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Digital Experience

This page details processes specific to working with and within this department.

Team

Role Contributor(s)
Head of Digital Experience Sam Pfluger (@sampfluger88)
Head of Design Mike Thomas (@mike-j-thomas)
Software Engineer Eric Shaw (@eashaw)
Head of Revenue Operations Taylor Hughes (@hughestaylor)

Contact us

  • To make a request of this department, create an issue and a team member will get back to you within one business day (If urgent, mention a team member in the #g-digital-experience Slack channel.
    • Any Fleet team member can view the kanban board for this department, including pending tasks and the status of new requests.
    • Please use issue comments and GitHub mentions to communicate follow-ups or answer questions related to your request.
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Note: If a user story involves only changes to fleetdm.com, without changing the core product, then that user story is prioritized, drafted, implemented, and shipped by the Digital Experience department. Otherwise, if the story also involves changes to the core product as well as fleetdm.com, then that user story is prioritized, drafted, implemented, and shipped by the other relevant product group, and not by #g-digital-experience.

Responsibilities

The Digital Experience department is directly responsible for the framework, content design, and technology behind Fleet's remote work culture, including fleetdm.com, the handbook, issue templates, UI style guides, internal tooling, Zapier flows, Docusign templates, key spreadsheets, and project management processes.

QA a change to fleetdm.com

Each PR to the website is manually checked for quality and tested before before going live on fleetdm.com. To test any change to fleetdm.com

  1. Write clear step-by-step instructions to confirm that the change to the fleetdm.com functions as expected and doesn't break any possible automation. These steps should be simple and clear enough for anybody to follow.

  2. View the website locally and follow the QA steps in the request ticket to test changes.

  3. Check the change in relation to all breakpoints and browser compatibility, Tests are carried out on supported browsers before website changes go live.

Test fleetdm.com locally

When making changes to the Fleet website, you can test your changes by running the website locally. To do this, you'll need the following:

Once you have the above follow these steps:

  1. Open your terminal program, and navigate to the website/ folder of your local copy of the Fleet repo.

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    Note: If this is your first time running this script, you will need to run npm install inside of the website/ folder to install the website's dependencies.

  2. Run the build-static-content script to generate HTML pages from our Markdown and YAML content.

  • With Node, you will need to use node ./node_modules/sails/bin/sails run build-static-content to execute the script.

  • With Sails.js installed globally you can use sails run build-static-content to execute the script.

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    You can use the --skipGithubRequests flag to skip requests made to GitHub if you get rate-limited by GitHub’s API while running this script.

    e.g., node ./node_modules/sails/bin/sails run build-static-content --skipGithubRequests

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    When this script runs, the website's configuration file (website/.sailsrc) will automatically be updated with information the website uses to display content built from Markdown and YAML. Changes to this file should never be committed to the GitHub repo. If you want to exclude changes to this file in any PRs you make, you can run this terminal command in your local copy of the Fleet repo: git update-index --assume-unchanged ./website/.sailsrc.

  1. Once the script is complete, start the website server. From the website/ folder:
  • With Node.js: start the server by running node ./node_modules/sails/bin/sails lift
  • With Sails.js installed globally: start the server by running sails lift.
  1. When the server has started, the Fleet website will be available at http://localhost:2024
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Note: Some features, such as self-service license dispenser and account creation, are not available when running the website locally. If you need help testing features on a local copy, reach out to @eashaw in the #g-digital-experience channel on Slack.

Check production dependencies of fleetdm.com

Every week, we run npm audit --only=prod to check for vulnerabilities on the production dependencies of fleetdm.com. Once we have a solution to configure GitHub's Dependabot to ignore devDependencies, this manual process can be replaced with Dependabot.

