►
Description
GitLab's Head of Remote Darren Murph talks to Sunil Patro, founder & CEO of SignEasy, about the evolution of knowledge transfer and the ways in which leaders can support and empower their remote teams to work effectively.
Check out these resources:
GitLab's Remote Playbook: http://allremote.info/
Remote Work Report: https://about.gitlab.com/remote-work-report/
GitLab for remote teams: https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/remote-work/
A
If
you
think
you
want
to
work
couple
of
days
from
from
home,
let's
talk
about
what
support
do
you
need?
Do
we
need
to
have
at
the
tools?
Do
we
need
a
better
work
from
home
setups?
Do
we
need
better
product
specifications?
What
else
you
need
for
us
to
make
that
change?
So
we
are
definitely
more
open
towards
having
more
flexibility.
Both
in
working
from
office
are
also
working.
Our
strengths.
The
working
hours
can
also
be
nonlinear.
They
can
split
their
days
to
overlap
with
their
colleagues
and
also
overlap.
Some
customers.
B
Welcome
to
the
universal
remote
webcast
from
get
lab
where
we
tackle
the
real
challenges,
ask
the
hard
questions
but,
of
course,
try
not
to
take
ourselves
too
seriously.
I'm
darren
head
of
remote
at
gate,
lab
I've
worked
my
entire
career
remotely
and
with
this
webcast
we
want
to
share
some
of
the
best
practices
that
we've
learned
to
get
lab,
but
also
bring
in
some
really
interesting
people
from
around
the
world
to
share
their
perspectives,
and
today,
I
have
an
amazing
guest,
Sunil,
the
co-founder
and
CEO
at
sign,
easy.
He
and
I
go
way
back.
B
We've
worked
together
a
long
time
and
for
historical
context,
we're
recording
this
in
April
of
2020.
In
the
midst
of
a
global
pandemic
and
Sunil,
like
many
other
leaders
has
had
to
look
to
remote
for
business
continuity,
and
that
has
created
new
opportunities
and
new
challenges
and
I
wanted
to
invite
him
on
the
webcast
to
talk
about
some
of
those
for
other
leaders
and
founders
that
are
maybe
going
through
something
similar.
Hopefully
he
can
shed
some
light
on
that,
so
first
off
Sunil
thanks
so
much
for
joining
me.
Thanks.
A
Before
kovin
19,
we
actually
had
a
distributor
set
up.
Now
we
have
four
four
locations,
no
one
in
Bangalore,
chant
and
Chandigarh
in
India,
and
then
we
have
its
queue
office
in
Dallas
and
there
are
few
people
working
in
Ukraine,
so
the
sort
of
a
distributed
set
up
and
of
course
it
was
remote
friendly
because
there
was
a
lot
of
interaction,
communication
and
collaboration
between
different
teams.
In
this
some
countries
or
cities
got.
B
It
so
that's
a
quintessential
hybrid,
remote
environment
where
you
have
multiple
headquarters,
and
so,
even
if
everyone
goes
into
the
office,
the
different
locations
are
remote
to
each
other.
Did
you
actually
have
any
employees
that
worked
full-time
from
home,
or
did
you
support
any
kind
of
workplace
flexibility
where,
even
if
they
had
a
seat
in
an
office,
sometimes
they
would
work
outside
of
it
sure.
A
In
terms
of
full-time
working,
remote
I
would
say,
that's
just
me
and
that's
because
I
am
based
in
Mexico
City
and
other
people
like
people
in
Dallas
people
in
Chandigarh
in
India
and
some
people
in
Bangalore.
They
would
have
the
option
of
working
from
home.
You
know
once
or
twice
a
week
or
whenever
they
feel
there
is
a
need
for
that.
And
of
course,
we
have
a
remote
another
remote
emini
crane,
which
does
support
for
us
that
they
are
working
from
their
offices.
So.
B
That's
it's
very
interesting.
You
mentioned
that
because
one
of
the
things
I
advise
people
that
are
trying
to
transition
to
remote
is
to
get
the
leadership
team
out
of
the
office.
First
yeah
tighter.
The
leadership
team
is
tied
to
the
office.
It
seems
that
it's
more
difficult
for
a
company
to
adopt
remote
first
practices
and
actually
be
amenable
to
remote,
and
what
I
like
to
say
is
be
remote.
