Kickoff (SKO) DRI collaborate on as a part of the "Call for Content" for SKO breakout sessions. This process begins no later than three months before SKO.
Below is are the criteria used to select submissions for SKO breakout sessions.
Criteria
Selection Process