CEO Shadow Program

At GitLab, being a CEO shadow is not a job title, but a temporary assignment to shadow the CEO

Overview

Introduction

At GitLab, being a CEO shadow is not a job title, but a temporary assignment to shadow the CEO. The shadows will be present at all meetings of the CEO during their rotation. GitLab is an all-remote company, but the CEO has in-person meetings with external organizations. Unless you’re joining the program during one of our remote rotations, you will stay in San Francisco during the entire rotation and travel with the CEO.

Goal

The goal of the CEO Shadow Program is to give team members and eligible individuals an overview of all aspects of the company. This transparency enables CEO Shadow participants to better engage and collaborate cross-functionally, as well as better perform global optimizations.

As a CEO Shadow, you’ll gain this context through the meetings you attend and while completing short-term tasks from across the company. The program also creates opportunities for the CEO to build relationships with team members across the company and to identify challenges and opportunities earlier. The shadows will also often connect with one another, developing new cross-functional relationships.

What it is not

The CEO Shadow Program is not a performance evaluation or the next step to a promotion. Being a CEO shadow is not needed to get a promotion or a raise, and should not be a consideration factor for a promotion or raise, as diverse applicants have different eligibilities.

Benefits for the company

Apart from creating leadership opportunities, the CEO Shadow Program:

  1. Leaves a great impression on both investors and customers
  2. Gives feedback immediately to the CEO
  3. Enables the CEO to create immediate change

This is why the program is worth the extra overhead for the CEO and EBA team.

Naming of the program

For now, this role is called a CEO shadow to make it clear to external people why a shadow is in a meeting.

Other names considered:

  1. Technical assistant: This title could be mixed up with the executive assistant role. “In 2003, Mr. Bezos picked Mr. Jassy to be his technical assistant, a role that entailed shadowing the Amazon CEO in all of his weekly meetings and acting as a kind of chief of staff.”.
  2. Chief of Staff to the CEO: This commonly is the “coordinator of the supporting staff” which is not the case for this role since people rotate out of it frequently.
  3. Global Leadership Shadow Program: This is too long if only the CEO is shadowed.

About the CEO Shadow Program

Reasons to participate

What is it like?

Considering joining the program? Hear from past shadows about their experience:

  1. Day 2 of Erica Lindberg
  2. Acquisitions, growth curves, and IPO strategies: A day at Khosla Ventures
  3. GitLab CEO Shadow Update - May 30, 2019
  4. Key takeaways from CEO Shadow C Blake
  5. AMA with the CEO Shadow Alumni on 2019-08-23
  6. Reflecting on the CEO Shadow Program at GitLab
  7. Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned from a Remote GitLab CEO Shadow Rotation
  8. AMA with the CEO Shadow Alumni on 2020-07-02

Still not sure if the CEO Shadow program is for you? Want an authentic, honest, and unfiltered understanding of the program? You can visit the #ceo-shadow-alumni channel or visit the alumni section of the handbook to find Shadows who have recently completed a rotation. Send them a DM or a coffee chat invite, and they will give you an entire run down. You can ask them anything you want about the program without worrying about them judging you. They want to help you understand if it’s a good fit for you and are happy to share their experiences with you!

Impact of the CEO Shadow Program

This is feedback received from some Alumni shadows and their managers.

What is the feedback from the CEO?

Hear what our CEO has to say about the CEO shadow program.

Participating in the program

Eligibility

All GitLab team members are eligible to apply for the CEO Shadow Program.

Exceptions to eligibility:

CEO Shadow rotations will be reserved for All-Directs during the week of E-Group Offsites. An exception will be made if there is last minute availability as two All-Directs are not available to serve in this role during this window.

COVID-19 Note: During this time, all shadow rotations are fully remote. Given the CEO generally works from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific, it’s best for remote shadows to be in Pacific, Mountain, or Central time zones. Other time zones will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Learn more about what to expect from a remote shadow rotation.

How to apply

  1. Create a merge request to add yourself to the rotation schedule.
  2. Assign your manager and ask them to approve (but not to merge) the merge request.
  3. Once your manager approves the merge request, assign the merge request to the Chief of Staff to the CEO, link to the merge request in the #ceo-shadow channel, and @mention the Executive Business Admin supporting the CEO in the message.

Please keep in mind when selecting dates that the CEO’s schedule is fluid and subject to constant change, which also means that the CEO shadow rotation is subject to constant change. The posted dates are not guaranteed. We will work with you to reschedule your rotation if a conflict arises.

Parental participation

We understand that participation in the CEO Shadow Program is optional and can cause hardships at home. To help overcome these challenges and to allow flexibility for parents to participate, there will be some rotations identified as “parent-friendly” weeks. These are weeks when Sid doesn’t need a shadow for the full 5 workdays or where the program is split so the weeks are not consecutive.

See the childcare section in Travel & Expenses for guidance on how to expense childcare costs.

Rotation rhythm

We want many people to be able to benefit from this program, therefore we rotate often. It is important that an incoming person is trained so that the management overhead can be light. Currently, a rotation is two weeks:

  1. See one, you are trained by the outgoing person.
  2. Teach one, you train the incoming person.

The shadow should be available for the full two weeks.

When the CEO has a week or more of paid time off, or during Contribute, the program will pause, one shadow will “see one” before the break and “teach one” after the break. The rotations with breaks of one or more weeks without a shadow are great if you can’t be away from home for more than one week at a time.

If you need childcare to be able to participate, GitLab will reimburse you for it.

This program is not limited just to long-term GitLab team members. For new team members, this might even be the first thing they do after completing our onboarding. Exceptional community members may be able to participate, as well.

Rotation schedule

Start date End date See one Teach one
2022-12-05 2022-12-09 Kurt Dusek - Alliances Solutions Architect None
2022-12-12 2022-12-16 AVAILABLE - REMOTE Kurt Dusek - Alliances Solutions Architect
2022-12-19 2022-12-23 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2022-12-26 2022-12-30 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-01-02 2023-01-06 Aaron Burgess - IBM Alliance Business Development Manager AVAILABLE - REMOTE
2022-01-09 2023-01-13 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-01-16 2023-01-20 Stacy Cline - Sr Director, ESG Aaron Burgess - IBM Alliance Business Development Manager
2023-01-23 2023-01-27 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-01-30 2023-02-02 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-02-06 2023-02-09 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-02-13 2023-02-17 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-02-20 2023-02-24 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-02-27 2023-03-03 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-03-06 2023-03-10 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-03-13 2023-03-17 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-03-20 2023-03-24 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS
2023-03-27 2023-03-31 NO SHADOWS NO SHADOWS

If you have questions regarding the planned rotation schedule, please ping the EBA to the CEO and Chief of Staff to the CEO. The CoS to the CEO to the CEO manages the rotation schedule, please do not add new dates to the schedule when adding in your rotation. The CEO’s schedule is subject to constant change and your rotation may need to be rescheduled.

