How GitHub (no longer) Works

A lot of my talks like How GitHub Uses GitHub to Build GitHub and posts like How GitHub Works are great, but they represent a snapshot of the company when we were 30-75 employees. We're 217 today, and things inevitably changed to grow the company to that scale. This talk is retrospective: it takes a closer look at specific things that I've said over the last two years, and then details the adjustments that were made as we've grown.

Transcript

1. WORKS NO LONGER HOW GITHUB ( )
3. BUILDING A STARTUP
4. HIRE TRENDY ROCK STARS STEP #1
5. STEP #2 BE SUPER TRANSPARENT
6. WRITE TECH POSTS STEP #3
7. STEP #4 SPEAK AT CONFERENCES
8. STEP #5 ROLL AROUND IN MONEY
9. STEP #6 HIRE LOTS OF PEOPLE
10. STEP #7 NEVER SPEAK AGAIN
11. STEP #8 IGNORE THE COMMUNITY
12. STEP #9 CASH OUT
13. STEP #10 START ANOTHER COMPANY
14. THIS IS STUPID
16. MILLIONS OF TALKS ABOUT 1-PERSON COMPANIES
17. THOUSANDS OF TALKS ABOUT 10-PERSON COMPANIES
18. HUNDREDS OF TALKS ABOUT 100-PERSON COMPANIES
19. HARDLY ANY TALKS ABOUT 1000-PERSON COMPANIES
20. GITHUB AIN’T NO SECRETIVE JERK COMPANY
22. ZACHHOLMAN
23. GITHUBBER FOR ALMOST FOUR YEARS
24. I’VE TALKED GITHUB FOR TWO YEARS
29. TALKS CIRCA 30-75 EMPLOYEES
30. WE’RE
 NOW 217
32. DUNBAR’S NUMBER
33. DUNBAR’S NUMBER AN IMAGINARY EMPLOYEE NUMBER THAT HACKER NEWS FETISHIZES WILL KILL YOUR COMPANY
34. DUNBAR’S NUMBER PROPOSED MAXIMUM LIMIT OF RELATIONSHIPS A HUMAN CAN MEANINGFULLY MAINTAIN
35. DUNBAR’S NUMBER 150-ISH
36. 150 CHANGES THINGS
37. HOW GITHUB WORKED
38. HOW GITHUB WORKS
40. THE PARTS THAT CHANGED ARE FASCINATING
41. THE PARTS THAT CHANGED ARE FASCINATING
43. TWO-MINUTE RECAP
44. 60% REMOTE GITHUB IS
45. ASYNCHRONOUS GITHUB IS
46. GITHUB HAS NO MANAGERS
48. DEPLOYS
50. DEPLOYMENTS GOT SIMPLER
51. RARELY DEPLOY TO INDIVIDUAL SERVERS OR SUBSETS
52. PRODUCTION A STAFF SERVER IN PRODUCTION OR
53. STAGING ENVIRONMENTS ARE THE FIRST TO DECAY
54. FEWER DEPLOYMENT TARGETS LEAD TO SIMPLER DEPLOY LINES
55. HUBOT WHERE CAN I DEPLOY
56. HUBOT WHERE CAN I DEPLOY PRODUCTION: UNLOCKED LOCKED BY MDO 42 MINUTES AGO STAFF1: STAFF2: UNLOCKED STAFF3: UNLOCKED STAFF4: LOCKED BY MUAN 5 MINUTES AGO
58. DEPLOYMENTS GOT WAYYYYY MORE STAFF-SHIPPED
59. MOST FEATURES ARE STAFF-SHIPPED FOR WEEKS OR MONTHS
60. WE MOSTLY STOPPED USING EXTERNAL BETA TESTERS
61. MORE TEAM-SHIPPING VS. STAFF-SHIPPING
62. MORE TEAM-SHIPPING VS. STAFF-SHIPPING (2FA SHIPS TO @GITHUB/2FA FIRST, ETC.)
