►
From YouTube: Terminal AMA with Darren Murph
Description
Terminal’s Remote Expert AMA Series: Connect with leaders and pick their brains on current events, the ever-changing tech landscape, and all things related to remote work.
Hosted by Terminal Director of Sourcing, Kerri McKinney, this week's featured guest is Head of Remote at GitLab, Darren Murph. Topics include:
-Why Gitlab is a remote-first company and what that means for its policies and employee culture
-Five remote strategies you can implement right now as well as build into a long-term remote-first culture at your company
-How you think about growth and scale in an environment of uncertainty
A
All
right,
I
think
we
will
get
started
again.
I
want
to
thank
everyone
for
joining
good
afternoon
from
wherever
you
are
calling
or
dialing
in
from.
We
want
to
welcome
you
to.
The
first
terminal
am
a
hosted
today
by
Carey
McKinney
and
with
our
featured
guest
Aaron
Murph,
a
few
housekeeping
items
that
I
wanted
to
make
sure
that
everyone
was
aware
of
first
I
want
to
let
you
know
that
we
will
be
recording
today's
AMA
and
we
can
share
that
with
the
attendees
afterwards
and
that
will
be
posted
for
your
viewing
pleasure
afterwards.
A
And
if
you
have
any
questions,
we
encourage
you
to
please
type
those
into
the
chat
box
and
we'll
make
sure
to
try
to
get
to
as
many
as
possible
at
the
end
of
today's
AMA,
and
we
also
have
a
raise
hand
feature.
So
if
you
have
anything
that
you
wanted
the
panelists
to
to
chat
about
a
little
bit
more
feel
free
to
raise
your
hand,
and
we
can,
you
know,
make
sure
that
we
pause
and
give
a
little
bit
more
on
whatever
the
discussion
topic
is
at
the
time.
A
B
Thank
you.
You
had
me
muted
I
couldn't
have
mute,
I'm
hi
everyone.
Thank
you
for
joining.
As
Dorian
said,
I'm
Kerry,
McKinney
I
am
the
director
of
global
sourcing
at
terminal.
The
work
working
remote
and
managing
remote
teams
for
over
10
years
really
excited
to
be
here
today
with
Darren
Murph,
a
head
of
remote
for
gitlab,
who
is
going
to
be
giving
us
a
whirlwind
of
exciting
tips.
Working
remote
but
daring
alone,
introduce
yourself.
C
B
C
The
world's
largest
all
remote
company,
so
we
have
over
1200
people
across
more
than
65
countries.
No
offices
at
all,
even
our
executive
team
works
from
their
respective
homes.
I've
worked
for
motely,
my
entire
career
collaborated
spaces,
hybrid,
remote
companies
and
now
I
give
up
all
remote,
so
I've
learned
a
lot.
Remote
has
evolved
quite
a
bit
and
almost
overnight
millions
of
people
are
now
remote.
It's
not
the
ideal
situation
for
remote
crisis-driven.
B
B
Thank
you,
okay,
I'm,
just
not
gonna
meet
myself
anymore,
thanks
daring,
I,
don't
know
what
keeps
happening
well.
We're
super
excited
to
have
you
here
today
we
had
quite
a
few
questions
submitted,
but
let's
just
get
right
into
it.
You
know
you
gave
us
a
little
bit
of
an
overview
about
gitlab,
but
what
really
makes
get
lab
a
remote
first
company.
You
know
when
it
comes
to
like
your
policies
and
your
your
culture
like.
What
do
you
think
really
sets
you
guys
apart?
B
C
So
good
lab
was
remote
from
the
very
start.
Our
three
co-founders
went
three
different
countries,
and
so
they
had
no
choice
but
to
just
use
the
internet
to
work
and
they
actually
got
an
office
briefly
out
of
Y
Combinator,
because
that's
just
what
you
do
yeah
and
after
about
three
days,
everyone
stopped
showing
up
because
it
was
unnecessary.
We
make
a
purely
digital
product.
We
communicate
digitally.
Why
waste
time
on
the
commute
so.
C
That
the
initial
founding
team
was
very
amenable
to
remote,
but
the
key
thing
that
we
did
early
on
that
makes
it
possible
to
scale
to
over
12
people
is
our
value
of
documentation
and
how
important
documentation
is
to
us
and
you'll
often
hear
documentation
is
important
for
Moe
teams
and
that's
true,
but
it's
a
bit
dangerous
to
just
say
document
and
give
no
construct
to
what
you
need
by
that.
So.
C
C
Our
processes
and
all
of
our
cultural
norms
and
values
that
everything
is
written
now
and
because
of
that
it
allows
1200
people
to
consult
a
single
source
of
truth
all
at
once.
