►
From YouTube: Q&A session with Darren Murph, Head of Remote at @Gitlab
Description
We invited Darren for a Q&A session with Israeli R&D leaders, following his talk on Gitlab's Remote Playbook.
You can also see all of Darren's answers in this Google Doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hOWRoH3Z8q3gtifZQM6T-qc1QGEqEzgKM0H_dsfzI68/edit?usp=sharing
B
A
Yeah.
Thank
you
very
thank
you
for
that
question.
So,
I'll
answer
it
with
a
couple
of
links
here,
which
I
think
will
be
useful.
It's
an
overview
of
how
we
do
hiring
what
I
recruited
process
framework
looks
like
as
well
as
our
interviewing
process.
So
the
long
and
short
of
it
is,
we
don't
ever
meet
any
of
our
new
hires
in
person.
A
It's
just
as
do
you
have
some
perspective,
a
lot
of
people
wondering
and
if
you're,
an
all
remote
company,
do
you
ever
get
together.
The
answer
is
yes,
we
get
the
entire
company
together
once
a
year
for
a
big
company
summit,
almost
no
work
just
there
for
a
relational
bonding.
We
also
have
in-person
events
called
get
lap
commit
about
four
or
five
of
those
a
year
where
we
get
stub
sections
of
the
team
if
they're,
relatively
local
and
get
people
together.
So
we.
D
A
People
as
many
opportunities
to
be
together
as
possible,
but
we
don't
see
in
person,
is
something
that's
mandatory
before
you
hire
someone,
and
especially
if
there's
there's
periods
where
get
lab
is
bringing
on
10
20
30
40
new
people
a
week,
it
becomes
unscalable
they're
just
trying
to
fly
someone
out.
It's
a
ton
of
time
spent
to
just
get
an
hour
in
person.
That's
a
more
philosophically.
A
You
simply
want
to
sit
across
from
someone
so
that
your
emotions
can
be
okay
with
the
purchase
you're
about
to
make
and
by
removing
that
it
makes
you
focus
on
the
actual
person,
the
actual
results
and
what
they
bring
to
the
company,
their
intelligence
and
their
effort
and
the
determination
that
they
bring
to
the
company.
It
doesn't
have
anything
to
do
with
how
they
look
or
their
how
they
carry
themselves
in
a
one-on-one
meeting.
So
we
actually
think
that
it
removes
a
lot
of
that
bias.
Now,
in
turn,
our
interview
processes
are
very
thorough.
A
D
Just
wanted
to
ask
about
common
issues,
remote
workers,
so
we
have
a
couple
of
remote
workers
and
basically
all
the
company
went
remote
right,
but
I
want
to
know
if
there
are
any
issues
or
common
issues
that
we
can
solve
or
know
ahead
of
time
and
tackle
them
ahead
of
time
to
help
our
remote
workers
to
go
through
that
period
of
time
or
issues.
Your
net
remote
work,
yeah.
A
Thank
you
for
that
excellent
question.
So
I've
linked
a
page
that
we've
compiled
on
remote
drawbacks.
There
are
a
lot
of
remote
drawbacks,
just
like
there's
a
lot
of
drawbacks
to
commuting
to
an
office
every
day.
So
it's
being
aware
of
those
and
trying
to
proactively
address
those
is,
is
recommended.
Now
here's
the
here's,
the
wrinkle
in
this,
so
at
gate
lab
we
were
in
attention
only
removed
from
the
very
beginning,
and
so
people
opt
into
working
here.
A
Therefore,
common
things
like
isolation
or
we
don't
get
to
see
people
at
the
office
enough
aren't
really
drawbacks
for
our
workers
because
they
knew
what
they
were
getting
into
from
the
start.
But
what
do
you
have
happening
in
mass
right
now
are
people
that
actually
would
prefer
to
be
in
an
office.
They
like
the
elements
of
they're
in
office
role
and
now
suddenly
they
cannot
do
that
so
they're
the
significant
disadvantage
and
you
have
to
work
a
lot
harder
to
help
them
acclimate
to
something
that
they
would
not
opt-in
to.
