The Support Global Groups way of working is based on the knowledge that people are much more successful when working in small self-organizing groups than when working in large ones. GitLab Support is definitely a big group, and it's only getting bigger! So now it has become very difficult for Support Engineers in this large, global environment to connect with other team members, to know who to contact when they need help, to feel heard, and to be successful in their work.
With the introduction of Support Global Groups (SGG) in May of 2022, we aimed to create for all Support Engineers a smaller, safer space for belonging, which still maintains their full access to the support, knowledge and experience of our global Support Team. Another important aspect of SGG is that it provides for each SE a less intimidating, easier to grasp, more manageable set of work for which they share responsibility with their small, close group.
In this environment, we have observed and received feedback from our Support Engineers during SGG trials that they feel less work-induced stress and more happiness and job satisfaction overall. With that happiness comes greater energy, more and better innovation, greater efficiency, and better results for our customers and our company. We see SGG as a strong foundation for success as the Support Team continues to scale.
For a little more of an introduction to SGG, please see this 9-minute video created by four Support Engineers who participated in the SGG Trials: Andrew, Ryan, Daniel and Ben.
SGG: [group name]
SGG field to
the name of the groupSGG: [group name] to the Groups section of their entry in the
support-team.yaml
filespt_gg_[group name]The SGG Slackbot's Daily Stand-up posts each morning for each region regularly, in a number of channels to advise global groups of different information. For further details of the different variations, please refer to the SGG handbook page of the group you are curious about.
In the APAC region, team members who have a shared focus on the Licensing and Renewals work also utilises the Daily Stand-up Bot, posted to the #support_licensing-subscription channel in Slack, which supports them in ensuring support coverage reliability of the Licensing and Renewal tickets across APAC Support hours.
To request modifications to the Daily Stand-up Bot in your channel, please create an SGG Slackbot issue.
»»»» The primary responsibility of each Support Engineer is the success of their group. ««««
Each Intermediate and Senior Support Engineer should generally be prioritizing their daily work according to the following list. Interviews, training, special assignments and other time-bound commitments are examples of good temporary exceptions to these priorities. Your group might also determine a different workflow or distribution of work that would create a different prioritized list.
You should think of this list as a tool for helping you to make decisions. When there are multiple things to be done, these priorities should guide you toward deciding which of them to do first.
We are all part of a global team of 100+ support engineers and in SGG we have the benefit of both working in a small familiar group and of the broad experience and expertise of our full global team. Flexipods is one example of cross-group collaboration, some others are:
Managers are here to help and support SGG team members. If you or your global group feel blocked, and want help on any of the following, we've created #spt_gg_forest for all SGG team members to use in collaborating more closely with Support managers:
For a timeline table of the history of SGG and the many issues involved, please see this SGG History Google doc for a summary.
For answers to the most common questions about SGG, please review the SGG FAQ page.
Please see the Training Plan page