Fluent
I
mean
you
said
you
are
already
remote
and
so
that
inevitably
helps
your
team
adapt
to
adapt
to
remote
I'm.
A
Let
me
just
give
a
little
bit
of
context
on
why
I'm
remote
full-time
for
a
last
couple
of
years
right
so
when
the
when
the
when
the
company,
when
I
was
building
the
company
and
it
was
growing
and
our
customers
were
expanding,
it
was
like
until
2017
I
was
in
India,
along
with
my
team,
but
in
17
I
decided
to
move
back
to
us,
so
I
could
focus
more
on
building
a
sales
customer
success
and
the
partnership
and
beedi
operations
here
right.
So
it
was
by
necessity
that
I
have
to
go
completely.
A
B
A
Really,
you
know
the
the
situation
made
me
figure
out
and
put
processes
and
frameworks,
so
that
I
can
work
with
my
own
direct
reports,
which
are
essentially
people
at
a
leadership
level
and
they
are
distributed
in
Dallas,
Bangalore
and
Chandigarh.
So
it
kind
of
automatically
happened
that
for
me
to
be
more
productive
and
I
guess,
efficient
I
have
to
put
together
this
processes,
but
now
with
everyone
working
from
home
and
it's
it's
not
remote
friendly,
it's
more
about
remote
first
before
we
too
used
to
be
hybrid,
remotely
mode
friendly.
A
Yeah,
so
you
know
few
years
ago,
we
started
basically
very
conscious
efforts
to
put
together
a
company
guide
right
and
the
company
guide
essentially
are
the
handbook.
Let's
say
it
consists
of
now
whatever
what
are
our
communication
styles
and
communication
etiquette
and
communication
principles?
What
are
some
of
the
core
leadership
principles
and
values
that
we
want
everybody
in
the
company
to
strive
for,
and
those
are
around
essentially
problem-solving
creatively.
You
know
high
quality,
faster
decision-making.
Also,
how
do
we
collaborate?
How
do
we
communicate?
A
Let's
say
product
specifications
or
design,
briefs
or
marketing
briefs,
also
standard
operating
procedures,
for
how
do
we
run
our
sales
team?
How
do
we
run
our
success
team?
How
do
we
own
our
support
team?
So
all
of
that
started
getting
documented
really
well,
and
we
would
always
make
it
part
of
our
onboarding
process
and
both
for
new
employees
and
also
as
a
training
process
for
existing
employees,
so
that
they
are
not
surprised,
so
they
are
not
at
a
loss.
A
If
ever
we
become
fully
asynchronous
our
remote
first
light
and
those
things
have
really
helped
in
terms
of
an
oven.
We
made
this
adjustment.
We
had
to
make
sudden
tweaks,
or
we
have
to
over
emphasize
on
certain
aspects
like
in
a
more
communication,
more
transparency,
more
flexibility
is
needed,
but
overall
it
was
not
a
big
big
affair.
You
know
for
us
to
get
registered
yeah.
B
Because
you
had
things
documented,
the
shift
was
not
as
jarring
as
it
was.
The
song
is
what
I'm
is
what
I'm
hearing
yes,
mm-hmm
I've
seen
some
companies
that,
if
there's
no
documentation
in
place
going
from
a
co-located
or
even
a
hybrid
remote
environment
into
an
all
remote
environment,
is
very
disorienting,
very
jarring,
because
you're
trying
to
accomplish
several
things
that
watch
you're,
trying
to
keep
your
business
going
established,
stabilization
and
business
continuity
yeah,
while
simultaneously
writing
and
creating
all
of
the
process
and
documentation
that
you
should
have
done
from
the
beginning.
B
A
Would
say
is
primarily
the
latter,
which
is
you
know
we
would
want.
You
know
the
company
can
only
scale
when
it
knows
about
how
do
we
onboard
new
people
faster
right,
whether
we
are
hiring
on
you
know,
on
the
product,
side,
design,
side
or
support
center
and
different
functions,
so
they
all
have
different
wants
is
to
what
does
operating
processes
or
procedures
alike
and
also
for
historical
reasons,
right
the
company's
close
to
10
years
old,
now,
9
or
10
years
old.
So
we
need
to
be
able
to
go
back
and
check
here.
A
Why
did
we
make
a
certain
decision?
Why?
Why
are
we
doing
it
like
this?