You
don't
have
to
virtually
tap
someone
on
the
shoulder.
Everyone
knows
where
the
most
current
version
of
every
process
that
we
adhere
to
is,
and
that's
in
the
handbook
so.
B
C
Different
way
of
thinking
about
everything,
so
very
often
in
HR,
for
example,
you'll
have
a
handbook
which
lays
out
things
like
policies
and
what
we
need
people
to
sign
off
on
harassment,
policies
and
all
of
that
and
it's
something.
That's
looked
at
once
a
year,
so
it's
valid
from
January
1
to
December
31
and
then
maybe
we'll
look
at
it
again.
Wahl
updated
for
the
year.
C
So
in
get
lab,
everything
is
a
living,
breathing,
evolving
organism,
including
our
values
page
and
we
host
our
handbook
using
get
lab
the
product
which
supports
continuous
integration
and
continuous
delivery.
So
anyone
at
anytime,
anyone
in
the
company
or
even
outside
of
the
company,
can
make
a
merge
request
within
get
lab
to
update
any
part
of
the
handbook,
and
this
happens
on
a
daily
basis.
We
have
dozens
and
dozens
of
handbook
changes
every
single
day
and
then
that
merge
request
goes
to
the
code
owner.
Whoever
is
responsible
for
that
section
of
the
site.
C
So,
for
example,
if
you
made
a
proposal
to
change
something
in
our
financing
handbook,
the
controller
or
the
CFO
would
need
to
approve
that
or
look
at
it
or
adjust
it.
But
anyone
is
empowered
to
make
that
change
and
because
we
empower
everyone
to
make
proposals
to
make
our
handbook
better,
everyone
is
really
invested
in
it.
C
Everyone
believes
in
it
it's
never
stagnant
and
I
think
it
would
be
harder
to
scale
a
handbook
if
you
treat
it
like
a
wiki,
where
only
the
executives
lay
down
the
rules
of
the
road,
and
you
don't
give
other
people
the
feedback
mechanism
to
improve
it
or
add
to
it.
That's
just
a
part
of
our
culture.
We
make
that
in
from
the
very
beginning,
and
it's
it's
quite
empowering.
Of
course,
you
can't
just
directly
make
a
change
to
the
handbook
when.
C
B
Great
I
think
definitely
I
can
see
how
that's
very
empowering
to
employees.
So,
let's
dive
into
remote
work
strategies
a
lot
of
people
these
days
have
kind
of
been
thrown
into
remote
work
and
I.
Think
you
and
I
could
both
agree
that
there's
a
difference
between
working
from
home
all
the
time
and
working
from
home
kovetz
times,
but
regardless
what
are
some
strategies
that
you
think
can
be
implemented
right
now?
You
know
short
term
versus
long
term
how
companies
can
really
build
out
that
remote
first
culture.
Yes,.
C
So
I'm
for
the
for
the
folks
in
attendance
here,
I'm
actually
trying
out
I
had
a
couple
of
guys
for
those
listening
after
the
fact.
If
you
go
to
all
remote
dot
info
you'll
see
the
remote
playbook
that
we've
put
together.
It's
all
of
what
I'm
about
to
say
is
in
that
form
and
you're
welcome
to
download
it
and
you're
welcome
to
share
the
links
there.
I
really.
C
C
Framework
around
that
in
an
office,
it's
just
sort
of
spontaneously
happens,
so
leaders
get
away
with
not
having
to
be
intentional
about
it.
You
now
need
to
be
intentional
about
that.
You're
also
going
to
have
people
that
are
in
foreign
places,
with
using
tools
and
software
that
they
might
not
be
familiar
with.
Maybe
they
have
to
VPN
in
which
is
new
for
them.
You
have
to
provide
a
feedback
mechanism
so
that
they
can
give
you
feedback
on.
C
What's
working,
what's
not
working,
so
this
is
something
that's
brand
new
and
unless
you
have
a
remote
leadership
team,
there's
going
to
be
an
accountability
issue
on
who
is
responsible
for
managing
this
feedback
and
prioritizing
what
to
fix
first.
So
that's
the
first
one.
The
second
is
established.
A
handbook.
I
mentioned
this
about
how
important
a
handbook
is
for
us.
It
can
be
very
rudimentary.
It
can
be
a
single
page
and
a
notion
or
ask
Almanac
or
you
can
use,
get
lab
pages.
Just
start
it
as
an
FAQ
to
begin
with.
C
Communications
plan,
the
third
thing
to
fail-
and
there
were
newly
remote
environment
is
communications.
They
get
siloed,
they
get
fractured.