Preparing for the Program

Important things to note

  1. This is not a performance evaluation.
  2. Plan to observe and ask questions.
  3. Don’t plan to do any of your usual work. Prepare your team as if you were on vacation. In Time Off by Deel, you should select “CEO Shadow Program” as the type, and assign someone to cover for you while you are in the program. This type of Time Off by Deel is set as “Available” which sets Slack status and a free / visibility calendar event only. You may disable the Slack OOO auto-responder within Time Off by Deel app > Slack > CEO Shadow Program if you find it obtrusive.
  4. Be ready to add a number of handbook updates during your shadow period.
  5. Participating in the shadow program is a privilege where you will be exposed to confidential information, including having access to material non-public information (MNPI). Participation in the shadow program and access to such information is underpinned by trust in the shadows to honor the confidentiality of topics being discussed and information shared. The continuation of this program is entirely dependent on shadows past, present, and future honoring this trust placed in them. As stated in GitLab’s [Insider Trading Policy] (drive.google.com/file/d/1c2tX4IK3GofrsA6N_i4Sr72hOcI1_g_q/view), participants in the shadow program will be considered Designated Insiders because shadows have access to MNPI. Each participant of the CEO shadow program or other E-Group level shadow program will be added to the Designated Insider list for the quarter in which they are program participants. Each shadow will be removed from the Designated Insider list once the window has closed for the same quarter they participate as a shadow only if that is the sole reason the participant is on the Designated Insider list. For additional information, please see the Designated Insider Pre-Clearance Process and FAQs.
  6. Give feedback to and receive feedback from the CEO. Participants in the shadow program are encouraged to deliver candid feedback. Examples of this are to the CEO and to the world about the company if they make a blog post or video. Shadows maintaining confidentiality during the program is separate from shadows being able to provide candid feedback.

What to wear

You do not need to dress formally; business casual clothes are appropriate. For example, Sid wears a button-up with jeans most days. GitLab shirts are acceptable when there aren’t any external meetings. Review Sid’s calendar to check if there are formal occasions - this may require different clothing. If unsure, please ask the CoS to the CEO in the #ceo-shadow Slack channel. Make sure to bring comfortable shoes with you to Mission Control any time there are meetings in the city. Wear whatever you are comfortable in, keeping in mind that Sid prefers to walk, even if his calendar says Uber.

Pre-Program Tasks

Create an onboarding issue

Outgoing shadows are responsible for training incoming shadows. We currently track onboarding and offboarding in the ceo-shadow project.

Make sure you do the following:

  • Create an onboarding issue. The incoming shadow is responsible for creating their onboarding issue by the Friday before they start the program using the onboarding template. Assign the issue to both the incoming and outgoing shadows (the person who will be “teaching one” and yourself).
  • Create an offboarding issue. Prepare the issue on your second week by using the offboarding template.

Consider creating goals

Consider adding goals for your time as a CEO Shadow, and adding them to your onboarding issue. To make your goals more actionable, you may want to use the SMART goals framework.

Doing this will help you reflect upon your overall CEO Shadow experience more easily, and it may help you write a better blog post after you complete the program.

For inspiration, here is an example of a CEO Shadow who added goals to their onboarding issue.

Practice your introduction

You will get asked about yourself during the program, and it’s important to describe it correctly. So stand in front of a mirror and practice 3 times. The main point is, do not say that your role is to “follow Sid around” or “follow the CEO around”. The program is for exploring and learning about all the parts of GitLab, and there’s where the emphasis should lie. See CEO Shadow Introductions for specifics.

Coffee chat with Co-shadow

Before your scheduled rotation, try to schedule coffee chats with your co-shadow before you start the program. This gives you the opportunity to get to know them and help set expectations for the rotation.

Coffee Chat with CEO Shadow Alumni

Feel free to schedule a coffee chat with any of the CEO Shadow Alumni. You can review the list of CEO Shadow Alumni below. These chats can be helpful when deciding whether to apply to participate or if you’re unable to participate but want to hear about the experience and what alumni have learned while shadowing.

Coffee Chat with the CLO

This session is designed to answer any questions you may have about your learnings or observations during your time in the Shadow Program. Should it be useful or complementary to your time as a CEO Shadow, our Chief Legal Officer (CLO) hosts Monthly Shadow Chats.

Please @ mention the CLO’s Sr. EBA in #ceo-shadow should you wish to be added to an upcoming session, or if you would like to schedule a 1:1 coffee chat with the CLO. This option is available to all Shadows, past, present, and future.

Explore the CEO Shadow project

CEO Shadows use the ceo-shadow project to track issues and coordinate the requests that result from the CEO’s meetings. It is linked in the CEO Shadow channel description on Slack. Check out the ongoing CEO Shadow tasks on the To Do issue board.

Review the CEO’s calendar

Review the CEO’s calendar to get an idea of what your upcoming weeks will be like.

Review the CEO Handbook

The CEO has a section in the handbook that details processes and workflows specific to him as well as his background, communication style, strengths, and flaws. Take time to invest in your relationship with him upfront by reviewing this part of the handbook. Here are some helpful sections:

  1. Communication
  2. Pointers from direct reports
  3. Strengths
  4. Flaws

Review acronyms

If you’re not familiar with some of the business acronyms, take a bit of time to review them. The Product Performance Indicators handbook page has some useful acronyms as well as concepts you’re likely to come across.

Note: This list is not meant to be exhaustive and should not become a glossary. While we strive to be handbook first, you may find that we are using acronyms without a clear handbook definition. If you can’t find it in the handbook or find a standard definition on Google, ask someone what the acronym means. Not being able to find it could be a sign that we need to do a better job with documentation.

Remote shadow rotations

GitLab all-remote mentor

The CEO Shadow Program is temporarily fully remote because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. The shadows will participate in all meetings from their usual work environment.

While remote shadows won’t get to work from Mission Control or attend in-person meetings with the CEO, they will still get an immersive experience through the program. A remote rotation may also be an ideal opportunity for a team member who has been unable to travel for an in-person rotation in the past.

For insights on maximizing a remote CEO Shadow rotation, view takeaway recap videos from Betsy (Talent Brand Manager) and Darren (Head of Remote), as well as Darren’s blog.