Is
it
the
status
quo?
Just
because
somebody
said
it
or
we
tried
many
things
and
we
arrived
at
this
as
the
best
best
fit
at
this
point.
But
now
things
have
changed
a
lot
more
people
have
joined.
You
know
we
have
more
offices
around
the
world,
so
maybe
we
need
to
change
that.
So
just
going
going
back
for
reference
really
really
helps
it
becomes
a
knowledge
base
internally.
Now
that
people
can
always
refer
back
to
is.
B
B
Similar
and
there
were
around
nine
or
ten
years
old
and
people
that
join
the
company,
now
we're
at
over
1,200
people
in
more
than
65
countries.
We
benefit
from
things
that
were
written
down
from
month,
one
and
month
two.
But
how
do
you
have
that
foresight
to
think
about
it
early
on,
so
that
it
allows
you
to
scale?
As
you
said,
I
mean.
A
One
of
this
could
be
because
of
the
way
I
process
information.
You
know
I
like
to
see
things
written
down,
so
you
can,
because
when
you're
writing,
then
it's
so
that
you
have
a
clear
thought
process
and
it
also
creates
more
accountability
right
and
that
somebody
else
can
always
look
back
and
say
you
know.
Okay,
these
are,
this
is
how
things
should
be
done,
or
this
is
what
people
agreed
upon.
So
there
is
some
sort
of
a
miscommunication
or
misunderstanding
because
of
no
these
are
not
not.
A
A
We
tend
to
rely
on
a
lot
more
in
our
written
forms
of
you
know
work-related
communication,
then
we'll
so
it
could
be
I
think
that's
probably
the
region
of
course.
The
second
reason
is
few
years
ago,
when
I,
when
I
became
remote,
I
had
to
figure
out,
how
do
I
synchronously
get,
updates
and
now
get-get
make
decisions
and
get
more
context.
It's.
B
B
A
lot
of
the
knowledge
leaks
and
the
knowledge
gaps
that
would
inevitably
pop
up,
because
people
are
human
and
if
we
own
Lorelei's
things
to
each
other,
and
we
don't
have
a
document
in
it
anyway.
Over
time,
you'll
forget
some
of
that.
It
makes
it
really
difficult
to
loop
people
in
midstream.
It's
really
difficult
for
new
hires
to
get
fully
up
to
speed,
because
yeah.
A
A
B
Interesting
about
this
is
the
things
you're
talking
about
would
help
a
company,
regardless
of
their
structure,
whether
you're
an
all
remote
company,
a
hybrid
remote
company
or
even
a
co-located
company.
If
you
have
moody
meetings
where
you
document
things,
even
if
you're
all
in
the
same
room,
you're
gonna
have
less
knowledge
leaks
going
forward
and
that's
something
that
I've
tried
to
share
with
people
is
we're
talking
about
remote
now
a
lot
because
tens
of
millions
of
people
are
suddenly
remote.
B
But
a
lot
of
these
practices
will
help
you
no
matter
what
stage
your
company
is
it
and
speaking
of
that
I'm
just
curious.
If
this
has
influenced
your
thoughts
on
workplace
flexibility
going
forward
in
the
any
in
one
way
or
the
other,
is
it
the
kind
of
thing
that
hey?
If
we
can
make
this
work
all
remote?
Maybe
we
don't
send
some
of
our
team
back
to
the
office,
or
maybe
we
find
out
that
we
actually
love
having
our
team's
in
the
office.
If
you
had
time
to
sift
through
that.
A
A
We
spoke
internally
with
some
of
my
senior
leaders,
a
team,
and
what
we
are
realizing
is
that
now
beyond
the
efficiency
of
documenting
stuff
and
also
having
your
you
know,
different
practices
in
the
company,
around
communication
and
decision-making,
inner
cetera,
I
think
there's
another
aspect
that
we
see
that
we
are
benefiting
from
and
it
sees
around
I
think
most
of
our
colleagues.
Our
employees
are
much
happier
because
they're
gaining
lot
lot
of
the
personal
time
back
to
themselves,
because
you
know
there
is
less
commute.
A
That
is
less
stress
there
is,
there
are
less
distractions
at
work
and
the
second
is,
you
know
they
feel
more
focused
and
productive,
because
there
are
less
distractions.