Some
people
have
heard
something,
but
not
the
whole
team.
So
you
need
to
be
very
transparent
about
everything,
be
very
vulnerable
and
also
be
very
prescriptive
about
where
informal
communication
happens.
Where
work
communication
happens,
what
email
is
for?
What
slack
is
for?
C
Well,
your
asynchronous
tools
are
for
these
are
things
that
you
can
kind
of
get
away
with
not
being
prescriptive
about
it
in
a
non
office,
because
people
can
tap
each
other
on
the
shoulder
or
they
can
just
have
an
ad-hoc
meeting
to
bridge
any
communication
gaps.
Remote
forces
you
to
be
intentional
about
it,
because
those
gaps
are
a
lot
harder
to
just
band-aid
over,
and
this
is
gonna,
add
discipline
to
your
team,
which
isn't
a
bad
thing.
It's
just
going
to
be
tough
in
the
here
and
now.
The
fourth
thing
is
minimize:
your
tool
stack.
C
Your
people
have
a
lot
of
chaos
right
now.
The
world
around
them
is
has
changed,
they're
working
in
their
home,
which
might
not
be
ideally
suited
for
remote
work.
They
need
to
iterate
on
that
as
well.
The
last
thing
you
want
to
do
is
introduce
more
and
more
tools,
new
things
to
learn
unless
you
absolutely
have
to
and
I
actually
encourage
people
to
take
a
look
at
the
tools
you
are
using
and
see
if
there
are
new
ways
to
use
them.
C
So
a
good
example
here
is,
if
you
use
office,
365
or
Google
Documents
in
G
suite
people
have
access
to
Google
Docs
and
they
may
just
use
them
as
a
scratch
pad.
But
what
gitlab
does
is
we
append
a
Google
Doc
to
every
meeting
that
acts
as
an
agenda,
so
people
document
their
questions
in
advance?
They
document
it
in
real
time
during
the
meeting
and
then
there's
always
that
takeaway
that
you
can
share
around
to
your
team
and
the
broader
company.
C
Some
people
have
context,
even
if
they
weren't
able
to
be
in
the
meeting-
and
this
is
a
very
simple
process-
change
and
it's
just
using
Google
Docs,
which
we
were
already
using
in
a
new
way,
so
go
attack.
So
it's
half
about
the
tools
but
half
about
the
process
and
the
way
you
use
them
and
that
meeting
example.
It
gets
you
one
step
closer
to
remote
fluency.
If
you
just
start
doing
that
tomorrow
and
make
your
meetings
more
documented,
there
will
be
less
knowledge,
gaps
and
more
people
can
contribute
asynchronously
and
you'll.
C
Add
a
lot
of
efficiency
and
seamlessness.
Just
by
doing
something
simple
like
that,
the
last
thing
is
driving
change.
Cultural
change
is
a
major,
a
major
part
of
this.
A
lot
of
people
may
have
signed
up
for
a
co-located
role
and
now
suddenly
they're
remote
and
they're
not
going
to
love
it.
A
lot
of
people
want
to
be
in
an
office
and
they're
gonna,
just
begrudgingly
be
a
part
of
a
remote
team,
so
you
have
to
just
be
willing
to
listen
to
them
and
understand
that
and
lead
with
empathy.
C
C
I
may
seem
counterintuitive,
but
the
further
away
your
team
is
from
that
centralized
office,
the
more
you
need
to
empower
them
and
trust
them
and
give
them
the
autonomy
to
actually
feedback
to
you
as
a
leader
what
the
reality
is
of
their
day
and
if
ever
there
was
a
time
for
servant
leadership.
This
is
now
the
time
and
that's
not.
It
doesn't
come
naturally
for
a
lot
of
leaders,
but
on
the
whole
I
would
say
start
there,
don't
start
from
a
place
of
micromanagement
and
be
willing
to
transparently
admit
to
the
team.
C
B
C
And
the
goals
thing
is:
is
vital:
I've
actually
heard
how
will
I
know
they
were
working,
and
my
high
response
to
that
is
truthfully.
If
you
hire
adults
and
give
them
great
metrics,
you're
probably
gonna
have
the
opposite
problem.
If
anything
where
people
are
just
going
to
overwork,
because
there's
not
that
natural
indication,
it
is
over
I'm
walking
out
of
a
door.
So
therefore
I'm
not
working
anymore,
and
so
you
actually
have
to
be
more
cognizant
of.
Are
my
people
on
a
road
to
burnout?
Are
they
actually
working
too
much?
C
Do
they
need
to
take
more
breaks
and
for
leaders
that
are
concerned
that
productivity
will
dip?
