fleet/handbook/ceo

🔭 CEO

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

Team

Role	Contributor(s)
CEO	Mike McNeil (@mikermcneil)
Executive Assistant	See 🧑‍🚀 People

Contact us

You can send @mikermcneil a DM in Fleet Slack, at-mention him in the #help-leadership channel, or schedule time with the CEO.

Responsibilities

Ultimately, the CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company. The CEO is the directly responsible individual (DRI) for pricing tiers, the business model, product vision, signatures on many documents, and brand strategy.

Note: When the CEO is out of office, CEO responsibilities are either paused, delegated, or coordinated through the GTM Systems Architect so they can be handled promptly. (It depends on the responsibility and the situation.)

Process the CEO's inbox

• The Executive Assistant is responsible for processing all email traffic prior to CEO review to 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.
• Forward any emails from customers about paying Fleet to the Buisness Operations department using Fleet's billing email.

Process the CEO's calendar

Time management for the CEO is essential. The Executive Assistant 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):
  • Get full context on what the CEO should know as to the purpose of the meeting and why the organizer thinks it is helpful or necessary for the CEO to attend.
  • Remind the organizer with this link to the handbook that all CEO events have times chosen by Savannah before booking.
  3. 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.
  4. 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. Using the CEO's browser, prepare each document by including the following:

If a meeting agenda has to be created from scratch, be sure to move it to the "Meeting notes" folder in Google Drive so that he isn't locked out of any documents. If preparing for a meeting with a current advisor, use the existing journal as the meeting agenda using these steps:

1. Search for the journal in Mike's browser using the advisor's name or email.
2. Update the journal by adding the date of the meeting as an H3 in the Google document (pattern matching the document) and link the document to the calendar description.

1. LinkedIn profile url of all outside participants. Connect with any of the attendees that the CEO is not already connected to on LinkedIn, this should always be a blank connect request meaning "Send without note". Nest everything from prep under the LinkedIn url (ie all under #1)
2. A screen-shot of LinkedIn profile pic
3. Company name (in doc title, file name and Google calendar event title)
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
6. Edit the calendar event description, changing “Notes” to “Agenda” when you're finished preparing the document to signify that this meeting has been prepped.

Check LinkedIn for new activity

Once a day the Executive Assistant will check LinkedIn for unread messages and pending connect request.

1. Log into the CEO's LinkedIn and bring up the messaging window.
2. Filter out all read messages by clicking "filter" and then "Unread".
3. Bring all unreads to the CEO during the daily roundup.

To check for pending connect requests, perform the following steps:

1. Log into the CEO's LinkedIn (if you're not already) and click "My Network".
2. Bring all pending connect requests to the CEO during the daily roundup.

Add LinkedIn connections to CRM

To add the most recent connections from Linkedin to our CRM, follow these steps:

1. Log into the CEO's LinkedIn (if you're not already).
2. Click "My Network".
3. Click "Connections".
4. Open each person's LinkedIn page in a new tab.
5. Log into our CRM using the Fleet's billing login (in 1Password) in another tab.
6. Scroll down to the "Experience" section to find the person's current employer and search for that account in the CRM database.
7. In LinkedIn, navigate to the employer company profile. Click "insights" to see how many employees are listed and update the "Employees" field on the CRM account.
8. The "Account rating" on the CRM account must be a 🦄, if they're not, Do not add the contact. Move on to the following person.
9. If the account is a 🦄, click "All contacts" and make sure they're not a contact already.
10. Create a new contact on the account: Click "New", fill out their full name, title, role, buying situation, and LinkedIn URL, then save the record.
11. Click on the new contact (their name) that you created and change their psychological stage to "intrigued" (we consider them intrigued since they've reached out to the CEO via LinkedIn).

Connect with active community members

Once a week, the Executive Assistant will review the "community activity report" and add the LinkedIn URLs into the campaign. This will send out a connection request to those who liked, shared, commented, etc. a post on LinkedIn.

1. Export the community activity report.
2. Copy the LinkedIn URLs.
3. Paste the LinkedIn URLs in the appropriate Dripify campaign.

Schedule travel for the CEO

The Executive Assistant will verify daily that the CEO's calendar is accurate for any commitment or booked travel. The Executive Assistant is the DRI for scheduling all travel arrangements for the CEO, including flights, hotels, and reservations if needed. The CEO's 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.
• The CEO will schedule his own transportation (e.g. to/from hotel/event location) while traveling. If the CEO is traveling to an event or meeting where other Fleeties are present, he may use travel time (e.g. an Uber ride) as time to align with other team members in person.

