GitLab believes that all-remote is the future of work. The first step to embracing remote work includes understanding asynchronous (async) workflows and communication and how to make async work for you.
We love Preston W.'s explanation from the Remote blog
"Asynchronous work is a simple concept: Do as much as you can with what you have, document everything, transfer ownership of the project to the next person, then start working on something else."
Asynchronous work is growing in popularity because it significantly benefits both employees and employers.
In an asynchronous company, team members are given agency to move projects forward on a schedule that suits them. At GitLab, we measure results, not hours. This means that people are free to achieve results when it best suits them.
If someone is traveling to a new time zone each month, or chooses to spend a beautiful afternoon with family, that's their prerogative.
Unsurprisingly, providing those who are capable of being managers of one with this type of autonomy leads to extraordinary loyalty, retention, and quality of work.
To further optimize this approach, consider adding a "flexible time off policy", which means team members do not need to ask permission to step away from work.
All-remote settings empower team members to live and work where they're most fulfilled. Increasingly, operating asynchronously is necessary even in colocated companies which have team members on various floors or offices, especially when multiple time zones are involved.
In this GitLab Unfiltered video, Emna G., founder and CEO at Veamly, speaks with GitLab's Darren M. about the impact of defaulting to asynchronous as it applies to stress, anxiety, mental health, and overall wellbeing.
Working asynchronously is more efficient, less stressful, and easier to scale.
Working asynchronously is highly efficient because everyone on the team can always default to action .
"There are many times when work isn’t ready for us to tackle, tasks aren’t planned, decision makers aren’t online, etc. In these times, successful teams execute, even if they later have to refactor and adapt, they don’t waste time “waiting”.
'Always default to action' is a mantra we keep on repeating at Remote."
One of the biggest benefits of asynchronous work is that it completely removes the hurdle of time zones.
"At GitLab, we have people spread across 65 countries, so almost every time zone is covered. But, that also means that someone on your team is likely in a vastly different time zone. In fact, they may be asleep the entire time you're up working." - Darren M., GitLab's Head of Remote
Business happens around the clock, in all time zones, in perpetuity. Attempting to shoehorn communications into a single time zone's predefined set of hours is dysfunctional.
As a 100% remote company with team members in more than 65 countries, working asynchronously removes time zone barriers and is another way GitLab is a more globally inclusive organization.
A tremendous amount of stress comes with expectations to be online, available, and responsive during set working hours. Worse, our hyper-connected society has allowed this notion to seep into every hour of the day, destroying boundaries between work and self.
An unsung benefit to working asynchronously is a reduction of tension. When your entire company operates with an understanding that any team member could be offline at any time, for any reason, there is no expectation that one will reply instantly to an inquiry.
This creates an environment where your mental health is prioritized, allowing team members to set boundaries and freeing them from a perpetual assault of notifications and judgment.
When asked how asynchronous communication impacts a societal expectation for an immediate response at all hours of the day, Darren M., GitLab's Head of Remote, offered the following during an interview with Stuart Miniman, host of theCUBE and GM of Content at SiliconANGLE Media.
Remote is much better for your mental health and sanity than other settings because it forces you to work asynchronously.
An asynchronous mindset enables everyone to take a step back and assume that whatever we're doing is done with no one else online. It removes the burden of an endless string of messages you must respond to immediately.
From a mental health standpoint, when you have an entire company that embraces async, we all have a little more breathing room to do deep work that requires long periods of uninterrupted time.
Society is nearing a tipping point where people can't tolerate many more messages, emails, or seemingly urgent pings while trying to do their job well. We may be a bit ahead of the curve on that, but I hope that the industry at large embraces asynchronous communication and allows people more time to do the work they were hired to do.
A core problem with synchronous communication is the perception of deadlines. When there is an arbitrary start time and end time to a working day, there is pressure to communicate as much as possible between those times, often at the expense of processing time.
Sahil Lavingia, founder/CEO at Gumroad, shares powerful benefits his company realized in going fully asynchronous.
Going fully remote was nice, but the real benefit was in going fully asynchronous. Here are a list of the benefits we've seen at @Gumroad:
— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) January 29, 2020
A thread 👇🏽
All communication is thoughtful. Because nothing is urgent (unless the site is down), comments are made after mindful processing and never in real-time. There's no drama.
