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Lessons learned from GitLab about remote work - interview with Darren Murph

Darren Murph is Head of Remote at GitLab, the world’s largest all-remote organization. He leads at the intersection of people, culture, operations, inclusivity, marketing, employer branding, and communication overall. He has spent his career shaping remote teams and charting remote transformations, and recently authored GitLab’s Remote Playbook, a set of tried and tested tactics for building remote fluency in any organization.

We spoke to Darren about the opportunities and challenges presented by remote working for organizations building software-based systems and services. We were keen to get his insights into team-centric approaches to remote work. 

Darren Murph, GitLab

 

Q1 - In GitLab’s Remote Playbook, you identify that remote-first can help with a “focus on output instead of input”. Many organizations would benefit from this focus, but what does “valuing results” mean in practice?

Cover of the GitLab remote playbook

Cover page of the GitLab Remote Playbook

 

Valuing results is simple: a company which does this will praise and promote based on results, not on subjectivity. Why this is difficult for many organizations is also simple: very few actually write down what success looks like. Fewer still make an effort to equip individuals with the tools, workflows, processes, and culture needed to achieve results. 

It’s impossible to focus on output when you can’t articulate what success looks like. GitLab has several sub-values that help with this, including “it’s impossible to know everything,” “set a due date,” and “make two-way door decisions.” 

If you write down expected results and equip your people with what’s needed to achieve them, it will not matter how (nor where) they accomplish those results within ethical bounds.

Q2 - The “GitLab Values” handbook is really interesting. In particular, the Efficiency values seem to reduce cognitive load for everyone. Do you explicitly consider mental overload in the GitLab remote work principles?

Absolutely. We have a guide to combating burnout, isolation, and anxiety. By working handbook-first, we allow our 1500+ team members to self-service. By erecting a single source of truth for workflows, it greatly reduces cognitive load and personal interruptions. 

Many of GitLab’s sub-values enable a calm work environment. We expect blameless problem solving, and we optimize to be respectful of others’ time. We accept mistakes (instead of lambasting), and we encourage small improvements over sweeping changes. 

Featured
Remote-first Team Interactions with Team Topologies
Remote-first Team Interactions with Team Topologies

Remote-first work is the "new normal" for companies around the world. There is no shortage of advice on how individual teams can bond and work effectively remotely.

However, there is not much on how to address remote interactions between different teams that need to collaborate remotely, as part of the same value stream. Moving from the physical to the online world can further expose pre-existing interaction problems, increase wait times and slow down delivery and possibly response to incidents.

Based on the ideas from Team Topologies, Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton present some useful approaches to clarify and evolve inter-team interactions and communication in this remote-first world.

Read More →
 

Q3 - At GitLab you strongly value a “self-service” approach, but this is unfamiliar to many people. What kind of skills and mindsets are needed for helping to build a self-service way of working?

You have to be a manager of one, which we look for in the hiring process. People who thrive in this environment adore autonomy and prefer to work under their own direction rather than being heavily managed or told what to do. 

It’s worth recognizing that self-service requires a certain amount of investment at the organizational level. This works well at GitLab due to our handbook-first mentality. With over 2000 documented pages of process, workflows, and guides, our team members are well-positioned to find what they need by searching. Companies which are not deliberate about documentation make it more difficult for team members to adopt a self-service mindset. 

Q4 - In 2022, we know that team-based approaches to building and running software are much more effective than individual-based approaches. How do you help to reinforce the sense of teams within GitLab, particularly when people may not ever meet each other in person?

First, each member of the team must align to shared goals which are expertly documented in a single source of truth — a company handbook. This creates immediate alignment and greatly reduces the likelihood of confusion and dysfunction (which, in turn, reinforces a sense of team). 

Second, it must be universally understood that work happens in one central place, not splintered across chat, email, and ad hoc meetings. GitLab team members work within GitLab (the product). Issues and merge requests are transparent, enabling all team members to see input from each other. Transparency breeds trust, which reinforces a sense of team. 

Third, GitLab teams are built with a collection of people who are managers of one. Said another way, we hire highly interesting people who have rich lives outside of work. This creates a highly diverse work culture, where team members’ rest ethic contributes to their innovation. 

In terms of team-building: GitLab is highly intentional about informal communication as well as in-person interactions. Our sense of belonging ties back to our mission: everyone can contribute. We empower every single team member as well as the broader community to propose improvements to the GitLab handbook and product. When you enable that level of responsibility, each team member feels connected to shared values and goals. 

GitLab recognizes that in an all-remote setting, culture equals values. Our teams thrive because we have a detailed set of values which directs our day-to-day actions. We also have discretionary bonuses, a public #thanks channel in Slack, and a level of transparency that I hope becomes the norm across the working world. 

Follow Darren Murph:

About Darren Murph:

Named an “oracle of remote work” by CNBC, Darren is a recognized visionary in organizational design. He serves as GitLab’s Head of Remote, a role which he pioneered. He leads at the intersection of people operations, marketing, and strategic communication. His career is defined by leading remote teams, charting remote transformations, connecting nonobvious dots, and architecting inclusive cultures. He holds a Guinness World Record in publishing, and authored GitLab’s Remote Playbook and “Living the Remote Dream: A Guide To Seeing the World, Setting Records, and Advancing Your Career.” 

Darren has pioneered the Head of Remote role, interviewed by Harvard Business School, CNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Fortune, Digiday, Business Insider, and more.

Q&ATeam Topologiesremote, remote-first