Jackie Porter's — README.md

I am a big fan of GitLab's 👁️ Transparency value. I am a public by default-type of person and am excited to share with you how I work. This document was inspired by the Product team README's.

• GitLab Profile
• Team Page
• ReadMe Project

Who I am

• My friends and family call me Jack or Jacks. Everyone else calls me Jackie. Currently, I am a Director, Product for the Verify and Package Stage.
• Happily, I call Weatherford, Texas home! I relocated from Austin, Texas where I attended the University of Texas at Austin to study engineering.
• I share a house with my better other half, Justin, and my loving lab, Piper.
• I received my Masters in Business Administration from Texas State while working full-time as a Construction Manager. This was my first career that taught me so much about my love of building things. I am currently pursuing my Doctorate in Change Management.
• I was an athlete growing up and spend over a quarter of my awake time training for races, tournaments and (pre-COVID) boxing.

How I work

• My timezone is CST
• My days are non-linear
• I will take calls between 7AM - 8PM, and will work between 5AM-10PM on any given day
• If I have tasks that take less than 5 minutes, I will do it immediately
• I prioritize deep work in the mornings before 7AM
• I have a strong bias for async communication
• I have Do Not Book, Lunch, Dinner, Workouts. If there is a block you are interested in for a customer call, please reach out!

How I spend my time

• I spend the first three hours on Monday going through my calendar hygiene, filling in agendas, and declining or accepting meetings
• I spend one of the first hours of the day clearing out my Todos
• I spend the last hour of my work day clearing Todos, going to bed with a Todo is nerve-wracking for me
• I try to consolidate internal meetings on W, T and TH. I am always free for customer or vendor calls and will schedule those on any day
• I workout 6 days a week, I used to do two-a-day trainings and recently converted to longer one-a-day training in the afternoons
• Mentoring, coaching, and engaging in thought leadership through events or platforms like Product Led Summit, Sharebird, and Topmate.

What I am focused on

• At GitLab, I am most focused on scaling our product direction and vision to meet the enterprises where they need tools most for software development. I spend time in executive board reviews with account teams and customers, conducting strategic research, and connecting with my product leadership peers to effectively uplevel the business.
• In my personal life, I am advancing my education in Change Management and Leadership, continuing education for project, product, and portfolio management certifications. I am also continually improving work-life balance to ensure I don't miss the important moments in my family's life.

How to reach me

• Slack: Mentioning me is the best way to reach me during the day (my handle is @jreporter). I will always have Slack open during business hours and will respond to @ as soon as I see it. I do occasionally review other channels like #questions, #product, and #ops_section. If you need something - @ me directly in a channel or link me to an issue in a DM. Sometimes I will set myself to away when I am in deep work. Expect my responses on email and Slack to be asynchronous in this state.
• GitLab: Mentioning me in issues and MRs is a failsafe way to get my fastest response. I am super active in burning my Todos down.
• E-mail: I read my emails 3 times a day, if you need something immediately or I am not responding quickly enough, please reach out on Slack.

Weak spots

I am continuously improving and in FY25-Q4 I was told that I needed to continue:

• Challenge the product teammates to achieve results for the customers
• Demonstrating exceptional project management and deep ownership through clear timelines, risk management, and strong stakeholder alignment
• Being supportive and collaborative
• Cascade strategy and priorities for the business
• Delegation of projects and tasks to my team, creating opportunities for growth

In my latest 360 feedback I received some comments to improve in the following:

• Displaying strong emotional reactions during disagreements - written or verbal. As this can make others unwilling to share their views.
• Join in async discussions around cross-functional product scope like Hosted Runners for Dedicated to offer more expertise and decision-making.
• Help teammates connect their personal goals and career development with company strategy
• Address the lack of portfolio management in GitLab by setting clear, focused product priorities.

In this most recent feedback session, I asked people who have worked with me most in the last 6 months, even including my day-to-day counterparts. This ended up creating a bias in the feedback, being more focused on cross-functional projects rather than product leadership.

Personality tests

• My Myers-Briggs is INTJ
• My Social Style is a Driver
• My Insights is a Directing Reformer leading with Red and Blue colors
• My Strengths Finders Themes are Achiever, Analytical, Learner, Individualization, and Activator
• My Enneagram is Type 8 The Challenger - The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational