►
From YouTube: SVIC (Silicon Valley Innovation Center) Q&A Session with GitLab: Transitioning to Distributed Teams
Description
GitLab Head of Remote follows a presentation at SVIC (Silicon Valley Innovation Center) with a Q&A session on leading and managing remote teams.
➞ GitLab's Remote Playbook and remote guides: http://allremote.info/
➞ GitLab's Suddenly Remote Handbook: https://handbook.brownfield.dev/
➞ Learn more about SVIC (Silicon Valley Innovation Center): https://siliconvalley.center/
➞ GitLab's values and sub-values: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/
➞ Remote work emergency plan: What to do (and where to start): https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/remote-work-emergency-plan/
➞ GitLab's approach to handbook-first documentation: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/handbook-first-documentation/
➞ What not to do when implementing remote: don't replicate the in-office experience remotely: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/what-not-to-do/
➞ How to use forcing functions to work remote-first: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/how-to-work-remote-first/
A
A
All
right
all
right,
hi
hi
there
again!
So
thank
you
so
so
so
much
for
this
representation.
It
was
really
interesting
to
see
again.
A
lot
of
us
are
kind
of
facing
the
situation
when
we
are
getting
ready
to
go
remote,
we're
still
kind
of
trying
to
understand
what's
going
on,
and
you
guys
had
a
little
bit
of
the
of
the
leeway
you
cheated
a
little
bit
by
starting
already
remote,
so
yeah.
A
So
let
me
ask
you
a
couple
of
questions
that
first
on
the
questions
and
then
myself
as
I
was
listening
to
your
presentation.
So
so
a
couple
of
things.
So
you
said
that
the
company
started
with
just
three
people
and
they
got
the
office
and
they
they
worked
there
for
three
days
and
then
they
just
like
rushed
off.
What?
What
do
you
think
is
the
key
thing
that
repel
people
from
working
together
in
one
room.
B
I
think
it's
the
founding
team
was:
they
were
bent
on
efficiency
over
everything,
and
it
just
became
really
obvious
early
on
that
it
just
wasn't
efficient
to
commute
two
three
hours
a
day,
a
round
trip
and
get
everyone
in
the
same
place
when
they
could
just
as
easily
communicate
over
slack
or
email
and
what
ended
up
happening
is
that
was
the
inception
of
the
get
lab
handbook
where
they
said.
Let's,
let's
make
this
even
more
permanent.
B
Let's
start
documenting
the
things
that
we
think
matter
and
then,
if
in
time
they
don't
matter
we'll
just
delete
them
or
overwrite
them,
that's
how
the
whole
process
began.
Our
handbook
is
over
5000
pages
now,
covering
everything
from
process
and
protocol
to
our
values
and
culture,
but
it
started
as
one
page.
It
just
started
with
a
small
group
of
people
writing
down
what
mattered
to
them,
and
we
just
realized
that
the
office
wasn't
necessary.
B
It
was
as
simple
as
that
and
I
think
you're
seeing
a
lot
of
companies
realize
now
just
take
a
look
at
what
you're
spending
on
real
estate
and
imagine
what
you
could
do
as
a
company.
If
you
diverted
those
resources
into
people
or
tools
and
technology,
it's
it's
easier
than
ever
to
work
remotely
and
it's
it's
almost.
Anyone
can
think
of
better
things
to
spend
money
on
than
office
space.
A
No,
it's
definitely
it's
definitely
something
interesting,
but
talking
about
efficiencies
right.
So
so
you
said
about
some
of
those
things,
some
of
those
principles
that
that
you
and
gitlab
are
working
on,
but
then,
as
with
pretty
much
with
any
organization
tool
to
me,
it's
always
a
problem.
Finding
this
balance
between
actually
putting
time
and
effort
into
organizing
the
things
that
I
kind
of
feel
that
takes
away
from
my
productivity
takes
away
from
my
day.
You
know
if
I
spend
25
minutes
creating
that
agenda,
then
obviously
it's
it's,
I'm
not
productively
working
right.
B
A
couple
of
things
I
I
do
recommend
for
companies
that
are
small
enough
or
or
have
enough
money
to
consider
it
to
actually
bring
in
a
documentary
bring
in
a
former
journalist,
bring
in
a
scribe
or
several
of
them
that
essentially
act
as
shadows
in
important
meetings
and
can
do
the
documentation
for
you
just
like
we
hire
people
to
handle,
handle
finances
or
handle
hr
documentation.
Is
that
important
and
I
think
companies
in
mass
are
going
to
start
considering
that
as
a
core
part
of
how
they
work?
B
The
other
thing
is
just
a
mental
shift
on
what
is
productivity,
so
you've
often
heard
what
gets
measured
gets
done
so
at
gitlab
we
actually
do
care
how
many
times
someone
contributes
something
to
our
handbook
and
go
to
anyone's
public
gitlab
lab
profiles
see
their
contribution
graph
and
you
can
see
how
many
merge
requests
they
made
to
the
handbook.
So
this
is
something
we
actively
measure.
B
So
if
you
look
at
it
from
that
perspective,
where
you
measure
how
often
someone
contributes
to
the
evolution
of
the
handbook,
that
then
becomes
a
part
of
their
job,
so
you
you
decouple
the
documentation
with
the
work.
The
documentation
is
the
work.
The
other
thing
is,
you
could
say
yeah.
Maybe
it
takes
a
little
bit
of
extra
time
to
do
documentation,
but
we
do
real
real-time
documentation
in
our
meeting.
B
So
if
someone
is
talking,
another
person
would
be
documenting
this
and
then,
when
that
person
starts
talking,
it's
a
very
easy
handover,
because
it's
built
into
our
culture.
So
our
meetings
still
end
in
25
or
50
minutes.
But
then
we
get
to
look
back
and
see
everything
that
was
documented
in
that
and
in
some
ways
we're
paying
it
forward
by
documenting.
It
may
take
a
little
bit
more
effort
to
document
now,
but
if
it
saves
you
even
one
additional
meeting
down
the
road,
you
have
to
remember
something
or
bring
yourself
up
to
speed.
B
Then
it's
already
paid
off
and
at
scale
and
over
time.
This
creates
massive
efficiencies
for
you
as
a
company.
How
much
more
do
our
current
employees
benefit?
Now
because
our
founders
wrote
down
our
values
nine
ten
years
ago,
so
the
more
you
document
now,
the
more
outsized
effect
it
has
down
the
road.
You.
A
Know
it
definitely
makes
sense,
as
it's
almost
like
a
co
coding
perspective
right.
The
more
the
more
comments
you
put
in
code
right
now,
the
the
better
will
be
for
the
generations
to
follow.
So
we
have
a
following
questions
from
the
from
the
group.
So
when,
let's
say
you
are
a
remote
company
and
as
of
you
know,
a.
A
It
was
not
necessarily
the
most
prominent
thing
and
the
most
common
thing
so
when,
when
you
onboard
new
people,
do
you
provide
them
some
kind
of
the
compensation,
some
kind
of
the
starter
fund,
so
they
can
actually
prepare
themselves
to
work
remotely?
You
know
our.
Maybe
their
computing
power
is
not
that
great.
Maybe
their
connection
is
not
that
great.
You
provide
some
kind
of
the
foundation
for
them
to
be
effective.
B
We
do
and
it's
a
no-brainer
if
you
look
at
what
the
average
company
pays
per
cubicle
in
an
office,
it's
a
stratospheric
amount
of
money
on
an
annual
basis
and
it's
never
actually
perfectly
ideal
for
any
one
person,
because
it's
kind
of
a
vanilla,
setup,
yeah.
So
the
way
we
do
it
is
we
allow
people
to
spend
company
money
as
if
it's
their
own,
so
when
they
come
in,
we
know
that
everyone's
workspace
is
going
to
look
a
little
bit
different,
so
we
empower
people
to
buy
the
equipment
that
they
need.
B
This
also
is
big
from
an
accessibility
standpoint.
