Internship for Learning: TeamOps (Chief of Staff Team to CEO)

I recently did an internship for learning with the Chief of Staff Team (CoST) to CEO, specifically with Laurel Farrer on TeamOps. Since the internship is quite different from my regular work, I thought it best to do a blog post on it and reflect on the experience. Continue reading “Internship for Learning: TeamOps (Chief of Staff Team to CEO)”

Write the Docs 2023 Lightning Talk: Docs as Code: Automation the Developer way

This is the script and slides for what I prepared as a lighting talk for the Write the Docs 2023 Portland conference. Sadly, I did not get a slot, so it was not presented. Continue reading “Write the Docs 2023 Lightning Talk: Docs as Code: Automation the Developer way”

Reflection: Acting Chief of Staff to CTO at GitLab

For our company’s fourth quarter (Q4, November 2022 to January 2023), I was the Acting Chief of Staff to CTO. In February, I’m getting back into my regular role as a Staff Support Engineer, while also spending a little bit of time transitioning anything left and ensuring any “loose threads” are tied up. Since there’s quite a bit to write about, and the role is so different from my regular role, I thought it deserved its own post. Continue reading “Reflection: Acting Chief of Staff to CTO at GitLab”

Tracking your work (for performance reviews and promotions)

People have often asked me about how I manage to put together summaries of my work (blog posts, performance reviews, promotion documents, etc.) in a relatively quick way, and the only answer I have to that is “I track my work.”

I’ve tracked my work for many years, well before working at GitLab, though what I’ve been using in recent years is the most comprehensive method I’ve used. I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it, so I knew it was time to write a blog post to share. Continue reading “Tracking your work (for performance reviews and promotions)”

TeamOps: Ensuring a Single Source of Truth (SSoT) at scale

Note: This was an “assignment” for TeamOps training, but thought I might as well post it here!

In small organizations, it’s generally easy to know what is the definitive source of truth since there aren’t that many places to look. Often, the source of truth is a particular document, or person. However, as organizations grow, different people or teams often remember or document the same things in different ways, and in different places. This is why it’s important to have a Single Source of Truth (SSoT). Continue reading “TeamOps: Ensuring a Single Source of Truth (SSoT) at scale”

Reflection: First third of my fifth year at GitLab and defining Staff Support Engineer

Normally, I wait until at least the half-year mark to do a reflection post, but this year for the 4th quarter, I am doing a rotation for the Acting Chief of Staff to CTO role, which deserves its own post. So, I’m doing the first reflection post now to cover mid-June 2022 to the end of October 2022.

If you’re a first time reader, you may want to read one or more of my previous reflections posts. Continue reading “Reflection: First third of my fifth year at GitLab and defining Staff Support Engineer”