A
Otherwise,
the
most
common
one
I've
seen
is
kind
of
a
sudden
and
jarring
disconnect
from
the
flow
of
how
they
interface
and
interact
with
people
and
their
company,
and
it's
really
important
to
do
two
things.
One
is
to
provide
a
feedback
mechanism
leadership
to
now
more
than
ever
need
to
embrace
the
mindset
of
kind
of
servant.
Leadership
essentially
asking
perpetually
what
can
I
do
for
you?
What
isn't
working
well
for
you?
A
What
do
you
miss
about
how
we
were
working
a
month
ago
and
then
let
them
tell
you
exactly
what
it
is
so
that
hopefully
you
can
get
something
prescriptive
out
of
that
to
turn
into
a
solution.
So
that's
that's
the
first
thing.
The
second
thing
is
proactively:
providing
an
atlas
we're
in
a
place
for
people
to
talk
about
something
other
than
work,
because
at
an
office,
people
generally
will
just
figure
out
ways
to
meet,
maybe
over
at
the
kitchen
or
they'll
go
grab,
coffee
together
or
they'll.
Go
have
dinner.
A
They'll
do
something:
that's
not
work-related
and
they
won't
even
really
recognize
that
it's
happening.
It's
not
something
that
they
necessarily
think
about
intentionally,
it's
just
something
that
they
do.
It's
just
a
human
nature
to
connect
on
a
more
significant
level
than
just
work.
So
the
problem
is,
if
you
just
transition
to
remote
and
you've
used
slack
or
email,
for
example,
only
for
work.
A
Well
now
this
person
feels
like
I,
don't
have
a
way
to
connect
with
my
colleagues
on
anything
but
a
work
level,
and
this
may
be
passable
for
a
few
weeks,
but
eventually
it
will
start
to
erode
the
culture
and
you'll
start
to
see
early
traces
of
burnout.
So
for
us
what
we
do
is
propolis
and
slack,
and
we
actually
encourage
people
to
just
have
these
conversations
about
your
life.
A
The
other
thing
you
could
do
is
have
a
perpetual
zoom
room,
I've
seen
people
call
it
the
hotel
lobby
or
the
office
lobby,
and
it's
exactly
that
people
can
just
be
very
transient.
They
can
come
in.
They
can
sort
of
share
a
coffee
together.
They're,
like
their
kids,
are
running
around.
In
the
background
they
got
pets.
It
doesn't
really
matter.
A
This
is
a
process
of
iteration
open
your
ears
to
feedback
and
you'll,
get
better
and
better
and
better
at
this
get
loud
or
nine
or
ten
years
into
this,
and
we're
still
finding
new
ways
to
connect
people.
It's
not
something!
That's
ever
done
just
feed
the
other
week.
We
we
sort
of
stumbled
upon
this
idea
of
a
juice
box
chat.
So
we
have
coffee
chats
for
adults
where
we
can
just
grab
some
coffee
talk
about
anything.
But
then
parents
have
all
kids
at
home.
Now
with
we
thought
hey.
A
So
the
world
sees
us
all,
it's
very
isolated,
but
actually
our
kids
are
connecting
with
kids
in
a
way,
so
it
just
takes
a
little
bit
of
proactivity
and
thinking.
Well,
we've
got
the
whole
world
at
our
disposal
and
webcams.
What
can
we
do
with
that?
But
you,
you
have
to
have
leadership,
be
intentional
about
that.
Otherwise
people
get
too
caught
up
and
work
and
they
don't
stop
to
think
about
it.
B
F
A
A
The
long
and
short
of
this
is
you
got
to
lead
with
empathy
and
trust
by
default
and
provide
a
mechanism
for
feedback,
and
this
could
feel
really
unusual
for
a
lot
of
companies
that
have
traditionally
worked
in
more
of
a
command
and
control
type
of
environment,
where
it's
gonna
feel
unusual
for
leaders
to
just
suddenly
revert
on
everything.