So
some
people,
if
you,
if
you
have
a
disability
or
an
injury
or
an
illness
that
maybe
you're
not
even
comfortable
sharing.
This
enables
you
to
create
the
atmosphere
where
you're
comfortable,
where
the
ergonomics
are
right
for
you.
The
other
thing
is
we
don't
insist
that
people
work
from
home.
A
B
They
just
prefer
the
energy
of
the
building
or
their
home
is
just
too
small
or
less
amenable,
and
so
currently
for
those
people
who
have
now
been
forced
back
into
work.
They're
dealing
with
a
little
bit
more
like
the
rest
of
the
world,
is
where
they're
used
to
working
in
one
space
and
now
they're
acclimating
to
working
in
a
different
space.
But
we
do
we.
B
We
try
to
make
it
as
inclusive
as
possible
so
that
people
can
set
up
their
room
and
their
office
in
their
workspace
to
be
what
it
needs
to
be
for
them
and
like
everything
we
do,
we
encourage
people
to
iterate
even
on
their
workspace.
So
it's
not
like
you
have
to
have
your
workspace
dialed
in
by
the
end
of
week,
one
if
you
realize
a
couple
of
weeks
in
that
your
wrist
isn't
quite
right
right
or
your
back
is
a
little
something
else
or
maybe
you
need
another
monitor.
A
Time,
thank
you.
Thank
you
so
another
another
question,
though,
that
we're
kind
of
all
asking
right
is
that
we
have
this
fully
remote
team
and
we
kind
of
have
this
exa
another
extreme,
where
we
have
a
fully
in
person,
teams
that
are
kind
of
working
together
so
and
you
work
besides
gitlab
you
work
in
the
other
places
as
well.
So
what
do
you
think
will
is
the
perfect
balance
for
it
and
what
factors
such
as
geography
industry
will
affect
this?
B
B
So
this
is
a
situation
where
part
of
the
company
works
in
an
office
and
part
of
the
company
works
remotely
and
a
lot
of
companies
now
are
going
to
go
back
to
a
hybrid
setup
where
part
of
their
company
and
part
of
their
people
prefer
to
go
back
into
the
office,
and
then
apart
maybe
prefer
not.
They
want
to
move
or
they
want
to
relocate
to
somewhere
with
a
higher
quality
of
living,
lower
cost
of
living.
B
A
B
Is
every
company
is
a
remote
company?
Even
if
you
have
one
office,
you
have
people
on
floors.
Three
and
five.
Those
people
are
remote
to
each
other.
If
you
have
an
office
in
singapore,
an
office
in
london,
those
offices
are
remote
to
each
other,
so
it
makes
sense
to
lay
the
right
groundwork
in
the
right
infrastructure
for
a
better
communication
between
remote
teams.
B
Even
if
technically
you
think
everyone
is
going
to
go
into
the
office,
so
what
I
say
is:
if
you're
going
to
have
a
hybrid
setup,
make
it
as
remote
friendly
as
you
possibly
can,
because
a
lot
of
the
things
you'll
do
in
a
remote
space
actually
make
your
life
better
in
an
office.
So,
for
example,
we
append
a
google
doc
to
every
single
meeting
invite.
So
that
way
you
can
just
search
on
your
calendar
for
a
meeting
you
had
a
year
ago,
and
you
can
see
the
document
there.
It's
right
in
the
invite.
B
You
can
see
all
of
the
contacts
what
you
talked
about
in
the
meeting,
what
the
takeaways
were.
You
don't
have
to
remember
much
about
it.
You
just
have
to
remember
what
it
was
titled
in
your
calendar.
Now
this
works
in
in-office
meetings
as
well,
who
wouldn't
want
more
operational
discipline
in
their
meetings.
So,
even
if
you
fully
intend
to
meet
in
an
office,
you
should
still
append
the
google
doc
to
your
invites.
B
You
should
still
document
in
the
meeting,
because
you
have
no
way
of
knowing
who
that
information
may
be
useful
for
down
the
road,
maybe
even
someone,
that's
not
even
hired
yet
may
be
able
to
use
the
information
that
comes
out
of
the
meeting.