You
know
they
can
kind
of
box
themselves
in
in
certain
hours
of
the
day
and
just
make
progress
on
their
immediate
objectives
or
goals
right
and
the
third
is
I
think
it
has
brought
some
sort
of
a
urgency
or
importance
to
only
work
on
things
that
really
matter
either
for
the
customers
or
for
each
other
or
for
the
company
right.
A
So
we
are
spending
less
energy
and
time
and
stuff
that
seemed
urgent,
but
not
important,
or
that
seemed
urgent,
but
they're
still
trivial.
So
how
can
you
eliminate
some
of
that
stuff?
So
the
point,
the
point
that
I
want
to
get
at
is
I
think
we
are
going
to
become
more
remote,
friendly
or
at
least
give
people
that
choice.
You
know,
as
a
leadership
team
we
will
be,
will
be
more
flexible
now,
if
you
think
you
want
to
work
couple
of
days
from
from
home.
Let's
talk
about
what
support
do
you
need
know?
A
Do
we
need
to
have
better
tools?
Do
we
need
to
have
better
work
from
home
setups?
Do
we
need
better
and
a
better
product
specifications?
What
else
you
need
for
us
to
make
that
change?
So
we
are
definitely
more
open
towards
you
know
having
more
flexibility,
both
in
working
from
office
or
so
working
hours
right.
The
working
hours
can
also
be
nonlinear.
They
can
split
their
days
to
overlap
with
their
colleagues
and
also
overlap
some
customers,
maybe
customer
time
Jones.
It's.
B
This
is
not
an
ideal
time
in
the
world
and
what
I'm
trying
to
to
help
people
forecast
is,
if
you're
appreciating
the
benefits
of
remote
right
now,
imagine
what
it
will
be:
six
12
18
months
from
now
when
we,
the
travel
restrictions,
are
lifted.
Life
returns
to
some
degree
of
normalcy
and
a
lot
of
this
infrastructure
that
you're
building
now
is
like
fully
in
place
and
and
your
team
is
more
cohesive
because
of
it.
B
What
advice
would
you
give
to
other
founders
or
team
leaders
that
are
in
a
similar
situation,
maybe
if
they
aren't
quite
as
remote,
fluent
or
they're
running
into
obstacles
or
they're
just
having
this
battle
internally
on?
Should
we
do
this,
or
should
we
not?
Is
there
any
advice
you
would
give
on
helping
people
to
think
about
this
as
being
an
unblocker
and
asking
people
for
feedback
and
asking
people
for
what
tools
they
need
to
thrive,
as
opposed
to,
let's
just
figure
out
a
way
to
get
back
to
the
office
as
quickly
as
possible.
B
A
I
think
that's,
you
know
to
your
honor,
that's
a
difficult
question,
because
it
also
depends
on
the
personality
of
personality
or
beliefs
of
either
the
leadership
team,
or
maybe
the
majority
of
the
team
right,
and
sometimes
it
also
depends
upon
this.
These
of
the
company.
Now
some
people
just
inherently
believe
if
you
are
a
very
very
early
stage-
and
you
just
need
to
you-
know
creatively
brainstorm
you
need
to
know
you
need
to
things
are
basically
moving
right.
A
A
More
slightly,
if
somebody
does
not
want
to
go
fully
remote,
they
can
at
least
come
into
some
sort
of
an
hybrid
remote
environment.
Right
and
when
I
say
remote
doesn't
mean
these
people
in
a
different
city
or
a
different
country.
Does
it
means?
Can
we
create
more
work
from
home
flexibility?
You
know,
can
we
even
create
you
know
you
spend
maybe
four
hours
or
6000
office,
but
the
rest
is
up
to
you.
A
You
know
where
you
want
to
spend
that
time
with
right,
because
you
want
to
avoid
peak
traffic
times,
so
you
want
to
go
and
play
something
that
that
you're,
really
passionate
about
or
you
want
to
cater
something
towards
a
family
that
you
really
care
about.
So
I
think
hybrid
remote
is
something
what
I
would
encourage
every
founder
or
entrepreneur
to
at
least
give
it
a
try
and,
of
course
the
team
has
to
feel
comfortable.
B
A
A
They
have
skill,
sets
so
they're
expressing
more
interest
to
contribute
to
other
areas,
because
they're
able
to
get
so
much
work
done
in,
in
a
lesser
amount
of
time,
figuring
out.