Because everyone is always effectively "blocked," everyone plans ahead. It also means anyone can disappear for an hour, a day, or a week and not feel like they are holding the company back. Even me!
People build their work around their life, not the other way around. This is especially great for new parents, but everyone benefits from being able to structure their days to maximize their happiness and productivity.
This is possible because everything is documented. And because everyone talks through different text-based mediums, it's easy for people to peer into anything if they're curious (or take over if need be). There are also no meetings, and all numbers are public, so there's no workplace FOMO.
The software we ship is well-tested and incredibly stable. It has to be, because we're never online at the same time to "deploy" together. There are rarely fires to fight, and we lower the amount of technical debt we have at Gumroad every week too!
Overall, it's a very low stress environment. Many of us don't even have Slack installed. Yet, we're shipping the best software we've ever shipped, and growing faster than ever. Funny how that works!
Asynchronous companies should implement a low-context culture. This means that communication is precise and direct. Team members forecast what questions may be asked about a communique and add in as much context as possible in its delivery. By assuming that the recipient is asleep, or perhaps doesn't even work at the company yet, this added context removes ambiguity and decreases the likelihood of misinterpretation.
This may feel inefficient, as crafting a message may take longer to compose and edit. However, the long-term benefits are remarkable. At GitLab, we have years of documented decisions — such as this example of availability over velocity — loaded with context. This enables new hires to self-learn as they sift through archives to discover the context that influenced a given decision.
Synchronous organizations often make decisions in a series of meetings, documenting little to nothing along the way, such that those who come into the process mid-stream are constantly wasting cycles on fact-finding missions. Plus, those hired after a significant decision is made cannot understand the context of something that was changed before their arrival, creating cavernous knowledge gaps that eat away at a company's efficiency.
Coda Hale, principal engineer at MailChimp, articulates this well in a comprehensive article on organizational design entitled Work is Work.
A significant source of failure demand for meetings and status updates is the desire of organizational leaders to keep abreast of who’s doing what. This situational awareness is indeed important, but trying to maintain it by calling meetings, messaging people on Slack, and catching people on the hallways is a significant systemic drag on organizational productivity.
A better model for staying informed of developments as the organization scales is for groups to publish status updates as part of the regular cadence of their work. Leaders can asynchronously read these updates and, should the need arise, initiate additional, synchronous conversation to ask questions, provide feedback, etc.
Synchronous meetings should be reserved for low-latency collaboration on complex issues; likewise, collaboration should be reserved for synchronous meetings. — Coda Hale
As companies scale, people will come and go. By utilizing asynchronous communication, an organization is able to retain knowledge throughout these natural cycles.
For example, the Git blame history of GitLab's Values page shows a complete list of who made what change, and what the context was for each of them. This insight is invaluable, as some contributors no longer work at GitLab. Those seeking information can find it asynchronously without bothering anyone else, nor do they have to wait for anyone else to wake up or come online.
Schedules and calendars have conditioned us to operate in synchronicity — when two or more parties are in the same place (either physically or virtually) at the same time.
However, we now live in a world where asynchronous (async) communication allows us to move projects forward without requiring stakeholders to be synchronously physically or virtually present. Async communication optimizes how (and when) people work and communicate.
Fundamentally, asynchronous communication is simple. We do it all the time, when we send messages, leave voicemails, and record videos. Communicating async just means that the recipient of the message and the sender are unlikely to be in the same space at the same time.
However, doing async communication well requires significant intentionality. When creating an async message, you have to consider questions like:
This level of thoughtfulness often produces communications that are clear, complete, delivered with kindness, and that create productive results.
This also means that communicating asynchronously takes more time and planning, and requires specific tools. When it comes to async communication, there is as much to unlearn as there is to learn.
The investment of time and strategy is worth it: communicating well asynchronously creates major improvements in efficiency, and supports strong collaboration and teamwork.
The importance of strong documentation for async communication truly can't be overstated. No matter how intentional you are in communication, there's always something that will be left out, misunderstood, or needed to move forward. If someone has a follow-up question, they may need to wait hours or days for a response. Alternatively, they can look up the answer in the company handbook.
GitLab has a handbook-first approach to all communication. Our goal is to ensure that our handbook is always up to date and that it is a powerful resource to make our team massively more efficient. The GitLab handbook would be over 2,000 pages if printed, and it is available to read for any visitor who wants to know how we work.