That's
got
them
those
far
and
essentially
say:
hey
I'm,
just
all
ears.
I
know
this
is
going
to
be
strange
for
you
you're
in
a
new
work
environment.
What
can
you
do
to
make
it
better?
A
So
if
leadership
leads
with
trust-
and
they
essentially
admit
that
their
employees
are
mental
in
a
strange
environment
and
they're
here
to
help
you
I've
seen
as
you
typically
get
that
trust
and
return
where
the
employee
says.
Ok
leadership
understands
that
this
is
we
they're
open
ears.
They're
willing
to
make
some
changes
and
do
some
things
to
set
us
up
for
success
now
now
we're
more
on
the
same
page.
A
The
second
thing
is
honestly:
the
the
world
is
in
a
weird
place
right
now,
and
it
would
be
a
little
bit
disingenuous
to
assume
that
productivity
and
metrics
are
going
to
be
able
to
remain
the
same
and
so
I've
seen
a
lot
of
success.
Come
from
leaders
proactively,
taking
the
steps
of
reducing
kpi's,
reducing
metrics
and
essentially
saying
look
friends
and
family
firs
right
now.
We
cannot
possibly
hold
you
to
the
same
metrics
that
we
were
leading
into
2020,
because
your
work
environment
changed.
You
might
have
kids
home
from
school.
A
Maybe
your
double
duty
as
an
educator
right
now.
These
are.
This
is
just
the
reality
of
our
world
and
if
you
take
those
steps,
what
I've
seen
is
that
people
respond
by
being
loyal.
They
respond
by
giving
whatever
they
can.
They
respond
by
maybe
even
working
odd
hours
to
try
to
compensate
for
for
you,
trusting
of
letting
them
take
off
earlier.
A
Like
that,
that
is
very
much
blanket
advice,
I
can't
guarantee
that
it's
gonna
work
for
every
company
and
in
every
installation,
but
I
have
seen
quite
a
few
examples
of
this
done
wrong,
where
the
first
step
leaders
take
is
to
lay
out
this
long.
Additional
new
list
of
rules
and
micromanagement
is
their
first
thought.
I
would
not
recommend
that
that
that
people
are
already
gonna
feel
like
I'm
destabilized.
A
G
First
of
all,
things
sick
in
two
questions:
what
about
and
what
about
potential
burnout,
especially
these
days
kind
of
alluded
to
that
in
your
previous
sensor.
So
people
are
home,
some
are
parents
and
they
have
to
deal
with
both
with
kids
and
with
work.
Some,
on
the
other
hand,
are
single
people
and
they
have
nothing
to
do
so.
The
work
16
hours
a
day
so
for
any
thoughts
about
how
can
people
how
to
prevent
this
kind
of
burnout,
especially
during
these
days
these
times,
yeah.
A
Phenomenal
question
so
I've
linked
a
guy
there
that
we
stood
up
on
mental
health
and
I
hope
that
would
be
useful,
feel
free
to
share
that
one
of
the
elements
in
there
talks
about
realistic
expectations
and
so
from
the
work
perspective.
Leaders
can
do
their
part
by
having
honest
conversations
with
their
employees
and
if
you
now
have
an
employee
that
suddenly
has
two
kids
at
home
that
they
essentially
have
to
be
an
educator.
There.
A
A
A
G
A
Together
and
lift
their
spirits,
and
so
we
thought,
let's
do
a
talent,
show
a
full-on
talent
show
with
judges,
prizes
everything.
So
we
had.
We
set
this
up
two
weeks
of
advance
with
an
agenda
doc
and
we
invited
the
entire
marketing
team.
So
we
have
a
hundred
and
thirty-five
people
invited
to
this,
and
the
instructions
were
very
easy.
Here's
the
invite!
Here's,
the
Google,
Doc
you're,
welcome
to
sign
up
and
bring
your
talent.
If
you
want
to
compete,
so
I
think
we
have
29
or
so
people
sign
up
with
different
talents.