The CEO's calendar should reflect the following schedule for travel:

• Time block for the CEO to pack (always have this event even if the CEO doesn't check any bags in, he always bring a carry-on bag),
  • 45 minutes
  • Calendar event name: Pack
• Travel time to the airport the CEO is going to,
  • Check the time it takes from where the CEO is to the airport the CEO needs to get to, even if it's to his home airport. (e.g. If the CEO is leaving thier hotel to the airport, google directions from the location of the hotel to the airport, but make sure you change the time at when the CEO will leave their hotel.)
  • Calendar event name: Travel to NAME_OF_AIRPORT
  • Location: Address of the airport the CEO needs to go to.
• Time block to go through security,
  • 30 minuites for domestic and international flights
  • Calendar event name: Security
  • Agenda: CEO's link to the boarding pass. You will get this when it's time to check in for the CEO's flight. It will come by email or by text to which you can email it to yourself or text it to yourself. If you cannot get a link, download the boarding pass and upload as a google doc. Make sure the CEO has access to the doc before placing the link in the agenda as the boarding pass.
• Time block to get water and boarding,
  • 30 minutes for domestic flights
  • 90 minutes for international flights where the first leg crosses international borders (this is because they blockade international gates and make you wait in line and the boarding time in longer)
  • Calendar event name: Get water and boarding
• Airline flight calendar event
  • The airline website will either offer to download the flight or have it emailed. After you download the flights from the airline website, import it to the CEO's calendar (this is in the calendar settings) or send it to the CEO's email. (For either option, there is either a calendar icon to click or a button that says "add to calendar".)
  • If there is no offer to download or email it (usually happens with international flights), manually put it on the CEO's calendar with this event title: ABBREVIATED_AIRPORT to ABREVIATED_ AIRPORT. Make sure to double check the time the flight starts and lands.
  • For connecting flights, when there is a time gap between flights, fill the gap with a calendar event named: Find next gate
• Time block to get water and bags (this is after the CEO lands from the flight),
  • 30 minutes
  • Calendar event name if the CEO has checked bags: Get water and bags
  • Calendar event name if the CEO has no checked bags: Get water
  • No calendar event to get water and bags, if CEO is going home.
• Travel time from the airport to the CEO's next destination,
• Time varies, you will need to google directions from the airport to the address the CEO needs to go to. Make sure to match the time they will need to leave the airport.
• The CEO sometimes needs to go straight to the event they are needed at whether it's a meeting, an event, resturaunt, etc.
• Calendar event: Travel to NAME_OF_DESTINATION (e.g. Travel to NAME_OF_HOTEL, NAME_OF_VENUE, NAME_OF_RESTURUANT, etc.)
• Location: Address to destination
• Calendar event name if CEO is going home: Travel home
• If the CEO is checking into a hotel, they need a time block to check-in,
• If the CEO will arrive to the hotel before their check-in time, call the hotel ahead of time to request early check-in. If early check-in is not available, schedule the check-in time block at the hotel's check-in time.
• If the hotel says early check-in is possible, but depends on the hotel's availability, have the CEO try to check-in.
• 30 minutes
• Calendar event: Check-in at hotel
• Calednar event for CEO to try and check-in: Try to check-in

Schedule CEO interview

Use the following steps to schedule an interview between a candidate and the CEO:

1. Once you receive a CEO interview request, apply the "eyes" (👀) emoji to the Slack post to acknowledge you've seen the request.
2. Reach out to the candidate via email to find a time when the CEO and candidate are both available.

This entire process takes an hour for the CEO: a 30-minute interview followed by a 30-minute "¶¶ Postgame" Be sure to offer times that accommodate this.

3. Once you've secured a time for the interview, create a Google Calendar event with the title "¶¶ CANDIDATE_NAME (OPEN_POSITION_APPLYING_FOR) <> Mike, final interview w/ CEO".
4. Add the "Why hire" doc to the calendar event description as the agenda (i.e. Agenda: WHY_HIRE_DOC_FULL_URL) and save the calendar event.
5. Schedule a 30-minute "¶¶ Postgame" working session for the CEO to evaluate the candidate and give his recommendation.
6. In the hiring channel for the position, apply the "green-check-mark" (✅) emoji to the CEO interview request to confirm the request has been processed.
7. Create a reminder meeting on your calendar to join the second half of the final interview call with the CEO and candidate.

Schedule analyst briefing

The Executive Assistant (EA) will use the following steps to book an analyst briefing for the CEO:

1. The EA will work with the marketing consultant to coordinate a time for when the CEO is available for an analyst briefing.
2. The EA will program the CEO to attend a 30-minute “analyst prep” call right before the analyst meeting. During the prep call, the EA will write down the 3 topics the CEO will bring to the analyst discussion.
3. The EA will prep the agenda with a link to the analyst's LinkedIn.

