GitLab Remote Work, 3 Nov 2019

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From YouTube: How GitLab discovered the value of Iteration

Description

In this GitLab Unfiltered video, GitLab co-founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij verbalizes how he discovered the value of iteration.

Referencing GitLab's time at Y Combinator, Sid shares that by iterating quickly, you're able to achieve more without working longer hours, thereby creating a more sustainable approach to work.

"There were people in the company, even at the time, who suggested that we should slow down. The response from GitLab has always been, 'No, we'll get the most we can get done. The smaller we split things up, the smaller the steps we take, the faster we can go.'

We still believe that's true today. We want everyone comfortable with taking small steps without a lot of coordination, without a lot of predicting, and without a lot of explaining."

An embraced spirit of iteration helps maintain an all-remote culture. By encouraging small steps and empowering individuals to propose minimum viable change, all-remote teams are less burdened by the need for coordination.

Particularly as organizations scale, the friction of coordinating people and teams can lead to dysfunction and frustration. Coordinating large groups across an array of time zones is impractical, which forces an all-remote team to not lean on the coordination crutch.

This empowers all-remote teams to make small changes and reduce cycle times. This leads to changes which are easier to provide feedback on (and roll back if needed).

Valuing iteration creates a climate where there is a low level of shame. This is extraordinarily difficult to replicate in large colocated settings, where perception is often reality and decisions are swayed by physical appearances. In all-remote companies, this reinforces that a person is not their work.

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GitLab's Iteration value: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#iteration

How a collection of values at GitLab contribute to an all-remote environment: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/values/

A

I think we discovered that not only does y combinator help you with sales and finance and finding investors and stuff like that, but also they give you peers, who are really great and they raise your ambition, level and I. Think that's been. That's been one of the awesome things that we saw. People go much faster than us at Y Combinator and that that led to our iteration value. That's because.

A

The second group meeting was the most influential. It was I think we were the first or the second one, I think the second one to talk about like what did you do and what did you achieve in last weeks and after this was Liz Wessel from at a time called campus job now called way up and.

A

She was amazing, she knew exactly what the company did, which she start with, which is harder than it sounds.

A

She knew all her numbers and see they achieved so much in those two weeks and our mentor said yes, this is an example of how you should do this and then you kind of look sideways and we knew we were the example of how not to do things, and so we drove back and we say: okay, we got, we got to start moving a lot faster than we've ever done, so we basically took our plan for the next three months and saw and looked at like what can we do in the next two weeks to realize as much as possible of this I'm gonna turn out?

A

You can do like 80% of it in a much shorter timeframe. So that's where we discovered the iteration, don't work harder or longer hours, but just give yourself a really tight deadline and just see what can you do in that time? That already achieves a lot of the same effect like.

B

If you, if gillip hadn't gone through YC, do you think we'd be in the same spots or not really no.

A

Way, mm-hmm, so it's the knowledge you gain. It's the ambition level to actually aim much higher. It's the velocity to actually go much faster and it's kind of the Nexus you get access to talent and capital, both by just being a YC company which helps, but also just to introductions. You.

B

Talked about the speed of iterating and just sort of the importance of that, and what you told me today is you looked at other folks in YC and said: hey we've got to go faster. Is that really, where that sort of every month we're going to release new stuff? Did it really come straight out of that? It.

A

Was already happening at that time, so Demetri was added this and we had a few close calls during YC, where ever just launched on the 22nd. Depending on what time zone you lived in.

A

A

That was exciting, but yeah the there were. There were people in the company. Even at the time who discuss are, we should slow it down. We should take two months, we'll get so much more done and the response, and yet I was always been no, but we'll get the most. We can get done, it's just the smaller. We split things up the smaller steps we take the faster we can go and so believe.

A

That's true today get everyone comfortable, we're taking small steps without a lot of coordination, without a lot of predicting that you need to do without a lot of explaining. This is the better step.