The
truth
is
what's
happening.
Right
now
is
not
normal
remote
work,
and
so
you
actually
should
expect
some
productivity
hits.
A
lot
of
parents
have
kids
home
from
school.
Then
they
just
took
on
a
second
part-time
job.
As
an
educator
I
mean
things
are
different
right
now.
You.
C
About
that,
but
even
when
you
get
back
to
normal,
it's
on
the
leader
to
give
super
clear
metrics
on
what
you
expect
from
each
individual
person,
there
can
be
no
ambiguity,
no
subjectivity.
These
are
things
that
you
can
kind
of
get
away
with
in
an
office,
but
it's
on
the
leader
to
figure
out
what
is
the
metric
and
have
that
conversation
with
someone
and
then
give
them
the
metric,
give
them
the
desired
outcome
and
let
them
get
there
in
any
way
they
see
fit.
B
Angry
okay,
being
cognizant
of
time,
I
want
to
get
into
some
of
the
questions
that
were
pre
submitted,
and
one
thing
I
want
to
touch
base
with
you
on
is:
we've
talked
a
little
about
it,
but
how
should
the
people
function
at
different
companies
be
evolving?
You
know
what
do
they
need
to
be
doing
differently?
What
do
they
need
to
be
doing
the
same
right
now
to
keep
up
with?
What's
going
on,
I.
C
C
C
Week
we
had
135
people
on
our
marketing
team
on
one
zoom
call
for
a
talent
show
that
was
established
two
weeks
prior,
we'll
get
people
29
people
I,
think
sign
up
in
the
agenda,
doc
to
showcase
the
talent
one
of
them.
There
was
a
gentleman
in
his
kitchen
actually
like
flames.
Coming
up
very
Gordon
Ramsay
asked
just
an
amazing
array
of
talents
across
the
world.
C
So
you
can
bond
even
more
tightly
with
a
remote
team,
but
here's
the
thing
someone
had
to
be
intentional
about
structuring
that
so
the
people
ops
had
to
be
intentional
about
meeting
with
our
respective
department
leaders
and
saying
what
can
we
put
on
the
calendar
to
give
people
an
opportunity
to
hang
out
to
be
together
to
connect
as
humans,
first
and
colleagues?
Second,
and
therefore
people
that
are
the
direct
reports
that
are
kind
of
on
the
other
side
of
this?
C
B
C
The
best
way
to
approach
this
is
to
document
what
it
is
to
work
at
your
company,
and
this
is
a
forcing
exercise,
but
it
helps
leaders
get
really
real
with
themselves.
So
if
you
go
to
the
get
lab,
Jobs
FAQ
page
there's
a
section
there
that
I
wrote
called
what's
it
like
to
work,
it
and
I
would
actually
encourage
any
recruiting
team,
any
leadership
team
to
write
that
down
and
answer
it
honestly.
What
is
it
like
to
work
at
your
company
and
what
is
it
like
going
forward
now
that
there's
a
remote
element
to
it?
C
What
does
it
involve?
What
does
culture
look
like?
What
does
day-to-day
look
like
if
you
can't
write
that
out
and
distill
it
as
a
leadership
team?
How
could
you
ever
expect
new
hires
for
even
existing
hires
to
understand
it
either?
So
I
think
it
starts
at
the
top.
With
writing
that
down
I
mean
I
know
that
sounds
super
rudimentary
and
simple.
But
if
you
write
that
down
is
potential
applicants
a
bird's-eye
view
of
what
it
is
like
to
work
there
and
we
actually.
C
Opt
in
to
the
unique
ways
that
get
lab
works.
We
want
to
be
super
transparent
about
our
vision,
our
strategy
and
what
it's
like
to
work
here,
because
it's
respectful
of
your
time
as
a
potential
applicant.
If
you
read
that-
and
you
know
that
that's
not
where
you're
going
to
thrive,
we
just
save
you
a
lot
of
time
going
through
the
application
process.
We've
actually
made
our
recruiting
pipeline
a
lot
more
pure,
so
the
people
that
do
apply
it.
They
did
so
very
intentionally.
B
C
One
of
two
things,
one
being
let's
double
down
on
command
and
control:
let's
make
even
more
rules
where
we
were
tricked
people's
movements
and
so
there's
a
fine
line
between
more
roles
and
more
intentionality.
I,
actually
think
it's
a
great
idea
to
be
very
intentional
about
where
communication
happens,
because
that's
obvious
that
it
it
improves
the
greater
good
of
everyone.
But
if
it
starts
veering
into
the
privacy
side
of.