Tips for remote shadows

  1. Be sure that you have an ergonomic workspace. You’ll be taking lots of notes during meetings, and will want a comfortable setup.
  2. Communicate clearly with your co-shadow about shared tasks since you will not be working together in person.
  3. Consider alternating who leads note-taking from one meeting to the next, which reduces confusion on who writes first and who follows from one event to the next.
  4. Take breaks from your desk when there is a break in the CEO’s schedule. Because you’re not working from Mission Control or traveling to other meetings with the CEO, it’s important to take time to move around.
  5. Depending on your time zone, working in Pacific Time may be an adjustment to your typical working hours. Plan ahead, especially if you’re balancing responsibilities with family, pets, roommates, etc.
  6. Consider switching locations in your home or workspace during the CEO’s 1:1 meetings. Since you won’t be taking active notes in these calls, this is a good opportunity to change position or scenery intermittently throughout the day.
  7. Particularly in a remote CEO Shadow rotation, life is more available to sidetrack you. It is OK if you need to drop from a meeting to handle tasks at home, from childcare to answering the door, or anything in between. GitLab puts family and friends first, work second. If feasible, communicate these instances in the #ceo-shadow Slack channel so your co-shadow can assist with ongoing note-taking/tasks.
  8. Consider taking one or two days off after your rotation. Being a CEO shadow can be intense. Be aware of symptoms of burnout.

What to expect during the program

Tasks

The value of the CEO Shadow Program comes from the broader context you’ll gain and the interesting conversations you’ll witness.

Since your rotation is over a short period of time, there are no long-term tasks you can take on. However, there are many short-term administrative tasks you’ll be asked to perform as a shadow. Here are some examples:

  1. Make handbook updates (use the ceo-shadow label). Post the MR links in the #ceo Slack channel and @-reference the CEO so the CEO knows they have been completed. It is not required to create issues for these tasks. Go directly to a merge request if it is more efficient.
  2. Draft a “tweet storm”.
  3. Solve urgent issues. For example, help solve a complaint from a customer or coordinate the response to a technical issue.
  4. Go through open merge requests and work towards merging or closing any that have not been merged.
  5. Go through open issues in the CEO shadow project and work towards closing or creating a subsequent merge request to close out. Communicate updates on those tasks in the #ceo-shadow channel.
  6. Iterate and complete small tasks as they come up. Clear them out immediately to allow for rapid iteration on more crucial tasks. Communicate updates on those tasks in the #ceo-shadow channel.
  7. Compile a report on a subject.
  8. Write a blog post on the public company blog, a recorded reflection of your experience, or a CEO Interview on a topic of your choice. Please see information about pitching and publishing a blog post for information about the publishing process, and be sure to read previous CEO shadows’ blog posts before you start writing to ensure that your post has a new angle. Link this to the table in the Alumni section. These do not need to be approved by the CEO but he will happily review them if you’d like. The posts should however follow the parameters outlined in the additional note-taking guidelines. In the event you have any questions about what is okay to share, please reach out to the GitLab Legal team in slack at #legal or the Corporate Communications team in #corpcomms.
  9. Provide training to the incoming CEO Shadow(s).

Of course, you’ll also attend meetings that the CEO attends. During meetings, you will:

  1. Prepare for, take notes during, and follow up on meetings. See more details below about your meeting responsibilities as a shadow.
  2. Publicly advise when people are not following the communication guidelines (see more details below.). For example, remind team members to stop screen sharing to encourage communication.
  3. Share thanks in the #thanks channel in Slack when it comes from a customer or wider community member in a meeting.
  4. Speak up when the CEO displays flawed behavior.
  5. Immediately following meetings, score the CEO on overall positivity score in the Positivity Score google sheet shared with ceo-shadow@gitlab.com. Each shadow should give a score for all meetings attended. Scores can range from 1 (the least positive someone could respectfully be) to 5 (CEO was highly engaged, reactions were authentically positive), focused on the CEO’s presence and reactions during the meeting. At the end of the day, post the score for each meeting to the #ceo-shadow-private Slack channel and @ mention the CEO.
  • Score definitions:
    • 1: the least positive someone could respectfully be; not at all engaged, reactions were not positive
    • 2: was not very engaged, reactions could have been more positive
    • 3: Engagement was neither positive, nor negative. Reactions were neutral
    • 4: was engaged, reactions were mostly positive
    • 5: was highly engaged, reactions were authentically positive

In-person only:

  1. Ensure visual aids and presentations are visible to guests during in-person meetings.
  2. Prepare for and receive guests at Mission Control.
  3. Offer GitLab swag to guests at Mission Control before they leave.
  4. Answer the phone and door at Mission control.

Collecting and managing tasks

The CEO shadows maintain a project called CEO Shadow Tasks. It is linked in the #ceo-shadow Slack channel description. Collect tasks using the first name of the shadow who captured it and the name of the person that will complete the task. Once an MR has been opened, post in the #ceo-shadow channel.

Drafting a tweet storm

A tweet storm is a series of Twitter posts usually made as replies in a single thread on a topic. CEO shadows may be asked to draft the tweets in relation to a public livestreamed video recording or some other media content.

  1. Create a Google Doc with a title using the format “202X-XX-XX Tweet storm for Topic”.
  2. At the top of the document, include the full title of the media and a link to it.
  3. If more than one piece of content is covered, use headings to make it easy to jump to each one.
  4. Go through each pieces, noting interesting lines and quotes.
  5. Draft 2-5 tweets for a 30 minute video, and up to 10 tweets for a 1 hour video.
    1. The first tweet should hook the audience, pose a question, or state how GitLab does something different.
    2. Attribute any lines that are not spoken by the CEO.
    3. Consider looking at the CEO’s social media accounts for tone and style.
    4. Each tweet can contain 280 characters, URLs are counted differently. Make sure to test each tweet with the Twitter web form to tweet.
    5. When you add URLs, use the card validator to render a preview. This can help to refine the tweet text.
    6. More message tips can be found in the Developer Evangelism on Social Media handbook.
    7. 2021-12-15 example for Chief of Staff videos (internal).
  6. Once complete, change the document’s Owner to the Chief of Staff to the CEO.

Tweet storm examples:

  1. 2021-06-02: Server runtimes and development environments: Twitter thread, Source (internal)

Meetings & Events

CEO’s Calendar

  1. At the start of the week, review the CEO’s calendar. The CEO’s calendar is the single source of truth. Shadows should check the CEO’s calendar for updates often. You will not be invited to each meeting. Meetings that the shadows may not attend will have a separate calendar entry on the CEO’s schedule that states “No CEO Shadows”. When in doubt, reach out to the CEO’s Executive Business Admin to confirm if you should attend or not. There will be some meetings and events the shadows do not attend. Do not feel obligated to attend every meeting — all meetings are considered optional.
  2. As a reminder, you should have your title updated within your last name on zoom. During the Shadow rotation update your title to “CEO Shadow”. Here is the how to update your title as part of your last name to ensure it shows up on zoom.
  3. Add the CEO’s calendar to your Google Calendar by clicking the + next to “Other Calendars”. Then click Subscribe to Calendar, search for the CEO’s name, and click enter.
  4. Because candidate interviews are marked as “private” (busy) for confidentiality reasons, the Executive Business Admin will invite the shadows to those events directly. As a result, you will get an email from Greenhouse asking for candidate feedback, which is not necessary.
  5. Meetings with those outside of GitLab may not be on Zoom. Prior to the call, check the CEO’s calendar and load any other conferencing programs that may be needed. It may be necessary to dial in via phone for audio-conferences. If you have any problems confirming the link, reach out to the #ceo-shadow slack channel.

