Manav Khurana - Chief Product and Marketing Officer - README

Why I’m at GitLab

As AI tools continue to improve, we will see a lot more code being written, a lot more people writing code, and people knowing a lot less about the code they own. That’s why the work saved for an individual writing code tends to create a lot more work for the team and the company. This exposes unacceptable risks to the software experience and its security posture. It’s a reality that threatens any gains from AI investments and is holding back the true potential of AI-driven software development.

GitLab is uniquely placed to solve that problem. We have the opportunity to be the best AI orchestration platform to ensure all human- and AI-generated code is high quality, secure, and meets enterprise guidelines. It’s an opportunity to supercharge the value we create for developers today and bring forward the full value of AI for software development. It’s also how I believe we can build a generational company, reach our goal of growing to multiple billion dollars in revenue, and most importantly, each one of us at GitLab can enjoy a career- and life-changing trajectory from our work.

About Me

I am a business-minded technical person. Two things drive my work practice:

1. Solving customer problems – more of them and doing so in the best way.

2. Optimizing for business results in what we do.

I take a data-driven approach to make sure we’re making progress in both. You’ll often see me mapping inputs to outputs with data, putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes, and customer feedback. I get a lot of satisfaction in going about that work with my colleagues, building life-long friendships along the way. I believe everything else – feeling of impact, fun, recognition, money, etc – follows.

I was born and raised in New Delhi, India. I came to the U.S. to study electrical and computer engineering in New York and then moved to San Francisco for what’s now been a 25-year tech career. My wife, whom I met in college, is a psychologist and keeps me accountable to our value system 🙂. We have a 12-year-old son, who is pure joy to be around and inspires us with his curiosity. We cherish our time together at home, with our community, and in our travels. In my spare time, I like sweating it out on a tennis court a couple of times a week.

I respond to all pronunciations of my name but prefer the original – Maah-nuhv.

My Values

• Creating great outcomes: There is no better feeling than seeing customers get better results from using GitLab and, in turn, growing our business faster—whether that’s with a new product that is better than anything else out there, or a new experience or improvement that delights our users and unlocks growth, or a new campaign that helps us reach the right audience with the right problem.

• Trust: We work in a fast-paced, competitive market. We have to come together to compete externally. That requires us to count on each other to do what we say, not make excuses when things go wrong, and be transparent to minimize any mystery about where we stand. I pride myself on being a principled businessperson who acts consistently with these values. If I am not living up to that standard, please flag it for me. Hopefully, it is a misunderstanding, but if not, I will work to fix it.

• Urgency: I believe in fast action. Work always expands to fill time. I’ve found that setting aggressive but reasonable due dates creates a forcing function to stay focused on what’s important and come up with creative solutions.

• The human spirit: I am in awe of what we as humans can accomplish. I believe every person counts and can accomplish a lot more than they believe. I have been a beneficiary of others throughout my career, who have helped and pushed me. I get a lot of satisfaction in paying that forward in ways I can.

• Personal connection: I enjoy spending meaningful time with the people I work with. Regular working sessions or time spent sharing a meal/drink with co-workers can have a significant and positive impact on our personal and work lives.

GitLab’s six CREDIT values mirror my personal values, and this alignment excites me about joining the company:

• Creating great outcomes → Results for Customers

• Trust → Collaboration and Transparency

• Urgency → Efficiency and Iteration

• Human spirit → Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

• Personal connection → Collaboration

My Leadership Style

Decisions

I expect a clear DACI, with exactly one approver and exactly one DRI. Decision requests are best framed with a clear problem, possible solutions, and recommended solutions. Decisions are harder when it’s a “one-way door” (hard to change later), and you can expect me to be more thoughtful about these. Decisions are easier when we can see the customer experience and the business impact. I will do the same when I am driving decisions.

Success Metrics

I ask every function and initiative owner to have clear metrics of success tied to their north star. The best metrics of success are those that measure inputs (activities) directly impacting the measurable business outcome we want. You’ll see me practice the same.

Operating Rhythm

I usually start with reviewing and establishing an operating plan with function and initiative owners. The goal is to be aligned on desired outcomes, strategy, big rock activities, and related resources we invest in, and a scorecard to measure progress on inputs & outcomes. Once established, I trust the owners to run their show. I do expect owners to run a weekly review on progress & next steps with the team involved. There are obviously natural moments in a year - annual planning, quarterly planning, new initiatives - when we will be planning together. Outside of that, you can expect my involvement using the following rubric:

• Green (on track) → Monthly engagement, evolving plans based on learnings.

• Yellow (at risk but manageable) → Weekly engagement, available for working sessions.

• Red (unlikely to meet goals) → Daily meetings to unblock progress, daily engagement from me.

Conscious Escalations

I expect to (and will) raise misalignments directly with the involved party before going to their manager. If unresolved, we escalate together to the tie-breaker. When I receive escalations, I’ll ask if the team member was spoken to first and why they aren’t included. This takes longer and is the only way to build a culture of peer trust.

“By When”

I expect (and will often ask) for due dates. They are important to me and to the company. We should define them early and do our best to manage risk. And, when we can’t, we should come back with a reset, as soon as possible. You can expect the same from me when you have requests for me.

Meetings

I love meetings that start with a goal and an agenda. Attendee lists should be as small as possible.

Note: Some invites come from my calendar because my EBA is helping book; in those cases, I do expect the requester to set the agenda.

Communication

• Slack: Hourly (usually inbox zero).

• Email: Daily. If I don’t answer right away, I’ll ask for more time. Please feel free to remind me.

• Text/Call: Always welcome, especially for urgent matters.

• If you have a request or a question for someone on my team and you know who they are, please don’t feel obliged to ask me first. You’re welcome to go to them directly. I am not fussed if you include me or not in your convo.

• I ask a lot of questions so I can learn, and often to connect the dots from inputs to outputs to outcomes. I am always trying to see if we can deliver in a better, faster way by checking assumptions and refining problems. Some people have given me feedback over the years that this approach can be intimidating, or that I can come off as “rhetorical” or “leading the witness”. That is not my intention and this is something that I am working on improving. If I say or do something that you are uncomfortable with or unsure of, please do not hesitate to bring it up with me.

• I am not a fan of regularly scheduled 1:1s. Instead, I prefer doing ad-hoc 1:1s or working sessions as they are needed. I find scheduled 1:1s to be less effective because some people wait for the next 1:1 to bring up a priority topic, or worse, there are no high-priority topics for the scheduled 1:1, and we end up wasting time on low-priority topics. Because of this approach, I have daylight in my calendar to find 1:1 or 1:few working time the same day or next. I really cherish that. During ad-hoc topics and working sessions, I do enjoy checking in, catching up on personal topics, small talk, keeping this light, etc

• I am a visual learner, and it’s easier for me to grok topics with a demo, diagram, data, or design. I am also happy to read prose. Especially if sent before the meeting, I can come prepared to dive right in.

• I am usually on all the time. You might get a note from me during your off hours as I cross items off my to-do list. You absolutely don’t need to respond to me until your work hours. On the rare occasion when there is an urgent matter, I’ll explicitly convey the urgency. I am available for meetings starting at 8 am PT until 6 pm PT. I am happy to take calls any evening after 8 pm PT, and on the weekend.

Availability:

• Meetings: 8 am PT – 6 pm PT.

• Calls: After 8 pm PT and weekends (happy to).

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