While you may not choose to have this level of transparency, be aware that transparent information-sharing within your organization is crucial to asynchronous work. Every team member should be empowered to do their work at any time, whether or not their teammates are online and available.
GitLab's entire team uses GitLab to collaborate asynchronously on all of our work. GitLab is a collaboration tool designed to help people work better together whether they are in the same location or spread across multiple time zones.
Originally, GitLab let software developers collaborate on writing code and packaging it up into software applications. Today, GitLab has a wide range of capabilities used by people around the globe in all kinds of companies and roles.
You can learn more at GitLab's remote team solutions page.
While GitLab has a bias towards asynchronous communication, a strategic balance between synchronous and asynchronous is useful for achieving maximum efficiency. Working asynchronously is not a goal unto itself; rather, being considerate and opting to move a discussion or project forward asynchronously when feasible creates more space for synchronous moments.
Highly capable asynchronous work still allows for, and includes at appropriate moments, some synchronous discussion. Async is very powerful for GitLab, but not an absolute — especially if at the expense of our values.
At GitLab, if you schedule a work-related meeting (e.g. not a coffee chat) it is required that you have an agenda. If you add an agenda item, you are expected to verbalize your agenda item and ensure that you or someone else is taking notes of the response. If writing it down effectively communicates the intent, then consider going completely asynchronous on the topic.
If you are creating double work for yourself or others — holding a meeting simply to document what will need to be written down in order to work handbook-first — it is likely more efficient to not hold a meeting and instead work asynchronously.
When considering meetings, review the GitLab value of Efficiency and following the meeting guidelines in being respectful of others' time. Do not schedule a coffee chat which is a work-related meeting in disguise.
The easiest way to take on an asynchronous mindset is to ask this question: "How would I deliver this message, present this work, or move this project forward right now if no one else on my team (or in my company) were awake?"
This removes the temptation to take shortcuts, or to call a meeting to simply gather input. (After all, every meeting should be a review of a concrete proposal, and only called when it will lead to a more efficient outcome than would be possible asynchronously.)
Practicing iteration 👣 at GitLab requires intention and effort. It is often referred to as the most difficult value to embrace. Iterating on numerous ongoing projects is an ideal forcing function to ensure a bias toward asynchronous communication.
Asynchronous work can feel taxing and inefficient if you're only working on a single project and you're stuck waiting for another person's contribution. Scheduling your work so you can pick up other tasks while waiting to be unblocked can reduce this downtime.
Now suppose you have five ongoing projects. It's much easier to make iterative progress on one, tag a person or team within a GitLab epic, issue, or merge request for desired input or action, and switch to another ongoing project while you wait. Suppose you cycle through your assigned tasks, making iterative improvements on each before handing off. In that case, you're able to create minimum viable change for many more projects while being less concerned over the immediate response to any one of the projects in particular.
Async works well when managing multiple projects, although it does require discipline and an ability to switch contexts and compartmentalize.
GitLab CEO Sid and the Learning and Development team provide more context on our bias towards asynchronous communication and the importance of our iteration value.
There is a reason we are really good at async, and that is because we make things smaller. Through iteration, you don't have to coordinate with a ton of people. By taking smaller steps through iteration, we can ship faster. The only way this is possible is through asynchronous communication. — Sid Sijbrandij, GitLab CEO and co-founder
At GitLab, everything is in draft mode and subject to change. Asynchronous workflows are more easily adopted when you foster a culture of progress over perfection. Move a project forward as best you can given the resources available, and if you reach a point where you're blocked, attempt to ship what you have now through a two-way door.
This allows colleagues to see the direction you're heading and relieves pressure on them to reply immediately as some progress is better than none.
Asynchronous workflows require a culture where incremental improvements are celebrated equally, if not more, than massive launches. If leadership casts shame on unfinished or unpolished work, workers will be reluctant to work asynchronously. Rather, they will delay work for the sake of consensus. Consensus feels good, but can easily mask inefficiency, progress, and innovation.
Mastering the art of communicating asynchronously has a prerequisite: documentation. At its core, asynchronous communication is documentation. It is delivering a message or series of messages in a way that does not require the recipient(s) to be available — or even awake — at the same time.
If your organization has no standardized method of documentation, establish that first.