Types of meetings

There are three types of meetings on the CEO’s calendar: GitLab meetings, Valley meetings, and personal meetings. Please note, the program’s continued success depends on the participants respecting confidentiality during the program, after the program, and after they leave GitLab.

GitLab Meetings

You will attend all GitLab meetings of the CEO, including but not limited to:

  1. 1-1s with reports.
  2. Interviews with candidates.
  3. Conversations with board members.

Like all meetings at GitLab, meetings will begin promptly, regardless of the shadows’ attendance. You will travel with the CEO to meetings, team off-sites, and conferences outside of San Francisco per the CEO’s schedule. The Executive Business Admin to the CEO will assist you with conference registration and travel accommodations during these time frames.

The CEO’s Executive Business Admin will ask external people if they are comfortable with the shadows joining prior to the scheduled meeting, and will share a link to the CEO shadow page to provide context.

Meeting agendas should be shared with ceo-shadow@gitlab.com, as shadows will be added to this email alias prior to the rotation, and removed at the conclusion of it. For agendas that contain sensitive information, the sensitive information should be removed and the document shared with “View only” access to restrict access to the document’s history. Not all agendas will be shared, though, and the CEO Shadows should feel empowered to ask for access if that is the case. Sometimes, the answer will be “no” for sensitive reasons.

These meetings can have different formats:

  1. Video calls.
  2. In-person meetings.
  3. Dinners that are business related.
  4. Customer visits.
  5. Conferences.

You will not attend a meeting when:

  1. Someone wants to discuss a complaint and wants to stay anonymous.
  2. If any participant in the meeting is uncomfortable.
  3. If the CEO wants more privacy.
E-Group Weekly Meetings and E-Group Quarterly Offsites

The weekly E-group meeting and quarterly E-Group offsites are fast-paced, with a lot of back and forth discussion between team members. Remember that it is more important to capture accurate takeaways than precise notes if you can’t type fast enough to keep up with the conversation.

Occasionally, other team members are invited to discuss a specific topic with E-Group. If so, a separate agenda shared with the invited team members will be included in a calendar invite adjacent to the main calendar event and agenda. In this case, shadows should take notes in the agenda for the specific topic versus the main E-Group agenda

Media Briefings

CEO Shadows may be the point of contact for helping coordinate (not schedule) media briefings. Take initiative, for example finding a quiet space for the CEO to take the call, if it is done while traveling. When participating in media briefings, CEO Shadows are to act as silent participants, except when directly asked a question.

Remote: To listen in when it is not a live broadcast session, please contact the Corporate Communications team by posting in the #corpscomms Slack channel ahead of time to let the media contact know.

Candidate Interviews

If the candidate is comfortable with it, CEO shadows will attend interviews performed by the CEO. When scheduling an interview with the CEO, the EBA to the CEO will create a shared Google Doc for notes between the shadows and the CEO. The doc template can be found by searching “Notes Doc for Candidate Interviews” in Google Drive. If you have any questions, please @ mention the EBA to CEO in #ceo-shadow in Slack. This notes document is then added to the scorecard for the candidate in Greenhouse.

  1. Shadows should ensure they mark comments they provide with their full name.
  2. Please do not complete the automated Greenhouse report that follows the interview, entitled REMINDER: Please fill out your scorecard for [NAME]. CEO shadows are asked to simply delete this email.
Valley Meetings

The CEO may occasionally invite you to optional meetings that may not be explicitly GitLab related, but can help provide insight into his day-to-day activities. In these meetings, it is asked that you not take notes because we don’t want you to do work that isn’t for GitLab. Additionally if the agenda document is not shared with you most likely it is because it is owned outside of the GitLab domain therefore requesting access is not advised. However, keeping time can still be very helpful so you are encouraged to do so if you are in attendance. These meetings are optional and you can leave at any time.

Valley meetings can usually be identified in two ways:

  1. The text For the CEO shadows: this is a Valley Meeting and attendance is optional in the meeting description.
  2. The organizer’s email address ends in @sijbrandij.com.
Personal Meetings

Personal meetings will be marked as “busy” on the calendar. Shadows do not attend personal calls.

Earnings Call Prep Webinars

Earnings prep webinars differ from other meetings on the CEO calendar as shadows should be added to the webinar as a participant using their individual GitLab team member email address vs. joining using the CEO’s link. If you have not received an invite to an Earnings Prep Webinar on your individual calendar, please reach out to the EBAs and Chief of Staff to the CEO on Slack.

Earnings Call

CEO Shadows should join earnings calls via the registration link open to the public. Do not join the earnings call via the CEO’s calendar.

Earnings Callbacks

CEO Shadows are allowed to join earnings callbacks unless otherwise noted as no shadows. CEO Shadows should set their Zoom settings to have mute mic when joining and stop my video when joining a meeting for all callbacks prior to joining the first callback session.

Removing yourself from personal CEO documents

For certain meetings, such as Valley Meetings, a CEO Shadow may be added to an agenda document that is accessible to people outside of the GitLab organization.

At the conclusion of the call, the CEO Shadows should remove themselves from document(s) they were added to via the following steps.

  1. Click the Share button atop the Google Doc
  2. On the resulting pop-up, click into Advanced
  3. Click the X by your name to remove yourself
  4. Click Save changes
  5. On the resulting Are you sure? dialog box, click Yes
  6. You should see a dialog appear noting that Your access has expired

Responsibilities

Meetings come in many different formats. Your responsibilities may change slightly based on the kind of meeting.

Here are the responsibilities shadows have during meetings:

Meeting type Notes? Timekeeping?
1-1 No notes unless requested No timekeeping unless requested
Legal meetings outside of Key Reviews/GCs/etc. (see doc for details) No notes Timekeeping
GitLab Board meetings (e.g Audit Committee, Compensation) No notes Timekeeping in chat
1-1 meetings with a GitLab Board Member No notes Timekeeping
Internal meeting (CEO not host) Notes optional Timekeeping
Valley Meetings No notes Timekeeping
Customer Meeting Yes, please use the externally-shared collaboration doc Timekeeping
Earnings Callbacks (Video/Audio Off) Notes No Timekeeping
Anything else (unless specified) Notes Timekeeping

Assume that you are taking notes in a Google Doc affixed to the meeting invite unless it is explicitly stated not to take notes.