Confirm CEO shadow dates

Every Monday, the Executive Assistant will use the following steps to confirm CEO shadow dates:

1. Edit the "All day", "Free" event on the CEO's calendar named "CEO shadow program (TODO_OR_DELETE)" to add the names of all people in the "@onboarding" Google group (group members are visible from the calendar event). E.g. "CEO shadow program (Froto Baggins, Samwise Gamgee)".

If the CEO shadow period is not in the best possible spot for those who will shadow Mike (e.g. during travel or long in-person meetings), move it. If no one is in the onboarding@ Google Group (or all members have already completed thier CEO shadow period), delete the calendar event for that week.

2. Verify all private meetings (e.g. 1:1's, E-Group, T-group, and quarterly board meetings, etc.) durring the 3-day CEO shadow period have "[no shadows]" in the event title.

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 Executive Assistant. Keep the title short. For the description, keep it very brief and use this template:

Agenda:
1. Executive Assistant: Is there enough context for you (CEO) to accomplish this?
2. Executive Assistant: Is this still a priority for you (CEO) to do.. right now?  Or should it be "someday/maybe"?
3. Executive Assistant: Is there enough time for you (CEO) to do this live? (Right now during this meeting?)
4. Executive Assistant: What are the next steps after you (CEO) complete this?
5. Executive Assistant: LINK_TO_DOC_OR_ISSUE

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, create 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.

Prepare for the e-group meeting

Before each e-group meeting, the Executive Assistant will complete the following steps to ensure pipeline progress is front and center at the start of the meeting:

1. Using the CEO's browser, open Salesforce and pull up the current pipeline creation actuals vs. goals report (showing the gap clearly).
2. Take a screenshot of the report and add it as the first item in the e-group meeting agenda doc.

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 remove any spotlights covered in the current "All hands" presentation.

Process the help-being-ceo Slack channel

The Executive Assistant will perform the following steps to process all communication from the CEO in the help-being-ceo Slack channel.

1. As soon as the message is received in the channel, add the ":eyes: (👀)" emoji to the Slack message to signify that you have seen and understood the task or question.
2. If the message is prefixed with "ASAP", complete the task within 2 hours. If you are unable to, get another fleetie's help.
3. Start a Slack thread to add any context or let the stakeholders know the status of the task.
4. After each task is completed, apply the ":white_check_mark:" (✅) to the slack message.

Unroll a Slack thread

From time to time the CEO will ask the Executive Assistant 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.
• Scroll down to Conversations
• Select the call recording no longer needed
• Click the "hotdog" menu in the right-hand corner
• 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.

Communicate Fleet's potential energy to stakeholders

On the first business day of every month, the Executive Assistant will send an update to the stakeholders of Fleet using the following steps:

1. Navigate to the "🪴🌧️🦉 Investor updates" spreadsheet and confirm the data in each column matches the header of that column (e.g. the "Headcount" column actually has headcount values in it). Do this by confirming the "Remote column" value corresponds to the correct column "letter" in the "Weekly updates" tab of the "📈 OKRs (quarterly goals) + KPIs (everyday metrics)" spreadsheet.
2. Confirm KPI's are up-to-date. If any KPI's aren't completed, at mention the e-group member responsible and ask that the KPI's be completed ASAP in order to send the investor update.
3. Copy the following template into an outgoing email with the subject line: "[Investor update] Fleet, YYYY-MM".

Hi investors and friends,


FYI we just updated the self-service investor update portal with the numbers from last month:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10T7Q9iuHA4vpfV7qZCm6oMd5U1bLftBSobYD0RR8RkM/edit#gid=0


Thanks for your support,
Mike and the Fleet team

4. Address the email to the executive team's Gmail.
5. Using the 🌧️🦉 Investors + advisors spreadsheet, bcc the correct individuals and send the email.

Manually archive a Slack channel

Use the following steps to manually archive a Slack channel and save any artifacts, e.g., images, attachments, or videos:

1. Download all pictures and videos in the channel to your device you want to archive. To do this, you will go to that channel, click the "Files" tab, then "See all", and download each item.
2. Create a new folder inside of the memories folder in Google Drive named ARCHIVED_DATE - CHANNEL_NAME and upload all of your artifacts.
3. After you save your artifacts in Google Drive, navigate to and archive the Slack channel. Click the 3 dots in the top right corner, click "Edit settings", and "Archive channel for everyone".

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.

3. Save this backup copy to the same location in Google Drive where the original is found.
4. 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").
5. Delete all non-structural content from the original document, including past meeting notes and current answers to "evergreen" questions.

Rituals

The following table lists this department's rituals, frequency, and Directly Responsible Individual (DRI).