Asynchronous communication works best when there is company-wide alignment on how and where to input communication. Leaders should carefully select their tools, aiming to direct communications to as few channels as possible.
A common frustration in large organizations — regardless of what stage of remote they're in — is the chaotic splintering of communication. Projects frequently end up strewn across email, chat, text messages, unrecorded meetings, design tools, Google Docs, and more. It's best to choose a single system for communicating project progress.
At GitLab (the company), that destination is GitLab (the product). Any side conversation that occurs in a meeting is documented in an agenda, and the useful elements are contextualized and ported to relevant GitLab issues and/or merge requests. The same goes for side conversations that happen in Slack or email. Relevant portions are ported over into GitLab (the product), which is the single source of truth for any ongoing work.
If it's not in a GitLab epic, issue, or merge request, it doesn't exist. This mentality is essential to reaping the benefits of asynchronous communication.
Here are some tried-and-true apps and cloud tools that facilitate asynchronous collaboration:
Leaders should strive to eliminate bias toward one time zone, or one swath of time zones (e.g. time zones covering North America). For company all-hands meetings, look to rotate these to accommodate a more diverse array of time zones. Also consider recording them so that others can watch at a later time.
When hosting live learning sessions, for instance, host several instances so people around the globe are able to attend one that suits their schedule.
If a company pulls too hard in the direction of one time zone (oftentimes the zone where most company executives live), it signals to the rest of the company that asynchronous workflows aren't taken seriously.
One of the more challenging aspects of remote work is closing out of all mental tabs — to use a web browser analogy — once you leave work. Since remote enables you to work a non-linear workday, it's difficult to rationalize where one working session ends and another begins. There is often no reason or excuse other than "it's time." Dedicated remote workers may struggle with disconnecting from this feeling, deprioritizing their own wellbeing and falling into the trap of "just one more reply."
Chat-style communication tools should be used primarily for informal communication. If you are accustomed to Slack being an always-on center of urgency in a prior organization, breaking your reliance on it as a core part of accomplishing tasks will require deliberate effort and reinforcement.
Below are recommended forcing functions to keep leaders and individual contributors alike from being consumed by instant messages and a bias for synchronicity. The goal is to place the power of prioritization back into one's own hands. This is critical to being an effective manager of one.
Humans were not designed to receive an unchecked quantity of new data in perpetuity. For many, it would be a full-time job to simply read and comprehend a daily or weekly digest of new Slack messages, private and public. While an individual's approach to filtering what is vital and is not will differ by role and function, you can reduce your mental load by clearing all messages at the end of each working day or week.
Slack refers to this as Mark all messages as read, which is easily toggled by simultaneously pressing Shift + Esc.
Create a rudimentary README that clarifies how you work. Ideally, it's working from a GitLab Issue board, tagging system, or To-Do list which can be understood and used company-wide. You can then post the link to your README in your Slack profile, pointing others to it. Showing others how to deliberately choose asynchronous over synchronous is vital to reinforcing our operating principle of Bias towards asynchronous communication.
This is an extension of another remote-first forcing function: Always answer with a link.
GitLab embraces asynchronous work and non-linear workdays broadly, but there may be times when you're working outside your normal work hours (e.g. while traveling before/after a trip, working during a trip, working a weekend, etc.) and want to communicate that to team members. In these situations, team members should add a Focus Time calendar event and change their Slack status rather than entering Vacation in Time Off by Deel.
Remote workers lack many of the physical gateways that serve as dividers between work and life. When work and life happen in the same building, and one's work equipment is always within reach, it's far too easy to allow unread Slack messages to haunt you.
Being intentional about removing Slack from one's phone is a great way to reinforce that time away from work is important. A litany of studies have covered the addictive impact of smartphones. Even if you aren't sure if this approach will benefit you, give it a try. It's a two-way door.
In a colocated setting, a worker can pick up context clues by seeing someone storm away, sigh loudly, or intentionally put on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to prevent interruptions. In a remote setting, it's not as simple to let people know you need uninterrupted focus.
Thus, it's important to leverage Slack statuses to broadcast information on your capacity to your team. Many at GitLab utilize Clockwise, which automatically showcases a calendar icon and triggers Do Not Disturb within Slack while you're in a meeting, and shows when you're outside of set working hours.
You should feel safe to manually adjust your status to indicate when you are at capacity or engaged in focus time. This reinforces that others can and should consider doing likewise, while also reminding others that Slack and synchronous conversation should not be the default.