If you’re unsure whether or not to take notes, default to take them, ask the CEO before the meeting begins, or ping the EBAs and Chief of Staff to the CEO on Slack via #ceo-shadow or ceo-shadow-private (depending on the sensitivity of the meeting).

Taking notes

The goal of the notes is to collect the main points and outcomes, not a full transcript of the conversation. As you are taking notes, be mindful that the goal of the program is to absorb what is being said in the meetings you are in.

In many instances, when shadows are taking notes during meetings, the discussion is moving too quickly to fully or accurately capture all of the discussion points. Additionally, the shadows may not be fully aware of the full context of the discussion or familiar with certain terminology being used in the meeting. The meeting notes are also not reviewed nor approved by the meeting attendees. Accordingly, meeting notes should not be the SSOT for any meeting as they may not fully or accurately capture the discussion that was had at the meeting.

CEO Shadows are required to read these additional note-taking guidelines. If a notes document is not already linked, see the templates available here.

CEO Shadows are not always the DRI for notes and everyone can contribute to taking notes when in a meeting.

Tips:

  1. It’s helpful if shadow one takes notes as the first speaker is talking, then shadow two starts when the next speaker continues the conversation. Shadow one can pick up note taking again when the next speaker contributes. By alternating this way, the shadows are better able to keep up with all the participants in the conversation.
  2. Add extra blank lines after a bulleted or numbered line to make it easier for multiple notetakers to type notes. In the agenda provided, press enter to add a numbered line, followed by a space and press enter again to create a blank line (as Google documents will not allow a numbered line to be empty).
  3. Consider clicking somewhere in the document where people are not actively reading or writing so that your name next to the cursor doesn’t hide that text.
  4. Showing up one to two minutes early to a meeting may give you an opportunity to network with GitLab team members who you do not know.
  5. Put Zoom in “gallery mode” so you can see all participants (rather than only the person currently speaking). This allows everyone to see the entire audience which creates a more inclusive environment and fosters better communication.
  6. If you aren’t sure where meeting attendees are in a Google document, click on their face or initials in the upper-right side of the window. Doing this will cause your cursor to jump to wherever their cursor is in the document.
  7. It can be challenging to coordinate with the other shadow on who is taking notes at any point in time. Consider agreeing with the other shadow to “show your hands” in Zoom to indicate that you are not currently taking notes.
  8. Sometimes people will provide some color or context before providing the main point. Consider listening to the first sentence before documenting to ensure you are capturing main points instead of what they are saying verbatim.
  9. Observe how Sid takes notes as a guide to the level of detail and summarization.
Keeping time

Shadows are responsible for being aware of the current time and verbally providing timekeeping in many types of meetings. This allows participants to comfortably wrap up the meeting.

Tips for time-keeping:

  • Decide who. Past shadows have found it helpful for the individual in the second week of the program to commit to keeping time when applicable.
  • Understand meeting length. Use the calendar invite as an indication of how long the meeting should last. Remember, we do speedy meetings.
  • Shadows should provide a 5-minute and a 1-minute notification. You can write “Time check, 5 minutes” on Zoom chat.
  • If a meeting is running over the allocated time, unmute and verbally say “we’re in overtime”. Don’t wait for a break in the conversation.

Tools to help.

You can use this shell script (MacOS only) to run a timer for the desired number of minutes. The script will notify you 5 minutes before the end of the meeting, and will copy “We have five minutes left” to you clipboard, so you can paste the text directly in the Zoom chat in addition to verbalizing it. At the end of the meeting, the same will occur with “We are at time”.

To use the script:

  1. Download setalarm, making sure to preserve the .sh extension. (recommended within your Home folder for easy access)
  2. Load MacOS Terminal by running Cmd+Space and typing terminal.
  3. Run source setalarm.sh to load the setalarm function into memory.
  4. Then simply type setalarm 50 to set a 50-minute timer (setalarm defaults to 25 minutes if no argument is provided).

Press Ctrl+C if you need to cancel the alarm. You may keep the terminal window running indefinitely so that it is at your finger tips throughout your program duration.

A handy App for time keeping is Senzillo’s “Speech Timer for Talks”. It is available for iOS and Android. Compared to other apps, this timer is easy to setup for the meeting warning levels and to switch between meeting time lengths. It costs $1 to have 3 warning levels - purchasing the application is not required if you just wish to have one warning visualization and watch the timer for the others.

If you see something, say something

Shadows should notify GitLab meeting participants if their name and job title are not mentioned on Zoom.

If a GitLab team member is sharing their screen before introductions have occurred, shadows should remind GitLab presenters that GitLab does not recommend sharing screens during zoom meetings and to please wait until after introductions have been completed to allow participants to see each other clearly during introductions. This is especially important during external calls when participants are meeting each other for the first time.

If you notice that someone does not have their picture set in Google when a Google document is being actively worked on, let them know how to set one so their picture will show up in the document rather than their first initial. That makes it easier for everyone to find where they are in the document, especially when they are speaking. Let them know that this is 100% optional.

Shadows need to speak up in video calls, and speak up when the CEO’s camera isn’t working or when the green screen isn’t working correctly because of the sun angle. Sun on Green Screen Zoom Issue

Notify CEO on use of ‘I think’

When attending external meetings, notify the CEO in a private Zoom chat message when the CEO uses the phrase I think. Hedge words can have the effect of making the speaker seem uncertain or unconfident.

In internal meetings, I think can be used to signal opportunity for others to present a contrasting opinion.

CEO shadow introductions

+Order of introductions: At the start of meetings, CEO shadows will introduce themselves. There is no set order for which shadow introduces themselves first. Sometimes one shadow will arrive to the meeting first, and make their introduction as the first shadow to speak. During some meetings, Sid may decide the order for CEO Shadow introductions by mentioning one of the CEO Shadows first, usually the CEO Shadow who is completing their last week in the two week program.

It’s important to set the correct tone, so please stick to the following introductions verbatim.

When attending Valley meetings please be sure to use the For Valley meetings intro. It can cause much confusion if you mention GitLab when Sid is acting in an individual capacity.

When attending investor meetings, please introduce yourself and hand it off to the next team member by announcing their name.

When introducing yourself in a meeting as the first shadow, say:

  1. I’m NAME.
  2. I normally am a/the TITLE.
  3. This is my first/last week in the two-week CEO shadow program.
  4. For GitLab-related meetings: The goal of the program is to give participants an overview of the functions at GitLab.
  5. For Valley meetings (not related to GitLab): The goal of the program is to give participants an introduction to Silicon Valley discussions.

When introducing yourself in a meeting as the second shadow, say:

  1. I’m NAME.
  2. I normally am a/the TITLE.
  3. This is my first/last week in the two-week CEO shadow program.

Remember, do not say that your role is to “follow the CEO around”. It’s about getting an overview of the functions at GitLab.

Finding meeting recordings

If Sid records a video to the cloud in a meeting it will eventually end up being uploaded to the Google Drive folder. Finding the video will require searching based on the calendar event name and checking the “last modified” date.

Attending in-person events with the CEO

When attending events with the CEO, keep the following in mind:

  1. Remind the CEO to bring extra business cards before leaving. And bring a few for yourself.
  2. The CEO has outlined his transport preferences.
  3. When traveling to events in the Bay Area by car, the CEO will request the ride sharing service.
  4. When traveling to events on foot, CEO shadows should take responsibility for navigating to the event.
  5. After a talk or panel, be ready to help the CEO navigate the room, particularly if there is a time-sensitive obligation after the event.

The CEO often has work events that are also social events. In Silicon Valley, social and work are very intertwined. These mostly take the form of lunches or dinners. CEO shadows are invited unless otherwise specified, but there is no expectation or obligation to join.

Look for values being lived out

Even in meetings where you are unfamiliar with the subject matter, there is opportunity to learn, document, and shape the evolution of [GitLab’s values]({{ ref values >}}). Re-read GitLab’s values prior to your CEO Shadow rotation, and be mindful of new and inventive ways that CREDIT is lived out during the meetings you attend. You can make a merge request to propose new operating principles, which substantiate top-level values.

Promote Communication Best Practices

It’s important that everyone encourages others to follow the communication guidelines, not just the CEO. As shadows, in Group Conversations and other settings, you should remind team members to:

  1. Verbalize questions
  2. Stop sharing their screens to encourage conversations
  3. Provide full context for the benefit of new team members
  4. When someone starts a Group Conversation with a presentation it is the CEO Shadow responsibility to ask them to stop and record a video next time. Recommendation on how to approach this message “Apologies for the interruption, it is the responsibility for the CEO Shadow to remind team members that we do not present during Group Conversations. If we may move to the document for questions and in the future consider recording a video to promote asynchronous presentations”.

Email Best Practices

In order to ensure continuity across CEO shadow participants. Always, cc ceo-shadow@gitlab.com on emails as part of the program. This ensures that even after you’ve left the program the response and follow-up can be tracked.

Handbook MRs

CEO shadows label the handbook MRs they create with the ceo-shadow label. You may do a lot or a few handbook MRs, depending on your other tasks. You can always feel welcome to create and MR. We even track the number of MR’s that CEO shadow participates create.

Follow activity from the CEO

Shadows are encouraged to follow the CEO’s activity on various platforms to get a complete picture of his everyday activities and where he directs his attention.

In Slack

Go to the Slack search bar and type “from:@sid” and it will populate the results.

Slack User Activity Follow Sid’s Slack activity to follow his everyday engagements

In GitLab

This can be seen on the CEO’s GitLab activity log.

GitLab Activity Log See what issues and MRs Sid is interacting with

On Twitter

Check out Sid’s Twitter account.

Twitter notification Sign up for Twitter notifications (Twitter account required) to follow his everyday engagements.

Documentation focus

An ongoing shadow program with a fast rotation is much more time consuming for the CEO than a temporary program or a rotation of a year or longer. That’s why most organizations choose to either have a shadow for a couple of days, or have someone for a year or more. We want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to be a shadow, which is why we rotate quickly. To make this happen without having to invest a lot of time with training, we need great documentation around the program. A quick turnaround on documentation is crucial, and the documentation will have a level of detail that may not be necessary in other parts of the company.

Travel & Expenses

Expenses

Lodging

Lodging during the CEO shadow program is provided by the company. Executive Admin to the CEO books the accommodation based on availability and cost. You can express your preference (hotel or AirBnB) via email to the Executive Admin to the CEO in question. However, the final decision is made by the Executive Admin based on the distance from the CEO and costs. Executive Admin will provide the accommodation details no earlier than 1 month and no later than 2 weeks before the scheduled rotation.

Accommodation is provided only for the active shadowing period, it is not provided during the shadow program pause (cases when the CEO is unavailable). In case you are coming from a timezone that is more than 6 hours difference with Pacific Time, it is possible to book the weekend before the first shadow work day to adjust to the new timezone.

If your CEO shadow rotation is two consecutive weeks, it is expected you will be staying the weekend. Accommodation is provided during the weekend.

Airfare

Airfare can be booked according to our travel policy or spending company money policy. In case your shadow rotation includes time without shadowing, it is possible to expense airfare to fly home and back within the continental USA. If you are from outside of the USA, it is also possible to expense airfare during the time without shadowing because of the possible high cost of lodging in San Francisco if you chose to stay at a different location.

Rideshare from airport

At San Francisco International airport (SFO), all rideshare apps (Uber, Lyft, etc) pick up on level 5 of the parking structure. When coordinating travel from SFO to Mission Control with other Shadows, GitLab team members, or Sid, arranging to meet on level 5 of the parking structure is most efficient, as each terminal has its own baggage claim area.

Meals

Shadows are able to expense food and beverage during their rotation and should follow our spending company money policy.

Childcare

Childcare is provided during the active shadowing period and will be reimbursed via an expense report. You must book the childcare yourself and it is advised you reach out far in advance as childcare “drop-ins” can be limited depending on the week. Currently, GitLab doesn’t have a “Backup Care” program so you must tell the childcare it is for a “drop-in”.

If you’re traveling for the CEO Shadow program, depending on your hotel accommodations, finding a nearby daycare is most convenient. Some childcare facilities will require payment at end-of-day or end-of-week via cash/check only so request an invoice/receipt for expense submission purposes.

Traveling with the CEO

When traveling with the CEO, keep the following in mind:

  1. Book flights that will allow you to land before the CEO so there is no delay in transportation to the next event.
  2. For airport pickup with the CEO, research the terminal the CEO arrives in and plan to be there to meet with the driver before the CEO.
  3. Keep the EBA to the CEO and onsite EBA updated regularly and promptly on estimated arrival time in #ceo-shadow Slack channel to ensure the schedule is on time.
  4. If travel plans change, please update the EBA(s) in Slack immediately so cancellations to prior transportation can be made promptly to not incur fees.
  5. When returning to San Francisco, if on a different airline, be sure to arrive before the CEO and communicate a meetup location if traveling back together.

