Overview

As we continue to grow and evolve at the GitLab Foundation, we remain dedicated to upholding core principles that will guide our progress as a fully remote organization. This commitment will enable us to achieve sustainable growth while preserving the unique culture and values that define us. We aim to:

1. Foster Collaboration and Prevent Silos: Promote collaboration by encouraging cross-functional projects, fostering inclusive leadership, and regularly assessing organizational dynamics to prevent silos.
2. Focus on Results and Enable Clear Prioritization: Maximize impact by focusing on the most critical tasks and projects, empowering team members to concentrate on high-impact activities.
3. Enhance Efficiency and Productivity: Streamline processes and continuously optimize workflows to improve operational efficiency and productivity, ensuring tasks and projects are completed effectively and on time.
4. Promote Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Promote diversity and inclusion within the organization and create opportunities for all team members to contribute, build camaraderie, and thrive. This will ensure equitable practices and a strong sense of belonging.
5. Embrace Iteration and Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging regular iteration, learning from feedback, and making incremental adjustments to processes and projects to achieve better outcomes.
6. Ensure Transparent Interaction and Communication: Maintain timely and transparent information flow throughout the organization with clear communication channels, regular all-hands updates, documentation in the Handbook, and encouragement of open feedback and interaction.

With these principles as our foundation, we are confident in our ability to navigate the complexities of growth while maintaining our strong organizational culture.

Organization-Wide Meetings

All GitLab Foundation team members participate in the following meetings.

GTLF Team StandUp

Fridays, 2:00 pm EST, 25 minutes

Exceptions: holidays and In-Person All-Hands

DRI: Director of Operations

It gives the team full visibility to all work in progress in the organization and creates space for team connection. Each team member briefly shares the top three things they are currently working on and their plans for the weekend!

Ask Me Anything (AMA) with the President & CEO

Second (or first) Thursday of the quarter, 2:15 pm EST, 25 minutes

The GitLab Foundation’s AMA with the President & CEO is a 25-minute open forum designed to promote transparency and engagement. Team members are invited to ask questions, share ideas, and gain insights on topics related to the Foundation’s mission, goals, or anything else on their minds. This informal session provides an opportunity to connect, align, and address questions—whether submitted in advance via this document or raised live during the meeting. These sessions will take place at the beginning of each quarter.

GTLF Bi-Weekly Team Meeting

Thursdays (first and third), 2:15 pm EST, 45 minutes

Exceptions: holidays and In-Person All-Hands

DRI: Director of Operations

Weekly team meetings aim to foster team culture, align the team's priorities for the upcoming two weeks, and share any organization-wide announcements. These meetings ensure everyone is informed about critical tasks and objectives, address issues or challenges, and coordinate efforts across different functional areas. This meeting will ensure leadership shares information with all team members across the function areas. Agenda

Grant Strategy & Approval Meeting

Monthly, varies

DRI: Sr. Program Officer

To provide strategic oversight and decision-making support for grants, ensuring alignment with the organization’s broader goals and efficient resource utilization. Approval forum for grants under $1M. Agenda

All-Hands In-Person Team Meetings

FY25 Schedule: July, October, January. Starting in FY26, these meetings will occur twice per year: Q2 (late July) and Q4 (last week of January)

DRI: Director of Operations

Goal: Ensure alignment with the organization's vision, facilitate effective communication, and foster collaboration across function areas. These meetings inform everyone about strategic updates, celebrate achievements, and reinforce the organizational culture. They provide a platform for open dialogue, collective problem-solving, and innovation, increasing transparency and trust. Additionally, they strengthen team relationships and create an inclusive environment where all employees feel valued and engaged in the organization’s success. Agendas

Schedule

Preparation

Teams

The GitLab Foundation has established specialized teams for each organizational function to ensure collaboration, efficiency, and flexibility. Each team is led by a function lead who provides leadership and direction, oversees the team’s activities and performance, and ensures that the function’s goals align with the broader organizational objectives. Through transparent communication, agile practices, and a focus on individual and collective achievements, we are poised to accomplish more together, driving our mission forward with purpose and passion.

• Function lead: The purpose of a function lead is to provide leadership and direction within a specific functional area of the organization. This role involves overseeing the team's activities and performance, ensuring that their function's goals align with the broader organizational objectives. Function leads are critical in ensuring their teams contribute effectively to the organization's success while maintaining a cohesive and motivated team environment. Function leads differ from DRIs, who can be appointed by function leads.

Function leads have the freedom to structure their team ways of working and meetings but must follow some requirements:

1. Meetings: each team must have the following meetings
   1. Daily stand-up: teams can dictate the timing of these meetings (daily or x times per week).
   2. Retrospectives: At a minimum, a bi-weekly (twice per month) team-wide retrospective must occur. Retros allow teams to reflect on what went well over the prior two weeks and how we can improve and assign specific actions to continue to drive team improvement. Function leads should take high-level items from their team retros to the following LT monthly retro (and trickle up in 1:1s with the President and CEO). Team retros will be viewable across the organization.
      • Reflect and complete retrospective for things that have occurred since the most recent (what went well, what could be improved)
      • Team members discuss what went well (celebration and shout-outs )
      • Team members discussed what could be improved
      • Team members jot down suggestions for action items
      • Vote on the top 3 actions to take and assign to team members
   3. In-person (optional): As of FY26, teams may choose to have one annual in-person team meeting. Function leads should contact the Director of Operations for planning purposes at least two to three months in advance and adhere to the meeting and event guide.
2. Documentation: Teams must document team ways of working methods, meeting cadence, and operations in the Handbook on their designated team page.
3. Work Flows: Tasks and work must be managed in ClickUp and visible across the organization.
4. Communications:
   1. Each team will have an established Zoom channel for team communications. All channels will be available for any team member to join across the organization.
   2. Each team will have a collaborative inbox/email group that they may use to manage communications with internal or external parties.
   3. The Foundation has an Open Door Policy.

Team Ways of Working (WOW)

Please click the links below for more information on how each team works (viewable only to GitLab Foundation team members).

Leadership

Function Lead: CEO

Members: Function leads of each team

Measurement

Function Lead: Director of Impact Measurement & Analytics

Members: Managers of Impact Measurement & Analytics

Operations

Function Lead: Director of Operations

Members: Grants Manager, Operations Coordinator, Executive Assistant to President and CEO

Partnerships

Function Lead: Sr. Program Officer

Members: Philanthropic Partnerships Manager

Programs

Function Lead: Sr. Program Officer

Members: Sr. Program Officers, Program Officers

Communications

Asynchronous (Async) Communication

The GitLab Foundation embraces asynchronous work as a cornerstone of its operational model, enabling flexibility, inclusivity, and efficiency in a global, remote-first environment. Guided by GitLab Inc.’s expertise in asynchronous workflows, the Foundation prioritizes well-documented communication, thoughtful prioritization, and clear expectations. Central to this approach is the use of comprehensive documentation and the publicly accessible handbook, which serve as single sources of truth for policies, processes, and decisions. These resources empower team members to work autonomously, access information on demand, and collaborate effectively across time zones while reducing the need for real-time interactions. Tips for async work:

1. Centralize in the Handbook: Keep processes, guidelines, and workflows updated and accessible in the handbook to enable self-service .
2. Document Decision-Making: to ensure clarity and accessibility and reduce repetitive discussions.
3. Default to Async First: Always consider if updates, tasks, or discussions can be handled asynchronously before scheduling a meeting.
4. Align Communication with CREDIT Values: Ensure async messages are clear, results-focused, and transparent, with actionable steps.
5. Respect Time Zones: Provide context and clear deadlines to accommodate team schedules and reduce delays.
6. Limit Meetings: Replace recurring check-ins with async updates (e.g., written reports or recorded videos) to reserve live meetings for critical decisions.
7. Encourage Ownership: Assign clear ownership of tasks and projects so team members know who to approach for decisions or updates.
8. Use Async Feedback Loops: Leverage tools to gather and provide feedback without needing real-time discussions.
9. Celebrate Wins Publicly: Share updates, achievements, and challenges openly in zoom channels and the Handbook to foster a culture of transparency and recognition.

Zoom Channels and Group Chats

Each team will have an established Zoom channel. Team members will be included in their team’s Zoom channel, and all channels will be available for any team member to join across the organization. Team members are encouraged to communicate with groups via their established Zoom channel (listed on each team's ways of working page). Teams will decide how best to utilize their group channel within the team and across the organization. Some helpful resources to guide the use of channels are below.

To view channels at GitLab Foundation, open the Zoom desktop browser and scroll down to #Channels. You will see a variety of channels that you are welcome to join!

GTLF Team channel

Channel and Group Resources

GTLF Team Calendar

The Foundation has a team calendar to allow transparency in activities occurring at the Foundation. Specifically, this calendar will be used for the following:

1. PTO: Team members must add any time off to the team calendar
2. Travel: Team members must add any work-related travel to the team calendar
3. Meetings: conference attendance and any meetings others should be aware of (Board of Directors meetings, in-person team meetings, etc.)
4. Important team dates: birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

You can easily send a calendar invite to the GTLF Team calendar by adding “Team Calendar” as a guest on the calendar invite. Meetings that require team members' attendance should be sent directly to them and adhere to our established remote meeting guidelines.

Email Groups

Each team has an assigned email group that allows for seamless communication and collaboration, allowing all team members to easily send messages, calendar invites, and share documents (see more).

These groups can also be used as Collaborative Inboxes to manage communications from external parties. Function leads will be the “owner” of their team’s collaborative inbox but are welcome to delegate ownership to another team member.

• Collaborative Inboxes

Organizational Training and Development

To foster the growth and development of our team members and ensure alignment with our organizational goals, we will offer several opportunities over the coming months, which may include:

• Technical and Systems Training: Keeping team members up-to-date with the latest tools and technologies used at the Foundation.
• Site Visits and Grantee Meetings: Providing hands-on learning experiences and deeper insights into the work of our grantees on the ground.
• Professional Development: Offering comprehensive development opportunities to enhance various skills and knowledge across the team around topics and areas relevant to work at the foundation (impact, strategy-related areas, AI, etc.)
• IT and CyberSecurity: Equipping team members with the knowledge and skills to protect our organization from cyber threats.

We also encourage team members to learn more about Professional Development at the Foundation.

WOW Resources

Making Decisions

Open Door Policy

Program Management: ClickUp

Remote or Virtual Meetings

Team Resources

Lattice

Click here for Tips and Tricks training on specific tools used at the foundation.