So
if
you
implement
remote
first
practices,
it
makes
life
easier,
even
if
you're
in
an
office.
I
would
look
at
it
less
as
in
office
versus
remote
and
think
about.
How
can
we
create
additional
efficiencies
by
using
the
lens
of
remote
to
structure
how
we
operate.
A
No,
that's
that's
interesting,
but
let
me
ask
you
this
so
what
you
said
in
this
being
this
remote
first
mentality,
remote
first
philosophy:
it
seems
that
it
takes
a
lot
of
discipline
and
a
lot
of
everyone's
kind
of
playing
by
the
rules.
So
how
do
you
actually
enforce
it?
How
do
you
actually
make
sure
that
people
not
only
start
doing
it,
but
they
keep
doing
it
as
the
time
goes
through.
B
Yeah,
so
we
have
a
page
on
forcing
functions.
So
if
you
do
get
loud
forcing
functions-
and
I
kid
you
not-
you
really
have
to
force
this
to
work,
because
the
human
default
is
to
take
as
many
shortcuts
as
you
possibly
can
yeah
and
with
each
shortcut
that
you
take.
You
reduce
the
discipline
in
your
company
and
not
only
does
that,
make
it
more
difficult
to
work
remotely.
It
makes
you
less
likely
to
succeed.
B
If
you
get
an
invite
for
a
meeting
at
gitlab
and
it's
not
a
coffee
chat
where
it's
just
a
water
cooler
chat,
you
have
every
right
to
just
decline
the
meeting
and
say
there's
no
agenda,
and
it
only
takes
two
or
three
of
those
before
you
realize.
I
should
probably
be
more
disciplined
about
how
I
arrange
my
meetings
then
it'll
make
you
think.
Is
there
a
better
way
to
get
the
answers
that
I
need
than
a
meeting?
B
That's
actually
what
we're,
after
we're
trying
to
force
people
to
do
less
meetings
and
think
about
how
can
we
accomplish
progress
asynchronously?
Can
we
use
an
asynchronous
tool
to
do
this?
We
do
something
similar
with
slack.
We
expire
all
of
our
chat
messages
after
90
days
to
force
us
to
not
do
work
in
slack.
So,
every
now
and
again,
you'll
see
a
new
employee.
B
Try
to
start
an
idea
or
a
project
in
slack,
assuming
that
they'll
always
be
able
to
search
for
it
and
find
the
contacts,
and
it
doesn't
take
long
before
someone
comes
in
and
says:
oh,
hey,
here's
a
link
to
our
handbook
showing
that
these
messages
actually
expire
after
90
days.
So
you
should
begin
the
work
where
it's
going
to
need
to
end
up
which,
in
our
case,
is
in
a
gitlab
issue
or
merge
request.
Again
it
only
takes
two
or
three
of
those
reminders.
Before
your
mind
starts
thinking.
B
A
No,
that
that
totally
makes
sense
and
then
on
on
that
front
right,
so
I
would
assume
that
you're
not
only
working
remotely
but
you're,
also
hiring
remotely
and
a
lot
of
companies
right
now
are
facing
this
issue
that
okay,
we
do
have
this
talent
we
like
them,
but
how
do
we
actually
board
them?
We
cannot
bring
them
to
the
office
to
take
their
mug
shot.
We
cannot.
We
cannot
show
them
how
cool
our
offices
is.
How
do
you
actually
hire
people
remotely.
B
So
a
lot
of
companies
are
actually
okay
with
doing
initial
interviews
over
video,
but
then
they
want
that
last
interview
to
be
in
person,
but
the
reason
that
is
is
because
people
generally
buy
with
emotion
and
then
justify
with
logic.
So
at
that
last
stage
you
just
want
to
be
able
to
sit
down
with
someone
and
say.
B
Is
this
someone
I'd
like
to
go
out
to
dinner
with
that's
a
really
dangerous
way
to
hire
someone
because
essentially
you're
hiring
for
what
you
think
culture
is
which
is
the
energy
or
the
vibe
or
the
aura
in
the
office?