C
Put
software
on
your
computer
that
tracks
your
keystrokes
and
we're
gonna
turn
on
your
webcam
every
30
minutes
just
to
make
sure
you're
still
there
that
is
dehumanizing,
that's
disempowering
and
so
I
would
say
lean
into
the
empowering
and
autonomy
side
of
that
and
open
up
feedback
mechanisms
for
people
to
be
honest
with
you
about
what
they
need
to
thrive
in
a
remote
setting,
because,
obviously
that
isn't
what
they
were
hired
into
you.
So
now
it
was
almost
like
a
Ricci
arjan
warning
of
hey.
Tell
us
what
you
need.
C
C
C
Get
here,
but
it's
here
and
it's
your
it's
your
chance
to
handle
out
one
way
or
the
other
I,
would
look
at
all
elements
of
the
business.
Now
is
the
time
and
restructure
it
with
an
abundance
mindset
of
what
is
possible
now
if
we
can
hire
remotely
or
we
decouple
geography
and
work,
what
can
we
do
with
that?
That's.
B
C
Gonna
change
everything
it
already
has.
Businesses
are
already
understanding
that
they're
closer,
they
are
to
remote,
the
more
they
D
risk,
their
business,
for
example,
no
one
in
the
UK
saw
brings
it
coming,
but
any
london-based
company.
Now
it's
permanently
impacted
by
something
that
has
nothing
to
do
with
their
business,
so
just
because
they
happen
to
be
based
in
London.
C
C
If
a
larger
company
comes
along
with
a
much
better
role
or
a
much
better,
paycheck
they're
gone
immediately,
so
your
retention
is
destroyed.
It
took
six
months
just
to
get
them
there
and
now
they're
immediately
gone
somewhere
else.
You
have
this
flywheel
of
things,
just
terrible
and
negative
flywheel
that,
conversely
get
labs.
C
The
voluntary
retention
rate
is
north
of
eighty
five
percent,
which
is
stratospheric
compared
to
almost
anything
else,
and
that's
because
we
hire
people
that
value
autonomy,
the
ability
to
live
and
work
wherever
they're
soulless,
most
fulfilled
more
than
salary
and
job
title
and
prestige
and
ego,
the
usual
I
say
the
remote
is
the
last
great
competitive
advantage
for
recruiters.
If
you
lead
with
the
fact
that
this
role
is
remote,
we
just
care
about
how
awesome
you
are
and
the
results
that
you
deliver.
C
We're
going
to
empower
you
to
do
that
from
wherever
you
want,
even
if
it
changes
on
a
weekly
or
monthly
basis.
What
an
amazing
place
to
start
that
conversation
from
I
mean
the
image
of
that
the
employee
branding
side
of
that
yeah.
The
relationship
starts
from
a
much
better
place
than
honestly.
We
don't
really
trust
you
to
do
this
anywhere
other
than
here.
That's
how
most
job
conversations
start.
So
if
you
just
don't
do
that
you're
already
miles
ahead
of
ya.
B
C
Gonna
say
is
even
if
you're
dealing
with
people
that
they
say
you
know
my
home,
isn't
and
then
I'm
all
to
work
from
home,
I,
actually
love
the
energy
and
Buzz.
You
can
fix
that.
To
get
loud
will
reimburse
people
for
working
at
co-working
spaces
or
external
offices,
and
about
a
fifth
of
our
company
takes
us
up
on
it.
So
a
lot
of
fifth
of
our
company
actually
leaves
their
home
every
day
goes
to
a
coffee.
Shop
goes
to
a
co-working
space
somewhere
where
they
can
be
other
people
around
them.
B
C
I'm
glad
we're
continuously
building
out
our
library
of
remote
resources.
Again,
that's
all
remote
info
and
if
you
look
down
there,
you'll
see
links
to
how
we
do
asynchronous,
how
we
do
meetings,
how
we
do
hiring
compensation.
All
of
that
so
go
check
that
out
there's
a
lot
there.
We
try
to
cross
link
amongst
them,
so
hopefully
you'll
find
something
that's
useful,
but
I
just
do
want
to
close
and
say,
there's
a
lot
of
negativity
and
crisis
in
the
world
right
now,
but
the
second
order
of
this
I
think
is
actually
quite
positive.
B
C
The
people
that
do
call
that
home
have
been
displaced
by
people
that
are
only
there
because
of
work.
So
I
actually
think
that
the
future
is
really
bright.
And
it's
all
on
us
as
remote
advocates
to
make
sure
that
people
thrive
and
remote
and
they
aren't
stuck,
and
we
need
to
be
open
and
transparent
with
each
other.
On
the
challenges
that
we're
facing,
because
we're
all
living
this
in
real
time.
But
I
think
if
we
do.