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How to Get Help

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  3. Support Team Handbook
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  5. How to Get Help

Getting Help on a Ticket

When working on tickets, collaboration is critical, especially when troubleshooting complex issues, or technical areas of focus that fall outside of your experience level. Asking for help means having a low level of shame, and also shows that you are putting the customer first because you are working towards resolving their problem.

How to Get Help Workflow

If you are stuck on a ticket, the following workflow seeks to help Support Engineers realize and utilize all of the resources available to progress a ticket to resolution. This workflow lists some common resources, you can lean on to get the help you need.

If you’re stuck on a ticket…..

Identify what's causing you to get stuck. Some examples are:

Then consider these options to help unblock you. And remember that escalating to unblock is a sub-value of Results.

  1. Ask in your group's Slack channel for help. You might get all the help you need in responses right there, or you might open up the group's Zoom room for an impromptu pairing session to work on the ticket. And remember:
    1. Be sure to provide a link to the ticket
    2. Be specific about the help you need
      • For example: "Kubernetes Runner help needed: user is running into X error, logs are saying Y, and we've tried Z. What else could it be?"
  2. Use our Needs Collaboration workflow:
  3. Apply the Collaboration macro to your ticket:
    1. The macro adds the needs_collaboration tag, which makes your ticket visible in the Needs Collaboration view.
    2. The macro opens an internal note in the ticket and fills it with the contents of a ticket summary template. In that note summarize the help that you need as well as the steps you've taken and the progress you've made on the ticket.
  4. Other SEs who are interested in collaborating with you on the ticket will reach out. They may provide suggestions in an internal note. They may ask to pair. They may ask in Slack or the ticket for more information from you.
  5. Ask for help in one of the broader relevant Support Slack channels. In addition to the Slack reminders above, also:
    • Check the Skills by Subject Support page to see who might have the skills to assist. Mention those people in the thread and in the ticket to let them know you think they can help.
  6. Ask for help in the appropriate DevOps Stages Slack channel, or reach out to the Support Stable Counterpart for the appropriate product area. If you are unsure which product area it is, ask your group or a manager for guidance.
    • For example, if you need help with a runners issue, ask for development support in the runners Slack channel, or reach out to the Support stable counterpart(s) that are listed under the runner group section.
  7. Attend crush or help sessions such as those noted below (see the GitLab Support calendar for times):
    • AMER Senior SE Help Sessions
    • APAC/AMER or EMEA/AMER crush sessions
    • APAC or EMEA crush / collaboration sessions
    • Senior Support Office Hours (varying times)
  8. Initiate a Branch Out session
    • This is like a crush session, with the specific intention of helping 1 or 2 groups with FRTs
  9. If you're struggling to get help, reach out to your manager, the manager on-call, or any available manager. They will help you to determine next steps. Please know that there will always be somebody who can help, even if you're having a hard time finding them. Please do not let this deter you from asking for help any time you need it.
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