Respond to a 5xx error on fleetdm.com

Production systems can fail for various reasons, and it can be frustrating to users when they do, and customer experience is significant to Fleet. In the event of system failure, Fleet will:

  • investigate the problem to determine the root cause.
  • identify affected users.
  • escalate if necessary.
  • understand and remediate the problem.
  • notify impacted users of any steps they need to take (if any). If a customer paid with a credit card and had a bad experience, default to refunding their money.
  • Conduct an incident post-mortem to determine any additional steps we need (including monitoring) to take to prevent this class of problems from happening in the future.

Check browser compatibility for fleetdm.com

A browser compatibility check of fleetdm.com should be carried out monthly to verify that the website looks and functions as expected across all supported browsers.

  • We use BrowserStack (logins can be found in 1Password) for our cross-browser checks.
  • Check for issues against the latest version of Google Chrome (macOS). We use this as our baseline for quality assurance.
  • Document any issues in GitHub as a bug, and assign them for fixing.
  • If in doubt about anything regarding design or layout, please reach out to the Head of Design.

Export an image for fleetdm.com

In Figma:

  1. Select the layers you want to export.
  2. Confirm export settings and naming convention:
  • Item name - color variant - (CSS)size - @2x.fileformat (e.g., [email protected])
  • Note that the dimensions in the filename are in CSS pixels. In this example, if you opened it in preview, the image would actually have dimensions of 32x32px but in the filename, and in HTML/CSS, we'll size it as if it were 16x16. This is so that we support retina displays by default.
  • File extension might be .jpg or .png.
  • Avoid using SVGs or icon fonts.
  1. Click the Export button.

Generate a new landing page

Experimental pages are short-lived, temporary landing pages intended for a small audience. All experiments and landing pages need to go through the standard drafting process before they are created.

Website experiments and landing pages live behind /imagine url. Which is hidden from the sitemap and intended to be linked to from ads and marketing campaigns. Design experiments (flyers, swag, etc.) should be limited to small audiences (less than 500 people) to avoid damaging the brand or confusing our customers. In general, experiments that are of a design nature should be targeted at prospects and random users, never targeted at our customers.

Some examples of experiments that would live behind the /imagine url:

  • A flyer for a meetup "Free shirt to the person who can solve this riddle!"
  • A landing page for a movie screening presented by Fleet
  • A landing page for a private event
  • A landing page for an ad campaign that is running for 4 weeks.
  • An A/B test on product positioning
  • A giveaway page for a conference
  • Table-top signage for a conference booth or meetup

The Fleet website has a built-in landing page generator that can be used to quickly create a new page that lives under the /imagine/ url.

To generate a new page, you'll need:

  1. Open your terminal program, and navigate to the website/ folder of your local copy of the Fleet repo.

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    Note: If this is your first time running the website locally, you will need to run npm install inside of the website/ folder to install the website's dependencies.

  2. Call the landing-page generator by running node ./node_modules/sails/bin/sails generate landing-page [page-name], replacing [page-name] with the kebab-cased name (words seperated by dashes -) of your page.

  3. After the files have been generated, you'll need to manually update the website's routes. To do this, copy and paste the generated route for the new page to the "Imagine" section of website/config/routes.js.

  4. Next you need to update the stylesheets so that the page can inherit the correct styles. To do this, copy and paste the generated import statement to the "Imagine" section of website/assets/styles/importer.less.

  5. Start the website by running node ./node_modules/sails/bin/sails lift (or sails lift if you have Sails installed globally). The new landing page will be availible at http://localhost:1337/imagine/{page-name}.

  6. Replace the lorum ipsum and placeholder images on the generated page with the page's real content, and add a meta description and title by changing the pageTitleForMeta and pageDescriptionForMeta in the page's localsinwebsite/config/routes.js`.

Restart Algolia manually

At least once every hour, an Algolia crawler reindexes the Fleet website's content. If an error occurs while the website is being indexed, Algolia will block our crawler and respond to requests with this message: "This action cannot be executed on a blocked crawler".

