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Description
GitLab E-Group and the Learning and Development team discuss our No-Matrix Organization.
Learn more about GitLab's No-Matrix Organization: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/leadership/no-matrix-organization/
Learn more about GitLab Leadership: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/leadership/
Learn more about GitLab Learning & Development: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/
A list of topics covered:
1. Functional expertise
2. The concept of decision making
3. When to enable a working group
4. The concept of a functional organization
5. Strategies on how to enable our teams in a no-matrix organization
A
Hi
everyone,
my
name,
is
josh
zimmerman.
I
am
here
with
the
e-group
to
do
a
ceo
handbook,
interactive
learning
discussion
where
we're
going
to
talk
about
no
matrix
organization.
Thank
you
all
for
joining
us
here
today.
I
would
love
it.
If
you,
we
could
dive
deep
into
the
no
matrix
organization.
Handbook
page
and
specifically,
you
know,
talk
about
what
rings
true
to
how
we
currently
operate
and
specif,
and
I
think
the
first
point
I
would
love
to
touch
on
is
what
are
the
benefits
of
having
a
technically
competent
manager.
B
C
D
So,
if
you're
in
legal,
you
want
someone
who
really
understands
your
domain,
if
you're
in
privacy
illegal,
you
want
someone
who's
aware
of
privacy
regulations
and
what
a
great
privacy
policies
looks
like,
and
what
what
a
bad
one
looks
like.
So
the
benefits
of
having
a
bene:
manager
who
understands
your
domain,
so
I
would
not
say
a
technical,
but
a
domain
expert
manager
is
that
you
can
get
better
coaching
about
what's
good,
what's
not
good
what
you
should
do
to
improve
what
your
opportunities
are.
A
E
G
Agree
agree
on
all
those
points.
The
the
clarity
from
that
prioritization
and
objectives
is
important.
I
think
in
part,
because
it
sets
up
the
team
member
the
report
for
success,
because
they've
got
clarity,
but
it
also
puts
a
burden
of
responsibility
on
the
manager
to
know
that
they
have
to
be
the
leader.
They
have
to
be
the
one
setting
that
course
and
communicating
the
objectives
when
there's
multiple
potential
leaders,
that
lack
of
clarity
can
lead
to
both
or
more
managers,
assuming
the
other
has
done
a
good
job.
A
No,
that's
really
helpful,
and
then
you
know,
I
think
specifically
on
this
page
too.
You
know,
I
think
one
thing
that
I
see
is
a
lot
of
cross-functional
sort
of
collaboration
on
certain
projects
or
initiatives
and
and
I'd
be
curious
to
know
when
to
create
a
working
group.
When
would
be
the
best
time
to
do
that,
and
how
would
you
actually
apply
that.
H
I
I
think
of
it
as
there's
something
that
we're
just
not
currently
good
at
as
an
organization,
and
it's
very
cross-functional,
and
you
do
a
working
group
for
that
and
the
intent
of
a
working
group
is
to
eventually
be
able
to
decompose
it
and
turn
it
back
into
normal
work,
whether
that
it
results
in
a
new
team
or
a
new
responsibility
in
a
new
role,
or
most
often
just
expanding
someone's
charter
so
that
they
own
it.
And
then
we
don't
need
a
working
group
to
do
that
thing
again.
A
B
I
wanted
to
call
out
the
difference
between
a
working
group
and
other
cross-functional
teams
that
we
have
working
on
things
that
may
not
be
a
working
group
to
me
is
like
we
just
talked
about
it's
something
where
we're
solving
a
discrete
problem,
and
then
we
want
to
spin
down
the
working
group
because
we
solved
it.
This
is
a
cross-functional
team
that
is
working
on
something
that
may
not
be
a
discrete
problem,
but
some
that
something
that
could
be
on
going
ongoing,
for
example,
commit
contribute.
Sco
sco
is
probably
the
best
example.
B
That's
happening
right
now
and
there's
never
dotted
line
reporting,
but
there's
probably
someone
in
charge
of
that
project
who's
going
to
make
calls
and
who
you
may
need
to.
You
know
you
know
the
team's,
not
the
events
team's
not
directly
coming
to
me
to
get
decisions
made
about
sco,
they're
coming
to
who's
leading
sco,
and
so
I
just
want
to
call
that
out
explicitly
that
we
have
those-
and
I
think,
they're,
fine
and
necessary.
A
E
I
think
the
every
organizational
structure
has
pros
and
cons.
The
con
of
a
functional
organization
is
you're
aligned
by
your
function,
you're,
not
necessarily
aligned
by
a
business
outcome
or
a
customer
outcome.
So
it's
incumbent
upon
all
of
us
to
make
sure
we
understand
and
we
clarify
for
our
teams.
What's
the
business
outcome
we're
driving
for
here?
It's
not
about
pm.
It's
not
about
engineering,
it's
not
about
sales!
A
Yeah,
I
would
agree
with
that.
Thanks
scott,
and
you
know
specifically
just
regarding
no
matrix
organization,
the
structure
of
the
page
and
kind
of
how
it's
laid
out
and
how
team
members
embody
it.
You
know.
Are
there
any
specific
changes
that
you
would
like
to
make
to
help
reinforce
our
no
matrix
organization
moving
forward.
D
A
B
On
that
is
it
feels
I
I
like
it,
because
it's
sort
of
like
we're
resisting
the
temptation
to
do
this
so
yeah,
I
mean
I
kind
of
like
it
because,
like
oh
yeah,
whenever
you
say
like
it,
actually
is
a
great
reminder
whenever
you
remind
us
that
we're
a
functional
organization-
and
this
is
what
happens
when
you
have
a
functional
organization-
it
reminds
me
it's
like.
Oh
yeah,
no
wonder
collaboration
is
sometimes
a
problem.
You.
F
B
D
Cool-
and
I
think
what's
what's
also
interesting-
is
what's
happening
in
finance,
with
with
data
teams
that
are
kind
of
cross-domain,
but
they
kind
of
specialize
in
like
go
to
market
or
team
or
product,
so
they
kind
of
make
up
that
they,
they
are
kind
of
a
patch
on
kind
of
the
the
valleys
that
is
are
between
the
different
functions
without
without
turning
it
into
a
matrix
organization.
I
thought
that
was
interesting
as
well.
C
D
A
G
And
I
think
one
of
the
the
best
conversations
this
can
help
drive,
especially
with
new
managers
that
have
recently
joined,
get
lab
is
to
force
a
conversation
at
all
levels
about
intent
when
we
think
of
organizational
design.
I
think
that
it's
it's
easy.
Sometimes
you
know
think
about
matrix
and
overlays,
and
things
like
that
when
you
take
the
extra
time
to
be
deliberate
and
really
make
sure
that
we
are
indeed
mapping
our
investment
exactly
to
what
we're
trying
to
accomplish,
and
that's
a
that's
a
great
outcome
in
and
of
itself.