Travel Guidance: COVID-19

Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members, please refer to the current travel policy. The CEO Shadow program is classified as non-essential travel and travel to San Francisco will not be required during the time frame specified in the policy linked. CEO Shadows joining the program should plan on participating in the program remotely and matching the CEO’s schedule which is primarily in the Pacific time zone unless the CEO is traveling to another time zone. If you have questions please use #ceo-shadow in slack and @ mention the Staff EBA to the CEO

Considerations for other companies starting CEO Shadow programs

GitLab co-founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij answered questions in a YouTube livestream from Sam Altman, as the two discussed considerations for implementing a CEO Shadow program in other organizations. Key takeaways are documented below.

  1. CEOs should not optimize meetings for Shadows. They are learning by being in the room, either in-person or virtual, and it’s OK if the Shadow doesn’t fully understand everything.
  2. A well-designed CEO Shadow program shouldn’t burden a CEO; in fact, Shadows should actively make a CEO’s day easier by assisting with notes and changing relevant portions of the company handbook upon request.
  3. Non-obvious benefits for a CEO (and their organization) include CEO empathy and humanizing a CEO, such that team members are more comfortable contributing input to an executive. Shadow alumni are able to translate real-world examples of assuming positive intent from their time in the program to their direct reports, further fortifying company culture.
  4. Ensure that CEO Shadows do not plan to do any of their usual work. Shadows should prepare their team as if they were on vacation. Attempting to shadow the CEO while also maintaining a full workload creates undue stress for the CEO Shadow.

Alumni

CEO Shadow program alumni are welcome to join the #ceo-shadow-alumni Slack channel to stay in touch after the program.