When this happens, you'll need to manually start the crawler in the Algolia crawler dashboard to unblock it. You can do this by logging into the crawler dashboard using the login saved in 1password and clicking the "Restart crawling" button on our crawler's "overview" page](https://crawler.algolia.com/admin/crawlers/497dd4fd-f8dd-4ffb-85c9-2a56b7fafe98/overview).

No further action is needed if the crawler successfully reindexes the Fleet website. If another error occurs while the crawler is running, take a screenshot of the error and add it to the GitHub issue created for the alert and @mention eashaw for help.

Re-run the "Deploy Fleet Website" action

If the action fails, please complete the following steps:

  1. Head to the fleetdm-website app in the Heroku dashboard and select the "Activity" tab.
  2. Select "Roll back to here" on the second to most recent deploy.
  3. Head to the fleetdm/fleet GitHub repository and re-run the Deploy Fleet Website action.

Refresh event calendar

Fleet's public relations firm is directly responsible for the accuracy of event locations, attendance dates, and CFP deadlines in the event strategy workbook. At the end of every quarter, the PR firm updates every event in the "Event strategy workbook" (private Google doc) by following these steps:

  1. Visit the latest website for each event.
  2. Update the workbook with the latest location, dates, and CFP deadlines from the website.

Archive a document

Follow these steps to archive any document:

  1. Create a copy of the document prefixed with the date using the format "YYYY-MM-DD Backup of DOCUMENT_NAME" (e.g. "2024-03-22 Backup of 🪂🗞️ Customer voice").
  2. Be sure to "Share it with the same people", "Copy comments and suggestions", and "Include resolved comments and suggestions" as shown below.
Screenshot 2024-03-23 at 12 14 00 PM
  1. Save this backup copy to the same location in Google Drive where the original is found.
  2. Link to the backup copy at the top of the original document. Be sure to use the full URL, no abbreviated pill links (e.g. "Notes from last time: URL_OF_MOST_RECENT_BACKUP_DOCUMENT").
  3. Delete all non-structural content from the original document, including past meeting notes and current answers to "evergreen" questions.

Schedule CEO interview

From time to time, you will need to schedule an interview between a candidate and the CEO:

  1. Make a copy of the "¶¶ CEO interview template" (private Google doc)
  2. Change file name and heading of doc to ¶¶ CANDIDATE_NAME (CANDIDATE_TITLE) <> Mike McNeil, CEO final interview (YYYY-MM-DD)
    • Add candidate's personal email in the "👥" (attendees) section at the top of the doc.
    • Add candidate's LinkedIn url on the first bullet for Mike.
  3. Set the Google Calendar description of the calendar event to: Agenda: URL_FOR_NEW_COPY_OF_FINAL_INTERVIEW_DOC

Program the CEO to do something

  1. If necessary or if unsure, immediately direct message the CEO on Slack to clarify priority level, timing, and level of effort. (For example, whether to schedule 30m or 60m to complete in full, or 30m planning as an iterative step.)
  2. If there is not room on the calendar to schedule this soon enough with both Mike and Sam as needed (erring on the side of sooner), then either immediately direct message the CEO with a backup plan, or if it can obviously wait, then discuss at the next roundup.
  3. Create a calendar event with a Zoom meeting for the CEO and Apprentice. Keep the title short. For the description, keep it very brief and use this template:
Agenda:
1. Apprentice: Is there enough context for you (CEO) to accomplish this?
2. Apprentice: Is this still a priority for you (CEO) to do.. right now?  Or should it be "someday/maybe"?
3. Apprentice: Is there enough time for you (CEO) to do this live? (Right now during this meeting?)
4. Apprentice: What are the next steps after you (CEO) complete this?
5. Apprentice: LINK_TO_DOC_OR_ISSUE
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Keep calendar event titles short so they are readable at a glance. Please include any other info via link, so that information is not duplicated or lost in the calendar.