So
what
happens
when
you
don't
have
the
office,
so
it's
the
stark
reality
that
your
culture
actually
is
your
values
and
for
many
companies
they
haven't
prescriptively
written
down
how
their
values
can
be
exemplified
their
values
may
be
there.
B
They
may
be
things
like
results
or
iteration
or
collaboration,
but
you
need
additional
detail
written
down
that
you
can
hold
up
and
say
this
is
our
culture.
These
values
determine
our
culture.
So
if
you
have
that
written
down,
it's
a
lot
easier
to
hire
from
that,
because
in
the
interview
you
can
hold
that
up
to
someone
and
say:
do
these
values
align
with
you
as
a
person?
Is
this
a
culture
that
you
would
want
to
work
at?
If
you
had
to
abide
by
these
values?
B
Is
this
somewhere
that
you
would
be
comfortable
and
you
would
thrive?
You
need
to
know
that
very
early
on,
so
you
don't
waste
each
other's
time.
I
think
this
process
is
something
that
has
been
bypassed
for
a
lot
of
co-located
companies,
but
it's
not
that
difficult
to
start
right
now,
just
get
your
leadership
in
a
room
with
a
blank
sheet
of
paper
and
answer
one
question:
what
is
it
like
to
work
here?
B
Write
that
down?
That
becomes
your
values.
That
becomes
your
your
blueprint
for
what
you
want
every
employee
to
understand
once
they
come
on
board
now,
on
the
onboarding
side,
it's
a
little
bit
more
tactical.
At
gitlab
we
open
up
a
gitlab
issue.
It
encourages
people
to
learn
to
use
the
product
that
they're
going
to
need
to
use
on
a
day-to-day
basis.
There's
over
200
check
boxes
organized
by
week.
So
there's
no
ambiguity.
You
know
exactly
what
you
need
to
read
exactly
when
so
that
you're
fully
onboarded.
B
The
key
here
is
to
actively
shift
the
onboarding
burden
from
humans
to
documentation.
Sometimes
we'll
have
30
or
40
people
joining
in
a
week.
It
would
be
impossible
to
do
this
by
assigning
an
hr
manager
to
each
person,
so
you
have
to
work
to
shift
that
burden.
You'll,
hear
something:
that's
common
intentionality,
we're
intentional
about
everything,
even
about
how
we
onboard
one
thing
that
I
would
recommend
for
companies
that
are
suddenly
remote.
B
Even
though
it's
going
to
take
you
a
little
bit
of
time
to
document
all
of
that
to
get
someone
on
board
purely
through
documentation.
One
thing
you
can
do
here
and
now
is
assign
every
new
hire
an
onboarding
buddy.
So
you
can
google
get
lab
onboarding
buddy,
there's
an
entire
page
on
how
we
do
this,
but
it's
essentially
one
person
they
have
their
zoom
link
their
slack
channel
and
the
new
hire
can
ping
this
person
as
many
times
as
they
want,
and
they
don't
have
to
bother
the
rest
of
the
organization.
B
It
lowers
anxiety,
it
builds
relationships
between
these
two
people
and
it
lets
this
person.
The
new
hire
have
a
single
point
of
contact
to
get
acclimated
and
have
their
dots
connected.
So
I
think
any
company
can
do
that
starting
tomorrow.
There's.
Surely
some
people
in
your
company
that
would
want
to
be
new
hire
mentors.
A
That's
that
sounds
great.
Probably
the
last
question,
or
maybe
second
to
last,
is
that,
okay,
when
you,
when
you
said
that
it
will
document
everything
I
personally
I
work
in
the
big
organization.
I
worked
in
banks
for
a
number
of
years
and
the
problem
that
I
based
and
that
I
was
kind
of
guilty
of
that
as
well.
You
don't
always
read
everything.
You
know
your
mind.
As
you
said,
you
tend
to
do
shortcuts.
You
think
that
you
got
something
you
did
not
read
it
into
the
details.
A
So
how
do
you
actually
ensure
that
it
is
written
in
such
a
way
that
it
just
delivers
as
much
value
and
as
much
information
the
shortest
amount
of
time?