Start date End date Name Title Takeaways
2019-03 2019-04 Erica Lindberg Manager, Content Marketing CEO shadow learnings video
2019-04 2019-05 Mayank Tahil Alliances Manager
2019-04 2019-05 Tye Davis Sr. Technical Marketing Manager Without a shadow of a doubt: Inside GitLab’s CEO shadow program
2019-05 2019-06 John Coghlan Evangelist Program Manager 5 Things you might hear when meeting with GitLab’s CEO
2019-06 2019-06 Cindy Blake Sr. Product Marketing Manager CEO shadow learnings video
2019-06 2019-06 Nnamdi Iregbulem MBA Candidate at Stanford University
2019-06 2019-06 Clinton Sprauve PMM, Competitive Intelligence
2019-06 2019-07 Lyle Kozloff Support Engineering Manager
2019-07 2019-07 Marin Jankovski Engineering Manager, Deliver
2019-07 2019-08 Danae Villarreal Sales Development Representative, West
2019-08 2019-08 Daniel Croft Engineering Manager, Package GitLab, CEO Shadow August 2019 week one, mind blown
2019-08 2019-08 Emilie Schario Data Engineer, Analytics What I learned about our CEO’s job from participating in the CEO Shadow Program
2019-08 2019-08 Kenny Johnston Director of Product, Ops
2019-09 2019-09 Eric Brinkman Director of Product, Dev
2019-09 2019-10 Danielle Morrill General Manager, Meltano
2019-10 2019-10 Mek Stittri Director of Quality
2019-10 2019-11 Kyla Gradin Mid Market Account Executive
2019-10 2019-11 Clement Ho Frontend Engineering Manager, Monitor:Health
2019-11 2019-11 Brendan O’Leary Sr. Solutions Manager
2019-11 2019-11 Gabe Weaver Sr. Product Manager, Plan: Project Management
2019-11 2020-01 Chenje Katanda Customer Success Manager
2020-01 2020-01 Dov Hershkovitch Senior Product Manager, Monitor
2020-01 2020-01 Keanon O’Keefe Senior Product Manager, Plan : Portfolio Management
2020-01 2020-01 Dylan Griffith Staff Backend Engineer, Search
2020-01 2020-02 Brittany Rohde Manager, Compensation & Benefits How the CEO Shadow Program boosted my individual productivity during the COVID-19 Crisis
2020-01 2020-02 Nadia Vatalidis Senior Manager, People Operations
2020-02 2020-02 Diana Stanley Senior Support Engineer
2020-02 2020-02 Chloe Whitestone Customer Success Manager
2020-02 2020-02 Sarah Waldner Senior Product Manager - Monitor: Health
2020-02 2020-03 Shaun McCann Support Engineering Manager CEO Shadow AMA with Support Engineering
2020-03 2020-03 Lien Van Den Steen People Ops Fullstack Engineer
2020-03 2020-03 Michael Terhar Customer Success Manager The HyperGrowth Calendar
2020-03 2020-04 Christen Dybenko Sr Product Manager
2020-04 2020-04 Scott Stern Frontend Engineer
2020-04 2020-04 Stella Treas Chief of Staff to the CEO
2020-04 2020-04 Bradley Andersen Customer Success Manager
2020-04 2020-04 Cassiana Gudgenov People Operations Specialist
2020-04-28 2020-05-08 Betsy Church Senior Talent Brand Manager Reflecting on the CEO Shadow Program at GitLab
2020-05-04 2020-05-15 Darren Murph Head of Remote GitLab CEO Shadow recap — key takeaways and lessons learned from a remote rotation
2020-05-11 2020-05-22 Emily Kyle Manager, Corporate Events
2020-05-11 2020-05-22 Candace Williams Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Manager
2020-05-25 2020-06-05 Sophie Pouliquen Senior Customer Success Manager
2020-06-01 2020-06-19 Jackie Meshell Senior Product Manager, Release Management Recording 📹: Four things I learned as a CEO Shadow
2020-06-15 2020-06-26 Wayne Haber Director Engineering, Defend Video and Blog: What is the GitLab CEO shadow program? Why should you apply to participate? How did I see the GitLab values in action?
2020-06-22 2020-07-03 Jim Riley Area Sales Manager - Public Sector
2020-06-28 2020-07-17 Hila Qu Director of Product, Growth
2020-07-13 2020-07-31 David DeSanto Director of Product, Secure & Defend
2020-07-20 2020-08-10 Tim Rizzi Senior Product Manager, Package
2020-08-10 2020-08-21 Amy Brandenburg Technology Alliances Manager
2020-08-17 2020-08-28 Sam White Senior Product Manager, Defend
2020-08-24 2020-09-04 Mike Miranda Account Executive, SMB
2020-08-31 2020-09-11 Francis Potter Sr. Solution Architect
2020-09-07 2020-09-18 Shawn Winters Acceleration SDR
2020-09-07 2020-09-24 Chris Baus Engineering Manager, Fulfillment
2020-09-21 2020-10-02 Philippe Lafoucrière Distinguished Engineer, Secure & Defend Take Aways, Retrospective
2020-09-28 2020-10-05 Madeline Hennessy Area Sales Manager, SMB - US East Takeaways & Suggestion
2020-10-05 2020-10-23 Michael LeBeau Strategic Content Lead
2020-10-19 2020-10-30 Edmond Chan Sr. Solutions Architect
2020-10-26 2020-11-06 David Fisher Acceleration SDR
2020-11-06 2020-11-13 Fernando Diaz Technical Marketing Manager 4 Things I’ve Learned as a CEO Shadow
2020-11-09 2020-11-20 Dan Parry Mid-Market Account Executive
2020-11-16 2020-12-04 Lis Vinueza Business Systems Analyst
2020-11-30 2020-12-11 Kevin Chu Group Product Manager
2020-12-07 2021-01-08 Charlie Ablett Sr. Backend Engineer, Plan
2021-01-04 2021-01-15 Tanya Pazitny Quality Engineering Manager, Secure & Enablement
2021-01-11 2021-01-22 Michael Preuss Director, Digital Experience
2021-01-18 2021-01-29 Traci Robinson Sr. PMM, Regulated Industries
2021-01-25 2021-02-05 Parker Ennis Sr. PMM, GitLab CI/CD
2021-02-05 2021-02-16 Shane Rice Manager, Search Marketing CEO Shadow learning recap
2021-02-15 2021-02-26 Lauren Barker Sr. Full Stack Engineer, Digital Experience CEO Shadow takeaways from Barker
2021-02-22 2021-03-12 Jessica Reeder All-Remote Campaign Manager
2021-03-08 2021-03-19 Robert Kohnke Marketing Strategy and Performance, Data Analyst
2021-03-15 2021-03-26 Sarah Daily Senior Marketing Operations Manager Interview with Sid: Non-Technical Roles to Technical Roles
2021-03-22 2021-04-02 Darwin Sanoy Senior Solutions Architect, Alliances
2021-03-29 2021-04-09 Anthony Ogunbowale - Thomas Named, Account Executive EMEA
2021-04-05 2021-04-16 Katie Gammon Executive Business Administrator
2021-04-12 2021-04-23 Pilar Mejia Distribution Manager, Public Sector 3 habits to maximize your work day: CEO Shadow insights
2021-04-19 2021-04-30 Joanna Shih Quality Engineering Manager, Ops
2021-04-30 2021-05-07 Jacie Bandur Learning & Development Generalist CEO Shadow takeaways from Jacie
2021-05-03 2021-05-14 Mikołaj Wawrzyniak Backend Engineer, Product Intelligence
2021-05-10 2021-05-21 James Komara Area Sales Manager
2021-05-17 2021-05-28 Joshua Lambert Director of Product, Enablement
2021-05-24 2021-06-04 Melissa Ushakov Group Manager, Product Management - Plan
2021-06-01 2021-06-11 April Malone Sijbrandij Personal EA
2021-06-07 2021-06-18 Taylor Medlin Solutions Architect - Commercial
2021-06-14 2021-06-25 Vincy Wilson Quality Engineering Manager, Fulfillment, Growth & Sec
2021-06-21 2021-07-02 Simon Liang Principal Internal Communications Manager
2021-06-28 2021-07-30 Christine Lee Strategy and Operations Director
2021-08-02 2021-08-06 Tye Davis Shadow Alumni Manager, Technical Marketing
2021-08-02 2021-08-13 Nuritzi Sanchez Sr. Open Source Program Manager
2021-08-09 2021-08-20 Neil McCorrison Frontend Engineering Manager, Secure 15 tips to succeed at GitLab’s CEO Shadow program
2021-08-16 2021-08-30 Christina Hupy Manager, Education Programs CEO Shadow Reflections
2021-08-30 2021-09-10 Sarah Bailey Solutions Architect Manager
2021-09-07 2021-09-17 Kris Reynolds Manager, Field Enablement Programs
2021-09-13 2021-09-24 Darren Murph Shadow Alumni Head of Remote
2021-09-20 2021-10-01 Christen Dybenko Shadow Alumni Sr. Product Manager
2021-09-28
2021-10-18		 2021-10-01
2021-10-22		 Kyle Wiebers Engineering Manager, Eng Productivity
2021-10-18 2021-10-29 Omar Eduardo Fernandez Director, Strategy and Operations
2021-10-25
2021-11-08		 2021-10-29
2021-11-12		 Taurie Davis Product Design Manager, Foundations
2021-11-08 2021-11-19 REB - Richard E. Baum Sr. Solutions Architect
2021-11-15 2021-12-03 Sincheol (David) Kim Sr. Backend Engineer
2021-11-30 2021-12-10 Amy Qualls Sr. Technical Writer
2021-12-06 2021-12-17 James Heimbuck Sr. Product Manager
2021-12-13
2022-01-03		 2021-12-17
2022-01-07		 Cynthia Ng Sr. Support Engineer CEO Shadow Reflection
2022-01-10 2022-01-21 Marshall Cottrell - Strategy and Operations (Technical)
2022-01-04 2022-01-14 Josh Zimmerman Learning & Development Manager What I Learned From Shadowing the CEO of GitLab
2022-01-18 2022-01-28 Cesar Saavedra Sr. Technical Marketing Manager Being a GitLab CEO Shadow
2022-01-24
2022-02-14		 2022-01-28
2022-02-17		 Darby Frey Staff Fullstack Engineer
2022-02-14 2022-02-25 Mark Scheuber - Sr. Strategic Account Executive
2022-02-22 2022-03-04 Jonathan Miller FP&A Manager, R&D
2022-02-28 2022-03-11 Fiona O’Keeffe Senior Reference Program Manager
2022-03-07 2022-03-18 Byron Boots Senior Security Asssurance Engineer
2022-03-14 2022-03-25 Miles Russell Sr. Analytics Engineer
2022-03-21 2022-04-01 Adam Vesey Sr. Legal Counsel
2022-04-11 2022-04-22 Nikki Silverberg Sr. Marketing Operations Manager Interview with Sid: Meeting Preparation and Efficiency
2022-04-18 2022-04-29 David Egan Senior Data Analyst, Marketing
2022-04-25 2022-04-29 Janis Altherr Fullstack Engineer, Incubation Engineering
2022-05-30 2022-06-10 Victor Brew Pub Sec ISR
2022-06-06 2022-07-01 Alexander Turinske Sr. Frontend Engineer
2022-06-27 2022-07-15 Tiffany Rea SET - Verify::Pipeline Authoring
2022-09-27 2022-09-30 Ellie Bertani CEO, GitLab Foundation
2022-10-27 2022-10-30 Ed Bao Assoc Sales Dev Operations Manager
2022-11-07 2022-11-18 Jacki Bauer Product Design Manager, UX
2022-11-07 2022-11-18 Adrienne Rimmer Manager, Executive Communications
Last modified August 18, 2023: Big Broken Link Fix (f73576b8)