A
Another
example
of
this
is
a
very
simple
Show
and
Tell
invite
your
team
to
just
jump
on
a
zoo,
maybe
the
end
of
the
week.
Everybody
bring
your
beverage
or
food
of
choice,
and
essentially,
you
just
show
off
something
you're,
proud
of
something
that
you've
built,
something
that
you've
written
music,
that
you've
created,
something
that
your
children
or
family
have
created,
and
you
just
talk
about
it
explain
why
it's
important
to
you
where
it
came
from.
It
enables
you
to
connect
with
people
on
a
very
deep
level.
These.
A
D
G
My
thanks,
my
other
question,
was
about
you
mentioned
a
single
onboarding
guide.
What
do
you
do
about
different
teams
that
require
the
marketing
team
requires
different
onboarding
than
someone
in
the
engineering
or
DevOps
team?
So
how
do
you
maintain
that
kind
of
depth
while
having
multiple
teams
with
multiple
refunds,
a
great.
A
Question
so
I'm
going
to
leave
this
here.
This
is
our
onboarding
template,
I
should
say
templates
and
if
you
click
on
that
essentially
you'll
see
all
of
our
gait
lab
issues,
there's
one
at
the
top
for
all
get
lab
team
members.
So
there's
some
baseline
things
that
everyone
has
to
go
through
and
then
there's
previous
program
now
my
department,
so
there's
specific
onboarding
elements
that
are
only
for
people
managers
and
then
there's
specific
elements
only
for
engineering
for
production
and
for
design
for
finance,
so
on
and
so
forth.
A
So
the
way
we
look
at
it
is
we
have
templates
built
up
that
you
can
stack
together
and
it
get
that
issue
depending
on
what
the
person's
role
is.
So
if
your
lab
is
great
for
this
I'm
sure
there
are,
there
are
other
products
where
you
can
templates,
but
for
us
it
falls
back
on
the
people
group
to
create
these
templates
work
with
leadership
in
those
individual
departments
and
let
the
department
leads
tell
our
people
group.
A
These
are
the
things
that
we
need
people
to
go
through
in
their
onboarding,
and
then
the
people
group
builds
that
template
based
on
that,
and
we
it's
it's
very
modular
where
it's
plug-and-play.
Everyone
gets
this
but
they're,
depending
on
your
role.
You
get
this
and
so
structuring
that,
in
a
way
that
makes
sense-
and
again
that's
transparent,
is
how
we
do
it.
B
E
A
G
A
Very
used
to
having
change
delivered
to
them
in
one
way,
and
now
you
have
to
do
it
in
a
fundamentally
different
way.
It
is
that
by
itself
is
going
to
just
be
disjointed
and
jarring
again
to
to
the
opposite
of
this.
If
you
forced
all
get
lab
employees
into
an
office
and
then
announced
some
change,
it
would
be
very
disorienting
for
us
on
a
base
level,
though
I
would
say
you
need
to
lean
into
transparency
in
a
way
that
you
may
not
normally
the
best
way
to
drive
change.
A
So
here's
how
we
do
it
at
gate
lab.
Any
change
needs
to
be
first
disseminated
in
the
handbook,
which
is
a
universally
accessible
single
source
of
truth
and
then,
after
the
change
is
made
in
the
handbook,
we
then
disseminate
it
out,
like
email
will
send
a
slack
in
the
respective
channel
linking
to
the.
A
Page,
so
that
there's
no
ambiguity,
everyone
gets
the
link
which
lays
out
the
change,
and
then
there
can
be
discussion
about
it
and
we
actually
try
to
push
the
discussion
further
up.
So
a
good
example
right
now
is
we're
looking
into
our
expenses,
how
we
do
reimbursements
and
we're
trying
to
figure
out
if
the
current
system
we
have
is
going
to
scale
or
if
we
need
to
switch
to
something
else.
So
there's
an
open
gate
lab
issue
connected
to
a
merger
quest.
A
So
we
know
that
at
some
point
the
handbook
page
on
expensing
is
going
to
change.