How
do
you
actually
ensure
that
people
do
read
and
how
do
you
actually
ensure
that
people
do
you
use
those
tools,
as
you
intend
them
to
use
as
they
so.
B
At
gitlab
we
actually
have
a
handbook,
editing
team
and
they
are
responsible
for
making
sure
the
formatting
and
the
structure
of
any
new
content
that
goes
in
is
acceptable.
We
treat
it
like
a
product.
Our
handbook
is
essentially
a
product,
but
I
think
beyond
that,
it's
more
of
a
cultural
thing,
whereas
part
of
our
onboarding,
you
have
to
read
the
handbook
to
learn
what
you
need
to
learn
to
do
your
job.
So
from
the
very
beginning,
it
is
an
essential
part
of
your
experience
here.
B
The
other
thing
is:
if
it's,
if
it's
baked
into
the
culture,
if
you
see
someone
operating-
and
you
think
oh
they're,
operating
without
the
knowledge
that
I
know
is
here
in
the
handbook,
then
you
simply
help
them
out.
You
simply
show
them
where
it
is,
and
it's
the
the
proverbial
teach
amanda
fish
type
of
situation
where,
if
you
experience
this,
if
people
help
you
out
and
show
you
places
in
the
handbook
what
ends
up
happening?
B
Is
you
rewire
your
thinking
so
every
day,
every
problem
you
see
every
project
you
go
into
the
first
thing
you're
going
to
think
is
what
information
do
I
not
know
that
I
should
just
search
for
and
find
and
oftentimes
people
will
say.
You
know,
aren't
5000
pages
really
overwhelming
and
my
response
is:
do
you
think
the
internet
is
overwhelming.
A
B
B
A
That
definitely
makes
sense
and
then
and
then
the
last.
The
last
question
then
very
short,
so
a
lot
of
a
lot
of
companies
right
now.
Obviously
they
are
working
remote.
They
are
forced
to
work
work
remotely.
So
what
do
you
think
is
the
number
one
advice
they
would
give
to
the
companies
going
forward?
What
what
is
the
thing
that
they
can
do
right
now
when
they
are
ready
in
the
this
remote
world?
What
can
they
do
to
make
this
whole
experience
better.
B
Focus
on
communication
and
establishing
a
remote
leadership
team.
So
you
need
to
understand
that,
with
your
entire
team,
remote,
everyone
has
different
offices.
They
have
different
internet
providers,
they
have
different
home
lives.
You
cannot
assume
that
what
was
the
case
the
month
ago
is
still
true
today,
and
so
leaders
are
going
to
have
to
shift
more
into
a
servant.
Leadership
mode
where
essentially
they're
just
all
ears
provide
a
feedback
mechanism,
provide
a
communication
channel
for
people
to
tell
you
what
works
and
what
doesn't
work.
B
What
they're
learning
give
them
an
opportunity
to
offer
up
new
ways
to
communicate
with
other
employees.
This
is
a
period
of
learning
your
employees
are
going
to
be
the
ones
that
feed
back
to
you
as
a
leadership
team,
and
then
that
becomes
your
priority
list
on
what
to
fix
and
in
what
order-
and
I
think
this
is
an
amazing
opportunity
that
you
have
everyone
remote.
B
You
can
start
laying
this
infrastructure
that
maybe
you've
been
pushing
off
for
a
long
time
on
the
leadership
front,
remote
kind
of
fits
somewhere
in
between
hr
business
operations
and
overall
company
operations.
I
would
say,
get
those
minds
together
in
the
room
and
figure
out
what
you
can
do
to
make
the
company
more
seamless
and
communicate
better.
B
One
of
the
first
things
to
fail
is
communications
you're
either
going
to
have
silos
or
fragmented
communications
to
do
whatever
you
can
to
funnel
all
work
communication
into
as
few
channels
as
possible
and
then
all
informal
communication
into
as
few
channels
as
possible?
And
people
are
going
to
appreciate
that
guidance.
So
they
know
where
to
go
for
what?
What.