Prepare for CEO office minutes

Before the start of the meeting, the Apprentice to the CEO will prepare the "CEO office minutes" meeting agenda such that the following is true:

  1. All agenda items are prefixed with a date of when the item will be covered and name of the person requesting to discuss the issue.
  2. All team members with an agenda item have added themselves and their manager to the correct calendar event. If the team member or manager hasn't been added to the calendar event before the meeting begins, the agenda item is de-prioritized in favor of others with representatives in attendance.
  3. If there are more that two team members attending, the Apprentice will work with the team members to schedule additional time to cover the agenda.
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If the manager is unable to attend the scheduled time of the meeting, the Apprentice will work with the team member to schedule an adhoc meeting between them, their manager, and the CEO.

Process the CEO's calendar

Time management for the CEO is essential. The Apprentice processes the CEO's calendar multiple times per day.

  • Clear any unexpected new events or double-bookings. Look for any new double-bookings, invites that haven't been accepted, or other events you don't recognize.
    1. Double-book temporarily with a "UNCONFIRMED" calendar block so that the CEO ignores it and doesn't spend time trying to figure out what it is.
    2. Go to the organizer (or nearest fleetie who's not the CEO):
    1. Bring prepped discussion item about this proposed event to the next CEO roundup, including the purpose of the event and why it is helpful or necessary for the CEO to attend (according to the person requesting the CEO's attendance). The CEO will decide whether to attend.
    2. Delete the "UNCONFIRMED" block if the meeting is confirmed, or otherwise work with the organizer to pick a new time or let them know the decision.
  • Prepare the agenda for any newly-added meetings: Meeting agenda prep is especially important to help the CEO focus and transition quickly in and between meetings.
    • In the notes document include:
      1. LinkedIn profile link of all outside participants
      2. Screen-shot of LinkedIn profile pic
      3. Company name (in doc title and file name)
      4. Correct date (20XX-XX-XX in doc title and file name)
      5. Context that helps the CEO to understand the purpose of the meeting at a glance from:
        • CEO's email
        • LinkedIn messages (careful not to mark things as read!)
        • Google Drive
    • Be sure to do this from the CEO's browser so as to not lock him out of any meeting docs.

Process the CEO's inbox

  • The Apprentice to the CEO is responsible for processing all email traffic prior to CEO review. The Apprentice will reduce the scope of Mike's inbox to only include necessary and actionable communication.
  • Marking spam emails as read (same for emails Mike doesn't actually need to read).
  • Escalate actionable sales communication and update Mike directly.
  • Ensure all calendar invites have the necessary documents included.

Document performance feedback

Every Friday at 5PM a Business Operations team member will look for missing data in the KPIs spreadsheet.

  1. If KPIs are not reported on time, the BizOps Engineer will notify the Apprentice to the CEO and the DRI.
  2. The Apprentice will update the "performance management" section of the appropriate individual's 1:1 doc so that the CEO can address during the next 1:1 meeting with the DRI.

Send the weekly update

We like to be open about milestones and announcements.

  • Every Friday, e-group members report their KPIs for the week by 5:00pm U.S. Central Time Zone.

  • Every Friday at 6PM, the Apprentice will post a short update in #general including:

    • A link to view KPIs
    • Who was on-call that week
    • Fleeties who are currently onboarding
    • Planned hires who haven't started yet
    • Fleeties that departed that week
  • Change the "⚡️" to "🔭" in the beginning of the formula

image
  • Select this week's cell (first week with the 🔮) in the KPI spreadsheet and copy the entire formula

  • Paste without formating (CMD+⇧+V) back into the same cell

  • The formula will now look like this:

image
  • Paste the newly formatted message in the #general Slack channel and delete any links that unfurl from links in the weekly update message.

  • 📬 Send it!

