AI-assisted features
This page contains information about AI at GitLab.
Product Handbook
Most of the content in the product handbook talks about how we do product at GitLab.
Welcome to the Product Team Handbook
- The Product Team is led by David DeSanto.
- The Product Handbook focuses on how we do product at GitLab.
- Please see Product Direction to learn about what the Product Team plans to build.
Product Team Functions
Product Team Mission
We create products and experiences that customers love and value.
- Consistency wins as you scale. Our organizational goal is to create a Product Manager (PM) system that maximizes the chances of success across new products, new features, and new team members.
- We are shipping an experience, and not just a product. Don’t forget about the links between the product and the website, pricing & packaging, documentation, sales, support, etc.
- It’s about our customers and doing a job for them, not the product itself. Think externally about customer problems, not internally about the technology.
- It’s about love AND value. Will customers value what we are building? We need to make sure what we build helps build and extract customer value.
Contributing to the Product Handbook
The product handbook is widely referenced by product managers and cross-functional team members. Therefore, we want to follow a consistent change management process so all affected collaborators are aligned and informed when there are changes (specially new requirements, processes, meetings, etc.) that affect their workflow.
It is helpful to indicate which type of change you are suggesting:
- Small improvement (typos, clarifications, etc.)
- Adding a new section
- Modifying existing section
- Documenting a new process
- Adding a new page or directory
- Other
For a small improvement, please feel free to merge the MR yourself. Otherwise, please tag the appropriate code owner for review and approval. The guidance below should be followed for driving awareness:
Informing team members about the changes
It is your responsibility to communicate with relevant team members about your merge request. Here are some best practices to follow:
- For significant changes affecting the whole Product or Engineering team, consult your manager or product leader for the best communication strategy.
- For changes specific to product management, tag
@gl-product-pmin the merge request before merging. - Indicate in the comment whether you are requesting contributions and feedback or simply providing information.
- For changes relevant to other teams, tag department leads such as the VP of UX, VP of Development, or the Director of Quality Engineering in the merge request before merging.
- Share and cross-post the merge request link with a brief description in relevant channels such as Slack
#product,#product-leadership,#eng-managers, and#ux-managers. - For more guidance on communication, refer to the GitLab Communication tips and best practices.
Product Management
If you’d like to collaborate with product management see How to Engage guide.
Product Principles
The Product Principles section is where you can learn about our strategy and philosophy regarding product development here at GitLab.
Product Processes
For a detailed view on how we do Product Development, read up on our established Product Processes.
Product sections, stages, groups, and categories
To learn how the GitLab product and our Teams are organized review our Product Categorization section.
About the GitLab Product
Learn about GitLab as a product, including what does it mean to be a single application, our subscription tiers and pricing model, and the basics of permissions in the platform.
Product Manager Responsibilities
Understand the roles and responsibilities of product managers.
Being a Product Manager at GitLab
Want to know more on what being a Product Manager at GitLab is like? Checkout our Product Management guide for helpful information like our Career Development Framework and learning/development resources.
Product Performance Indicators
Learn how we measure success in Product via our Product KPIs, which are tracked in our Product project. For best practices and guidance on how to add instrumentation for features please review our Analytics Instrumentation workflow.
Product OKRs
Understand the OKR Process for the GitLab Product Team and review current and past OKRs.
Our Product Leadership Team
Learn about our Product Leadership Team and learn about them via their personal README’s.
Communicating with the Product Division
Below are team emails and handles that can be used for different departments and sub-departments in the Product Division. These groups are used for internal communication and the @mention can only be used by project members. Please remember that tagging @mention on issues will generate in-product to-do items and email notifications to all team members in that project, so use it only when you need to communicate with the entire team. For communication specifically for product managers, please leverage How to Engage.
@gl-product-leadershiptags all group managers, directors and VPs in the Product Division@gl-product-plttags all direct reports to the VP Product in the Product Division@gl-product-pmtags to all members of Product Management, Product Monetization and Program Managers in the Product Division@gl-producttags to all members in the Product Division: Product Management, Product Monetization, Program Management, Product Design, User Research, and Technical Writingproduct@gitlab.comemails all members of Product Management, Product Monetization and Program Management in the Product Divisionux-department@gitlab.comemails all members of UX (UX Research, Technical Writing and Product Design) in the Product Division@gitlab-com/gitlab-uxtags all members of UX (UX Research, Technical Writing and Product Design) in the Product Division@gitlab-com/gitlab-ux/managerstags all people managers within UX (UX Research, Technical Writing, and Product Design)@gitlab-com/gitlab-ux/designerstags all Product Designers and Design Managers in UX@gl-docsteamfor all Technical Writers in UX- ‘#technical-program-management’ a place to reach the entire TPgM team across organizations
When you are tagging @mention:
- Clearly state why you are tagging the entire product team and what action you need product team members to take.
- Write a short summary in the same comment so team members can quickly understand the necessary context.
- Review the issue title and description to ensure it has relevant details other product team members need BEFORE submitting the comment. The issue title will be the subject of email notifications and in-product to-do items.
- If asking team members to review a change, please directly link to the specific page on the review app and any relevant issues or MRs.
Collaboration on shared feature and experience areas
Collaboration process and documentation of shared feature areas for product groups
GitLab Product Management
This document describes what Product Management does, where, when, and how to engage with the product management team.
What does Product Management do?
At GitLab, the PMs lead their specialization. That is, the Create PM decides what the Create group works on, for which release, and makes sure this furthers our goals. This includes bugs, features, and architectural changes.
The PM can’t be expected to parse every single bug or issue that comes by, so they have to rely heavily on the input of the various stakeholders. To be able to achieve this, both the PM and the stakeholders have to actively work together. It’s a two-way street.
Personas
Roles vs personas
Personas describe the ideal target for GitLab. They help us define our messaging and marketing delivery. They are theoretical people to target. By defining their concerns and where they go for information, we can best spend our marketing dollars and sales efforts by focusing on this ideal target.
Roles are distinct job titles. These are the real people you will encounter while selling. You will find a contact at an account with a specific role. Understanding the challenges faced by each role in IT, along with what they care most about, is helpful to deliver the right value proposition to the right person.
Product Principles
These are core principles we believe world class product organizations exhibit. The goal is to build a PM system that fosters and honors these principles, in a way that works for GitLab.
Product Processes
As a Product Organization, we work to create a flexible yet concise product development framework for developing products that customers love and value.
Product sections, stages, groups, and categories
Principles - Processes - Categories - GitLab the Product - Being a PM - Leadership
Interfaces
We want intuitive interfaces both within the company and with the wider community. This makes it more efficient for everyone to contribute or to get a question answered. Therefore, the following interfaces are based on the product categories defined on this page:
- Home page
- Product page
- Product Features
- Pricing page
- DevOps Lifecycle
- DevOps Tools
- Product Direction
- Stage visions
- Documentation
- Engineering Engineering Manager/Developer/Designer titles, their expertise, and department, and team names.
- Product manager responsibilities which are detailed on this page
- Our pitch deck, the slides that we use to describe the company
- Strategic marketing specializations
Hierarchy
The categories form a hierarchy:
UX Department
The GitLab UX department comprises four areas to support designing the GitLab product: UX Research, Product Design, Technical Writing, and Foundations
Last modified December 13, 2024: Update 4 files to include correct relative links (
812dec31)