While GitLab's approach to self-service and self-learning is reinforced during onboarding, continual reinforcement may be necessary. It is acceptable to ask someone if they are exercising a bias towards asynchronous communication, regardless of their position on the org chart.
Just as we would hope that all GitLab team members would be quick to ask if something is inclusive, it's important to remember that asynchronous communications is another way for GitLab to be more inclusive.
There is as much to unlearn as there is to learn.
It is important to use accurate names when referring to people. To do so, use the @ symbol in GitLab Issues/Merge requests, Google documents, and Slack to clarify to whom you are referring. This avoids accidentally misspelling someone's name or referring to the wrong person.
Examples:
Tatiana.
At GitLab, we have a bias towards asynchronous communication. As a meeting participant, whether you are scheduling or an invitee, question every work-related meeting.
When it's clear that a kickoff meeting is useful to build rapport, trust, and quickly deliver shared context to a group, consider starting a project synchronously. This initial engagement should be used to establish a working foundation, such that future touch points can be primarily asynchronous.
Starting with a synchronous kickoff may make sense for the following. (Thanks to the team at Dropbox for articulating this well in its remote communications guide.)
Suggesting to "hop on a quick videocall" may feel insignificant, but it can have a negative impact on productivity. Generally, it's best to avoid a meeting for the following items.
For an example of starting async first in a highly complex scenario: View Vision Statement: gitlab.tv (Vision Statement: gitlab.tv). In this scenario, the project began asynchronously, as the initiator needed to convey a complex series of assumptions and examples in order to provide enough context for team members to contribute feedback.
Highlights at the top, an indication of being respectful of others' time.When a back-and-forth asynchronous conversation is moving very slowly with a high volume of small statements between two people, sometimes a quick synchronous discussion leads to a quick micro-resolution. Generally, if two people go back-and-forth more than three times on the exact same topic — and it's impractical to break it into smaller async-friendly decisions — it makes sense to temporarily pivot to synchronous or leverage a richer communication medium such as Yac or Loom.
These tools allow messages to be conveyed asynchronously, though the use of audio and video as the medium may enable deeper connections to be made compared to raw text transmissions.
Following pivots to synchronous calls, there should be a written summary created to inform others of the outcome, ideally shared in a relevant GitLab epic, issue, or merge request.
In this GitLab Unfiltered video, two GitLab colleagues discuss lessons learned from managing a team asynchronously, across many time zones, while traveling.
Working asynchronously allows teams to have fewer meetings. Initially, the notion of "optional meetings" may seem absurd to those who are accustomed to synchronous communication. The truth is that you're either at a meeting to contribute, or you aren't.
The beauty of asynchronous is that team members can contribute to meetings that occur while they sleep.
Meeting attendance becomes optional when each team member has access to an agenda and a Google Doc, which should be attached to each invite. This allows people anywhere in the world to contribute questions/input asynchronously in advance, and catch up on documented outcomes at a later time.
The person who called the meeting is responsible for contextualizing the outcomes and porting relevant snippets to relevant GitLab issues and/or merge requests.
The organizer is responsible for informing the entire company, via post-meeting documentation, of the outcomes should team members go searching. That's a big responsibility, which keeps the quantity of meetings in check and acts as a filter for whether or not a meeting is truly necessary.
Team needs are as unique as their objectives and will experience asynchronous communication differently. However, team leaders and managers can set KPI targets based on one or all of the following:
Async 1:1 meetings are an excellent way to broaden the communication skills of a manager and a direct report. While face-to-face or walk-and-talk 1:1s are beneficial, the ability to cover 1:1 agenda items asynchronously using written text bolsters one's overall remote competency.
To conduct an async 1:1, be sure to
FYI or FYA commands and provide written or embedded video context, understanding that their feedback or input will not happen in real-time.For existing and upcoming meetings, add this question at the top or bottom of the agenda and document the answer: Could this meeting have been handled asynchronously, and if so, how?
Consider sharing these learnings in a public channel to create additional awareness of what's possible through asynchronous workflows. Take time to reflect on which meetings you've attended or scheduled in recent weeks. Which were a valuable use of time and which could have been handled asynchronously?