Troubleshoot signature automation

We use Zapier to automate how completed DocuSign envelopes are formatted and stored. This process ensures we store signed documents in the correct folder and that filenames are formatted consistently. When the final signature is added to an envelope in DocuSign, it is marked as completed and sent to Zapier, where it goes through these steps:

  1. Zapier sends the following information about the DocuSign envelope to our Hydroplane webhook:
    • emailSubject - The subject of the envelope sent by DocuSign. Our DocuSign templates are configured to format the email subject as [type of document] for [signer's name].
    • emailCsv - A comma-separated list of signers' email addresses.
  2. The Hydroplane webhook matches the document type to the correct Google Drive folder, orders the list of signers, creates a timestamp, and sends that data back to Zapier as
    • destinationFolderID - The slug for the Google Drive folder where we store this type of document.
    • emailCsv - A sorted list of signers' email addresses.
    • date - The date the document was completed in DocuSign, formatted YYYY-MM-DD.
  3. Zapier uses this information to upload the file to the matched Google Drive folder, with the filename formatted as [date] - [emailSubject] - [emailCvs].PDF.
  4. Once the file is uploaded, Zapier uses the Slack integration to post in the #help-classified channel with the message:
    Now complete with all signatures:
       [email subject]
       link: drive.google.com/[destinationFolderID]

Schedule travel for the CEO

The Apprentice schedules all travel arrangements for the CEO including flights, hotel, and reservations if needed. CEO traveling preferences in descending order of importance are:

  • Direct flight whenever possible (as long as the cost of the direct flight is ≤2x the cost of a reasonable non-direct flight)
  • Select a non-middle seat, whenever possible
  • Don't upgrade seats (unless there's a cheap upgrade that gets a non-middle seat, or if a flight is longer than 5 hours. Even then, never buy a seat upgrade that costs >$100.)
  • The CEO does not like to be called "Michael". Unfortunately, this is necessary when booking flights. (He has missed flights before by not doing this.)
  • Default to carry-on only, no checked bags. (For trips longer than 5 nights, add 1 checked bag.)
  • Use the Brex card.
  • Frequent flyer details of all (previously flown) airlines are in 1Password as well as important travel documents.

Process incoming equipment

Upon receiving any device, the Apprentice will process the incoming equipment by:

  1. Search for the SN of the physical device in the "Company equipment" spreadsheet to confirm the correct equipment was received.
  • If the serial numbers do not match create an issue to get help from the Business Operations department.
  1. Visibly inspect equipment and all related components (e.g. laptop charger) for damage.
  2. Remove any stickers and clean devices and components.
  3. Using the device's charger plug in the device.
  4. Turn on the device and enter recovery mode using the appropriate method.
  5. Connect the device to WIFI.
  6. Using the "Recovery assistant" tab (In the top left corner), select "Delete this Mac".
  7. Follow the prompts to activate the device and reinstall the appropriate version of macOS.

Ship approved equipment

Once the Business Operations department approves inventory to be shipped from Fleet IT, the Apprentice will ship the equipment by:

  1. Compare the equipment request issue with the "Company equipment" spreadsheet and verify physical inventory.
  2. Plug in the device and ensure inventory has been correctly processed and all components are present (e.g. charger cord, power converter).
  3. package equipment for shipment and include Yubikeys (if requested).
  4. Change the "Company equipment" spreadsheet to reflect the new user
  5. Ship via FedEx to the address listed in the equipment request.
  6. Add a comment to the equipment request issue, at-mentioning the requestor with the FedEx tracking info and close the issue.

Prepare for the All hands

  • Every month the Apprentice will do the prep work for the monthly "✌️ All hands 🖐👋🤲👏🙌🤘" call.

    • In the "👋 All hands" folder, create a new folder using "yyyy-mm - All hands".
    • Update "End of the quarter" slides to reflect the current countdown.
    • Download a copy of the previous month's keynote file and rename the copy pattern matching existing files.
    • Update the slides to reflect the current "All hands" date (e.g. cover slides month and the "You are here" slide)'
    • Update slides that contain metrics to reflect current information using the 📈 KPIs doc.
    • Update the "Spotlight slide" for guest speakers.
    • Add new customer logos from Mike's bookmarks "Customers list" and Google "Company name" to find the current logo.
  • First "All hands" of the quarter

    • Audit the "Strategy" slide.
    • Audit the "Goals" slide

The day before the All hands, Mike will prepare slides that reflect the CEO vision and focus.