So
we
want
as
much
of
that
dysfunction
to
happen
before
it
changes
to
give
people
the
opportunity
and
time
to
actually
help
inform
and
drive
that
change.
So
we
have
common
threads,
going
inputs,
videos,
examples
so
on
and
so
forth
that,
at
the
end
of
the
day,
the
chief
financial
officer
can
make
that
change
and
it
push
that
out
and.
A
Out
we
then
disseminate
it
further.
It's
that's
not
going
to
be
a
one-size-fits-all,
but
I.
Think
the
one
thing
that
any
company
would
benefit
from
here
is
intentional
transparency.
I,
don't
like
to
use
the
term
radical
transparency
because
radicalizing
anything
is
probably
not
a
great
idea,
but
being
very
intentional
about
transparency.
People
tend
to
appreciate
it.
I
mean
it's
not
going
to
make
big
changes
any
easier
to
swallow
or
any
less
jarring,
but
there's
a
level
of
appreciation
and
calm
that
comes
with
being
open.
B
Okay,
great
I'm
gonna
ask
on
Ruiz
question
for
him.
So
Emrys
question
was:
would
you
say
that
remote
work
involves
much
more
async
work?
For
example,
working
on
a
Google
Doc
vs.
discussing
during
a
set
meeting?
Do
you
feel
async
is
important
in?
Would
you
recommend
to
a
company
that
abruptly
moved
to
remote
work
a
few
weeks
ago
to
adopt
more
async
processes
or
continue
working
asynchronously
with
many
zoom
meetings.
A
A
F
A
That
last
link
there
is
on
the
phases
of
remote
adaptation
and
essentially
what's
gonna
happen
is,
if
you've
come
suddenly
remote.
What
you
probably
need
to
do
first,
is,
is
just
try
to
stabilize
so
if
you
were
gonna
have
a
meeting
in
an
office
just
try
to
have
that
same
meeting
virtually
you
skeuomorphism
like
what
you
basically
just
make
an
in-person
thing,
a
virtual
friend.
So
in
this
case
you
may
want
to
keep
people
synced
to
the
time
zone,
at
least
for
the
first
couple
of
weeks,
because
again
minimizing
chaos
should
be
number
one.
A
Out
of
the
office,
and
then
you
also
say
everyone
work
asynchronously,
it
doesn't
matter
when
you're
available
online,
here's
a
tool,
I
hope
you
can
use
it
that
might
work,
but
it
also
may
introduce
chaos.
So
if
you're
gonna
do
that,
you
need
to
be
very
intentional
about
how
people
do
it.
What
tools
are
used
for
what
what
the
expectations
are?
That's
what
we
do
it
get
lab.
A
This
works
much
better,
so
I
would
say
get
yourself.
Some
grace,
it's
okay,
if
your
synchronous
for
the
first
few
weeks
but
I
would
say,
try
to
move
toward
an
async
environment,
because
even
if
you
go
back
to
the
office
six
for
now
having
an
async
focus
will
help
your
people
work
more
efficiently
and
more
effectively,
even
if
some
of
them
are
in
the
office
and
some
of
them
are
not
I
think
there
was
one
I
know
where
that
were
at
the
top
yeah
I
think
there's
one
last
question:
well,.
B
A
A
A
You're
trending,
not
you're,
not
gonna,
meet
a
metric,
it's
something
that
can
be
talked
about
on
a
weekly
basis,
and
so
the
reason
for
this
is
it's
way
easier
to
course-correct
or
reduce
the
scope.
If
it
needs
to
be
reduced
on
a
weekly
basis,
then
waiting
for
an
entire
corner
to
pass
for
an
entire
year
to
pass,
and
so
at
a
simple
level.
I
would
say
talk
about
this
on
a
weekly
basis.
Allow
your
people
and
one-on-ones
to
say,
like
this
scope
feels
too
much
like
I'm,
not
gonna
meet
this
deadline.
A
E
D
A
Mean
that
you
promote
okay
or
something
else
that
is
correct,
so
I'm
gonna
link
here
all
of
our
KPIs
and
our
okay.