There are many tasks which can be handled synchronously and asynchronously. The goal is to always select asynchronous where feasible, creating more focus time in your day. This also creates a higher likelihood that team members will have more energy for synchronous connections that bolster work relationships. Informal communication is vital in an all-remote setting; by being ruthless in one's bias towards asynchronous work, it creates more space for synchronous team bonding. We each have a finite amount of tolerance for work-related meetings and video calls; synchronous moments are better saved for informal communication such as coffee chats and team trivia where feasible.
Asynchronous communication has its limits. Although projects are moved forward asynchronously at GitLab, there are times when portions of the project are best handled synchronously.
As a rule, when team members at GitLab go back and forth three times, we look to jump on a synchronous video call (and document outcomes).
Certain roles are more tolerant of asynchronous communication than others. Client-facing roles, for instance, may have certain requirements for coverage during certain hours. It's possible to layer async work atop these demands by ensuring that there is no single point of failure, such that a team within an asynchronous organization can self-organize and decide who covers given time slots.
While communicating asynchronously is an excellent way to reduce the pain of having team members spread across an array of time zones, managing this as a small team is particularly challenging. For example, a small team which is primarily based in North America may struggle to communicate well with the first team member who joins from Singapore given the time zone difference.
However, as a team scales and more coverage is added in time zones in between, it's easier to hand work off as the world turns. In many ways, managing time zones becomes easier with scale, as the delta between teams is reduced.
All of GitLab's interview processes involve some form of synchronous communication. Some of our teams utilize asynchronous practices during the interview process, however, this is not a standard approach across every interview process.
Even if you have established asynchronous work within your team, it can be challenging or uncomfortable to encourage async practices when working with people outside of your company.
Every organization has their own norms, but you can politely challenge the status quo by seeking to inform and educate. Here's how to approach working async with external parties:
Some organizations may not be open to working asynchronously, so it's important to remain flexible, particularly in a client-facing role. However, imagine how much time could be saved if more companies had a bias for async?
Asynchronous communication is a significant differentiator in a world where businesses are increasingly remote. GitLab's Async 3.0 initiative seeks to more clearly define and operationalize asynchronous communication.
In Async 1.0, GitLab operated largely async through shared observed behaviors as a small team. In Async 2.0, we began to build a playbook and define when synchronous and asynchronous was appropriate. In Async 3.0, we will define best practices and intentional operations. We believe this will:
| Activity | Async Communication |
|---|---|
| Weekly announcements | Engineering Management creates a weekly announcement video and slides to be viewed async, at a time convenient for each team member. |
| New team member introduction | New team member creates a 2-minute video introduction, introducing themselves to the team which can be shared in meetings / Slack channels |
| Backlog refinement / planning poker | Team collaborates via a GitLab issue (or Epic, or merge request, if more relevant), tagging the appropriate parties with specific requests. If the volume of information is above 1,000 words, ensure that a Highlights section is at the top. |
| Capacity planning | Team updates a shared Google Sheet monthly. |
| Team members who are unable to attend sync meetings | Meeting organizers should affix a Google Doc agenda to each meeting invite prior to sending. Team members invited to the meeting should update the meeting agenda and questions async, or pre-record a video with information to be shared (linking the video in the agenda). |
| Quarterly team results recaps and celebrations | Corporate Marketing (#corp-mktg) creates a Google Doc or Slides for team members to add results async, then shares the resulting celebration video (with those could attend sync) on GitLab Unfiltered. |
| Monthly finance accruals | DRIs (Directly Responsible Individuals) in respective departments set a monthly personal reminder to update ongoing Google Sheets with the latest financial accruals, tagging their finance partner(s) in the doc if there are questions. |
| Project sprints and milestones | Inbound Marketing (#inbound-mktg) uses the Geekbot Slack app to poll team members with the following questions: 1) Which project are you currently focusing on? 2) What went live/was completed since Tuesday? 3) What is this week's top 3 priorities? 4) Do you need help with anything that may slip? |
| Broadening coverage during PTO | Team members may assign a Channel instead of a Co-worker to cover for them when planning paid time off using Time Off by Deel. |
| Preparing for meetings or interviews | GitLab's PR teams (#external-comms) prepare speakers async by sharing a Google Doc in advance with background on the topic, key messages to convey, relevant handbook and media links, meeting time and join links, session logistics, etc. |