Share recording of all hands meeting

The Apprentice will post a link to the All hands Gong recording and slide deck in Slack.

Template to use:

Thanks to everyone who contributed to today's "All hands" call.

:tv: If you weren't able to attend, please *[watch the recording](Current-link-to-Gong-recording)* _(1.5x playback supported)_.

You can also grab a copy of the [original slides](https://fleetdm.com/handbook/company/communications#all-hands) for use in your own confidential presentations.
  • Copy and paste the template to the "# general" Slack channel.

  • To create the recording link:

  • Open Gong recording and Share call

  • Share with customers

  • Copy link and paste the url *[Watch the recording](here-in-your-template-message)*.

  • The PDF can be found in the current months 👋All hands folder in Google Drive.

  • Download the PDF and upload (double click the +) into your updated Slack message, which will look like this:👇

image

📬 Send it!

Process and backup Sid agenda

Every two weeks, our CEO Mike has a meeting with Sid Sijbrandij. The CEO uses dedicated (blocked, recurring) time to prepare for this meeting earlier in the week.

  1. 30 minutes After each meeting archive the "💻 Sid : Mike(Fleet)" agenda, moving it to the (¶¶) Sid archive folder in Google Drive.
  2. In the backup copy, leave Google Doc comments assigning all Fleet TODOs to the correct DRI.
  3. In the ¶¶¶¶🦿🌪️CEO Roundup doc, update the URL in Sam: FYI: Agenda from last time: LINK.

Process and backup E-group agenda

Follow these steps to process and backup the E-group agenda:

  1. Archive the E-group agenda after each meeting, moving it to the "¶¶ E-group archive" folder in Google Drive.
  2. In the backup copy, leave Google Doc comments assigning all TODOs to the correct DRI.
  3. If the "All hands" meeting has happened today

Check LinkedIn for unread messages

Once a day the Apprentice will confirm check LinkedIn for unread messages.

  • Log into the CEO's LinkedIn.
    • Bring up the messaging window and filter out all read messages.
      • Click the "filter" icon in the messaging search bar.
      • Click "Unread". Bring all unreads to the CEO.

Unroll a Slack thread

From time to time the CEO will ask the Apprentice to the CEO to unroll a Slack thread into a well-named whiteboard google doc for safekeeping and future searching.

  1. Start with a new doc.
  2. Name the file with "yyyy-mm-dd - topic" (something empathetic and easy to find).
  3. Use CMD+SHFT+V to paste the Slack convo into the doc.
  4. Reapply formatting manually (be mindful of quotes, links, and images).
    • To copy images right-click+copy and then paste in the doc (some resizing may be necessary to fit the page).

Delete an accidental meeting recording

It's not enough to just "delete" a recording of a meeting in Gong. Instead, use these steps:

  • Wait for at least 30 minutes after the meeting has ended to ensure the recording and transcript exist and can be deleted.
  • Sign in to Gong through the CEO's browser.
  • Click Conversations
  • Select the call recording no longer needed
  • Click the "hotdog" menu in the right-hand cornerimage
  • Delete recording
  • Search for the title of the meeting Google Drive and delete the auto-generated Google Doc containing the transcript.
  • Always check back to ensure the recording and transcript were both deleted.

Rituals

  • Note: Some rituals (⏰) are especially time-sensitive and require attention multiple times (3+) per day. Set reminders for the following times (CT):
    • 9:30 AM (/before first meeting)
    • 12:30 PM CT (/beginning of "reserved block")
    • 6:30 PM CT (/after last meeting, before roundup / Japan calls)

Stubs

The following stubs are included only to make links backward compatible.

Why not mention the CEO in Slack threads?

Please see handbook/company/why-this-way/why-not-mention-the-ceo-in-slack-threads

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