Ours
are
public,
and
so
we
give.
This
goes
right
to
transparency,
where
I
can
see
what
the
objective
and
key
results
are
for
our
engineering
team
and
our
finance
team,
even
though
I
don't
work
in
either
of
those
teams,
it's
very
useful
for
me
because
it
enables
me
to
look
at
my
marketing
objectives
and
key
results
and
ensure
that
they're
going
to
be
moving
that
forward
as
well.
A
So
if
you
enable
mass
transparency
on
what
everybody
is
aiming
for,
it
enables
people
to
make
sure
they're
growing
the
proverbial
boat
faster,
that
everyone
is
working
together
towards
that
common
goal.
As
a
so
yeah
we're
very
prescriptive
about
KPIs
and
okay,
tars
and
I'll
say
that
you
have
to
be
very
intentional
about
what
metrics
are.
What
KPIs.
G
A
What
the
expected
results
are
in
a
remote
setting,
because
you
there's
no
subjectivity,
you
can't
get
to
a
yearly
review
and
say
well,
I
really
enjoyed
working
with
you
this
year.
Therefore,
you
get
a
promotion.
You
have
to
judge
people
on
results,
not
two
hours
that
they
spend
and
for
a
lot
of
managers.
This
is
unusual.
A
They're
not
used
to
having
to
be
that
prescriptive
about
what
they
expect
from
each
of
their
directs,
but
in
a
remote
thing
you
really
have
to
otherwise
they
kind
of
don't
know
what
they're
aiming
at,
and
some
of
these
conversations
could
be
a
surprise.
So
now
is
the
time
if
you
are
not
being
prescriptive
enough
about
what
the
metrics
are
write
it
down.
We
write
down
a
lot
of
things
and
keep
us.
A
This
is
a
great
question:
I
need
to
I
will
dig
up
the
handbook
page,
but
we
are
very
prescriptive
and
get
laughs
about
how
many
people
we
will
allow
to
report
directly
to
someone
else.
It's
a
very
prescriptive
amount
based
on
some
research,
as
we've
done
and
I
want
to
say
it's
under
10
to
have
reporting
directly
to
someone
else
before
we
would
try
to
add
something
additional
because
it
just
getting
fun
really
after
that.
So
I
don't
think
that
there's
a
mint
on
overall
company-sized
on
remote
I
think
a
lot
of
things.
A
A
A
A
E
A
People,
that's
a
very
large
team,
but
we
try
not
to
have
to
coordinate
something
across
135
people,
so
instead
we
break
that
down
in
their
strategic
marketing,
infield
marketing
and
product
marketing
and
corporate
marketing.
And
then
we
have
individual
leads
that
then
can
get
instructions
of
to
and
back
from,
the
chief
marketing
officer.
Now
we
have
smaller
teams
that
are
agile
and
can
kind
of
dig
in
and
function
in
their
own
way.
But
of
course
all
of
our
marketing.
Okay,
ours
are
written
down.
B
Okay,
so
I
think
we're
gonna
wrap
it
at
that.
I
want
to
say
thank
you
again
Darren
for
joining
us
today.
It's
been
really
helpful
and
I
think
we
learned
a
lot
there's
a
lot
of
knowledge
that
you
shared
here
and
I.
Think
the
first
thing
we're
going
to
do
is
start
documenting
just
like
just
like
you
did.
We
have
a
long
way
to
go
there,
but
I
think
currently
start
doing
that,
and
hopefully
we'll
see
you
in
Israel
in
a
few
months
when
all
this
exactly.
A
I
would
love
that.
Thank
you
again
very
much
for
the
platform.
Thanks
to
everyone
who
joined
I
know
these
were
strange
times.
Hopefully
this
was
useful.
We
need
each
other
more
than
ever
to
rally
around
a
community
and
be
there
for
each
other.
I.
Think
a
lot
of
positive
will
come
from
this,
and
Max
is
very
optimistic
on
what
this
is
going
to
mean
I've
seen.