How
do
I
contribute
more
because
I
am
enjoying
the
work?
Maybe
I
am
maybe
right.
Maybe
I
right
I,
like
blogging
about
something
or
I
like
to
you
know.
A
I,
like
design,
so
can
I
help
the
marketing
team,
with
some
design
stuff
right
and
in
the
age
of
canva,
and
you
know
everybody
can
be
a
designer
right
and
if
you
have
creative
ideas,
he
can
help
marketing
with
you
know,
putting
coming
with
some
visual
assets
and
so
forth.
So
I
think
is
a
great
time
for
founders
to
to
encourage
those
hidden
talents
or
unseen
talents
that
you
would
want
your
employees
to
kind
of
sign
in
right,
so
yeah
and
and
there's
a
great
time
to
figure
out.
A
What's
working
in
your
culture
and
not
work
in
your
culture
because
you're,
not
you
know
watching
over
shoulders
of
employees
anymore,
so
accountability,
trust
and
you
know
collaborative
mindset.
All
of
those
things
will
come
across
either
they're
working,
good
or
not
working,
so
you
can
work
towards
improving
your
culture.
Maybe
this
is
a
great
opportunity
to
leverage
love.
B
That
tsuneo,
we
say,
never
waste
a
crisis.
We
can't
wish
away
the
crisis.
All
we
can
do
is
determine
how
we're
going
to
respond
to
it.
It's
it's
super
inspirational,
I,
hope,
tons
of
founders
and
leaders
watch
this
and
and
take
your
advice.
Speaking
of
inspiration,
I
try
to
end
each
of
these
calls
with
one
question
so
I'll
ask
you:
what
is
one
good
thing
that
you've
seen
or
heard
this
week
or
this
month.
A
Okay,
so
the
actually,
we
have
seen
a
lot
of
good
things
over
the
last
month,
unlike
the
microclimate,
where
a
lot
of
industries
a
lot
of
employees
are
being
impacted
in
a
very
negative
manner,
but
because
of
the
space
we
are
in,
which
is
you
know,
online
document
signing
you
know
either
from
your
mobile
device
or
your
web
device.
I
think
we,
you
know,
we
have
seen
no
tremendous
uptick
in
usage
of
our
product
and
it's
not
just
the
users
bits
about
the
use
cases
our
customers
are
using
it
for
right.
A
We
have
you,
know
one
simple
stories:
we
just
released
a
new
feature
on
our
product
too,
to
help
small
businesses
sign
and
fill.
This
is
a
PPP
loan
documents
right
that
is
under
the
SBA
stimulus.
We
release
that,
because
in
48
hours
we
conceptualize
the
idea
and
we
released
it,
and
there
were
increment
distraction
from
in
a
small
business
owners
because
they
are
at
home.
A
A
You
know
what
we
are
doing
and
very
very
touching
stories
we
have
received,
and
in
fact
one
story
came
from
a
customer
in
Dallas
Dallas
area
headquarters,
and
we
got
a
story
from
somebody
in
Dallas
who
who's
just
you
know,
was
extremely
thrilled
to
have
to
have
the
chance
to
get
his
loan
process
because
sign,
is
he
helped
him
submit
a
loan
document
faster?
So
I
think
you
know
plenty
of
stories
like
that,
but
that
is
something
which
was
really
touching
for
all
of
us.
That's.
B
A
They
can
check
out
our
website
sign
easy
calm,
or
they
can
also
go
to
a
blog
on
sanity
coms.
Last
blog,
and
they
can,
you
know,
see
what
we
are
doing,
how
we
are
helping
small
businesses
and
our
customers
doing
this
unprecedented
and
uncertain
Co
V
times
and
yeah,
and
follow
a
follow
our
journey
over
the
last.
You
know
8
10
years
and
if
they
feel
they
needs
it
too,
like
ours,
I
would
suggest
them
give
it
a
try.
That's.
B
Awesome,
thank
you
so
much
suni.
Oh
it's
good
to
see
your
face
again,
thanks
so
much
for
joining
me
and
for
the
audience
we'll
be
sure
to
put
all
of
those
links
in
the
show
notes
below
and
if
you
have
any
questions
for
us
feel
free
to
tweet
us
at
get
lab
we'll
try
to
work
those
into
the
next
episode.
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