| Editing communiques and content | GitLab's Content (#content), Events (#events), and Corporate Marketing (#corp-mktg) teams routinely edit panel questions, session titles, company announcements, and pitches via Google Doc. Async feedback is given using the Suggesting feature in Google Docs and accurately tagging individuals with the Comments function. |
| Weekly team kickoff/standup sessions | Corporate Marketing (#corp-mktg) uses the Geekbot Slack app to conduct weekly async standups with the following questions: 1) How do you feel today? Red/Yellow/Green 2) What did you do this weekend? 3) What are your priorities this week? 4) Anything blocking your progress? 5) Any upcoming paid time off (PTO)? |
| Missed deliverable retrospective | Engineering Package Group utilizes async deliverable retrospectives through GitLab issues labeled ~"group::package" |
| Blocked calendars and non-linear workdays | You are encouraged to block your work calendar to ensure that family and friends come first. This comes in many forms, from blocks to engage in fitness or meditation, to caregiving, to picking one's child up from school. These blocks force a non-linear workday, which reinforces that you may not be immediately available during these blocked times, and team members should engage with you asynchronously. |
| Alternate times for recurring scheduled meetings | Synchronous meetings should be inclusive of those who want to attend and are in different time zones. For example, a team's recurring weekly meetings, alternate between a time which is ideal for EMEA and Eastern AMER (8:00AM Pacific) and a time ideal for APAC and Western AMER (3:00PM Pacific). |
| Async communication with those who are not GitLab team members | It may be challenging to coordinate and communicate asynchronously with customers, business partners, community contributors, etc. who default to synchronous communication. To convey GitLab's async practices, share our All-Remote Asynchronous Guide in advance, and consider affixing it to calendar invites and agenda docs as well. It's important to be flexible, and educate others on the benefits of and processes for effective asynchronous communication. |
| Asynchronous engineering standup meetings | Standup meetings are commonly used by engineering teams to keep all team members appraised of what they were working on recently, what they plan to work on next, and if they need help on anything. Since GitLab operates primarily async, we use Slack channels and bots like GeekBot to communicate this in an async fashion. |
All are welcome to make a merge request to this page and add more examples of async integration.
Meetings are useful for building rapport and moving projects forward. They are also extremely costly and disruptive to flow. It's a shared responsibility to think twice before scheduling a meeting, as well as politely questioning meeting invitations.
Suggesting an asynchronous workflow over a meeting can feel uncomfortable. We want to ensure that all GitLab team members recognize this for what it is: a sincere attempt to move work forward in a more inclusive way, and not a personal slight. If you're invited to a meeting that may not need to exist, it's OK to respectfully decline and point GitLab team members back to this handbook section.
Below are a few sample regrets, borrowed from an excellent remote communications guide assembled by Dropbox.
If the team decides to go ahead with a meeting you can’t make, consider assigning a delegate to represent you and contributing feedback/questions in advance in the agenda that should be attached to the calendar invite.
Async 3.0 is a feature set that supports and streamlines the variety of communication approaches, emphasizing comprehension and consideration, rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach.
Teams should embrace a self-service mentality, single source of truth (SSoT) to fully understand the capabilities of asynchronous workflows, how GitLab (the product) facilitates asynchronous communication, and how to leverage existing tools (e.g. Google Docs) in an asynchronous manner.
GitLab team members may question meetings, suggesting an asynchronous alternative (e.g. discussing in a GitLab epic, issue, or merge request) to cover the topic of the meeting.
@-handles unless you are requesting a specific written action or piece of feedback from the person and you provide the proposal and context necessary for them to execute.GitLab team members were polled on 2020-09-02 in the public #company-fyi Slack channel, with polling open through 2020-10-02. Roughly 20% of team members responded to the poll, with answers and percentage of replies outlined below.
Team members were asked: Why would you choose synchronous communication over asynchronous for work-related (e.g. not informal communication) discussions?
Responses are open to interpretation, though the data provide key insights that GitLab leaders may use to better understand the dynamics of their teams and iterate on solutions.
#values Slack channel. Iteration also applies to our approach to asynchronous communication.Complete all knowledge assessments in the Remote Work Foundation certification to receive the Remote Foundations Badge in GitLab Learn. If you have questions, please reach out to our Learning & Development team at learning@gitlab.com.
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Just as it is valid to ask if GitLab's product is any good, we want to be transparent about our expertise in the field of remote work.
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