New Developer Onboarding Guide

Summary: Welcome to the team! This guide provides a step-by-step process for setting up your development environment and making your first contribution.

Executive Summary: What is STRIDE?

STRIDE (Sales Tagging Research Intelligence Documentation Engine) is an internal tool designed to unify all relevant sales content—case studies, pitch materials, product narratives—by mapping it intelligently to company, product, industry, and outcome stage. It drastically reduces the time spent by sales teams in preparing for client conversations and improves personalisation at scale.

1. Getting Started: Your First Week

Day 1: Setup & Orientation

1. Get Access: Ensure you have accounts for GitHub, Slack, and Jira.
2. Set Up Your Machine: Follow the environment setup instructions below.
3. Meet the Team: Your onboarding buddy will introduce you to the team.

4. Read the Docs: Start by reading the Business Overview and the High-Level Architecture Diagram.

5. Understand STRIDE's Purpose:

   • STRIDE solves the problem of fragmented, inconsistently tagged, and hard-to-retrieve sales content.
   • It provides a centralized, queryable system connecting companies, products, stages, and outcomes.
   • See the Vision & Objectives and Core Functionalities below for more context.

Day 2-3: Dive into the Code & Product

1. Clone the Repo: git clone <repository-url>
2. Run the Project: Follow the steps to run the application locally.
3. Explore the Codebase: Use the Code Walkthroughs to understand key areas.
4. Review STRIDE's Tagging Model: Familiarize yourself with tag dimensions (Industry, Outcome, Stage, Product, Relevance) and how they are applied to content. See Tagging Model.
5. Pick Your First Ticket: Look for a "good first issue" in Jira.

Day 4-5: Your First Contribution & STRIDE Use Case

1. Create a Branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
2. Write Code & Tests: Make your changes and add corresponding tests.
3. Submit a Pull Request: Push your branch and open a PR for review.
4. Try a STRIDE User Journey:
   • Example: Enter a query like “Series A Fintech firms that exited in 2024” and review the output (case studies, narrative summaries, pitch slide recommendations).
5. Celebrate! You've made your first contribution.

2. STRIDE Vision & Objectives

Vision

To build an internal intelligence layer that transforms how sales teams discover and use collateral — making it faster, smarter, and deeply contextual.

Objectives

• Create a searchable, structured knowledge base
• Enable query-driven discovery of content
• Establish a content tagging standard
• Support dynamic use cases like storytelling, outcome reporting, and pitch alignment
• Lay the groundwork for AI-powered assistants

3. Core Functionalities (Detailed)

3.1. Query Interface

• Natural Language Support: e.g., “Which companies exited in 2023 in the Fintech vertical?”
• Filters: Stage, Industry, Product, Region

3.2. Smart Content Packs

• Compiled output:
  • Case studies
  • Whitepapers
  • POV Papers
  • Relevant decks/slides
  • Outcome narrative
  • Tags + Source links
  • Option to download/share as PDF (v2)

3.3. Tagging Engine

• Tag dimensions:
  • Industry (Fintech, Healthtech, SaaS…)
  • Outcome Type (PMF, Growth, Exit…)
  • Stage (Seed, Series A, S1…)
  • Product (Design, Engineering, AI…)
  • Domain Relevance: Domain-Specific / Domain-Agnostic
• Tag application via UI or CSV upload

3.4. Content Repository Integration

• Notion APIs
• Google Drive Folders (OAuth based)
• Public data: Crunchbase API, etc. (for exits/funding)

4. System Architecture (High-Level)

flowchart TD
    UI[User Interface (Search + Admin)] --> Backend
    Backend --> DB[(STRIDE DB)]
    Backend --> Notion[Notion API]
    Backend --> GDrive[Google Drive API]
    Backend --> AIEngine[OpenAI/NLP Layer (v2)]
    DB --> TagMap[Tag Mapping Layer]
    TagMap --> ContentMap[Company/Product Mapping]

Stack Recommendations:

5. Tagging Model (Examples)

Tag Application Example (Case Study A):

{
    "title": "Zeta PMF Success",
    "company": "Zeta",
    "industry": "Fintech",
    "stage": "PMF",
    "outcome": "Growth",
    "products": ["Design", "AI"],
    "relevance": "Domain-Specific"
}

6. User Journey Workflows

Sales Use Case:

• Enters: “Series A Fintech firms that exited in 2024”
• Gets: 5 case studies + narrative summaries + pitch slide recommendations

Admin Use Case:

• Uploads case study file
• Tags using dropdowns
• Links to company, product, outcome stage
• Content now discoverable

7. Development Environment Setup

Prerequisites

• Git
• Python 3.11+
• Docker and Docker Compose

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone git@github.com:your-org/your-repo.git
   cd your-repo
   

2. Set up the Python environment:
   We use venv for managing virtual environments.

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements/dev.txt
   

3. Run the database:
   The application requires a PostgreSQL database, which can be started easily with Docker.

   docker-compose up -d db
   

4. Run the application:
   

   uvicorn src.main:app --reload
   

   
   The application should now be running at http://127.0.0.1:8000.

8. Key Resources

• Glossary: Unfamiliar with a term? Check the Glossary.
• Architecture: Need a high-level view? See the Architecture Diagrams.
• API Docs: Working with the API? Here is the API Reference.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask in the #dev-support Slack channel.