64. PEOPLE
67. GET IN THEIR WAY MORE
68. KEEP INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE BUT INDOCTRINATE LONGER
69. HARDER TO ACCLIMATE TO LARGER COMPANIES
70. YOU STILL HAVE A BUDDY YOUR FIRST WEEK
71. WE’RE EXPLORING LONGER BUDDY RELATIONSHIPS
73. THIS LET PEOPLE FOCUS ON WORK
74. THE DRAWBACK? REDUCED FEEDBACK.
75. IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
76. EVEN HARDER FOR REMOTE WORKERS
77. LONGER BUDDYING, MORE HANGOUTS, MORE MEATSPACE VISITS
79. MADE IT TO 199
80. PEOPLE LEAVE, BUT MINIMIZING IS STILL SUPER IMPORTANT
85. MONEY
86. FUNDING SOMEHOW LENDS LEGITIMACY
87. SUDDENLY BIG MEDIA COVERED US
88. SUDDENLY TECHCRUNCH HAD A GITHUB WRITER
89. SUDDENLY IT WAS EASIER TO LEASE OFFICE SPACE
90. THE TECH INDUSTRY IS CRAZY
91. BOOTSTRAPPING WAS THE KEY FOUNDATION
93. ORGANIZATION
95. TEAMS BECAME MORE IMPORTANT
96. EVERYONE HAS OPINIONS
97. DRIVE-BY OPINIONS ARE LESS VALUABLE
98. TEAM MENTIONS ARE GREAT FILTERS
99. @GITHUB/DESIGN
100. @GITHUB/OPS
101. @GITHUB/TECHNO
102. PEOPLE LEAVE TEAMS IF THEY AREN’T ACTIVE
103. SAME RATIONALE TO TEAM-SHIP VS. STAFF-SHIP
104. PROTECTS AGAINST NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
106. NOW HAVE 153 CHAT ROOMS
107. ROOMS ARE CHEAP
108. MORE ROOMS, HIGHER SIGNAL TO NOISE
109. ( I IDLE IN 5 )
111. STILL NO MANAGERS, STILL EVERYONE A MANAGER
112. SOME TEAMS HAVE A PRP (PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE PERSON)
113. PROVIDES VISION WHILE STILL FOCUSED ON CODE
114. PREFERENCE TOWARDS SMALLER TEAMS
115. 1-2 DEVELOPERS 1-2 DESIGNERS
117. MORE RESOURCES FOR REMOTE EXPERIENCES
118. DINKY LITTLE
 ARDUINO MOTION- TRACKING KINECT
 VIDEO CAPTURE THREE-PERSON TEAM DEDICATED TO STREAMING AND SERVING VIDEO CONTENT
120. REMOTE WORK REQUIRES MORE WORK
121. FORMAL EVENTS ARE EASY
122. INFORMAL CONVERSATIONS ARE HARD
123. EXPERIMENTING WITH MORE INFORMAL APPROACHES
124. ROBOT IPADS, FACELETTE, PERSISTENT 2-WAY STREAMS
126. HINDSIGHT
127. BUILD WEBSITES LIKE IT’S 2005 “
128. OUR TECH STACK SHRINKS AS WE AGE
129. FEWER TRENDY LANGUAGES AND DATABASES
130. YOUR PRODUCT SHOULD BE CUTTING EDGE, NOT YOUR TECH
131. STABILITY IS SEXY
132. RESIST DOING SHIT JUST TO DO SHIT
133. WE’VE DONE A GOOD JOB AT REMAINING SKEPTICAL
134. “WE’RE BIG NOW SO I GUESS WE SHOULD ADD TEAMS”
135. TEAMS TOOK ALMOST A YEAR TO FINALLY WORK
136. THAT’S COOL
138. YOUR COMPANY SHOULD CHANGE, DAMMIT
139. YOUR VALUES SHOULDN’T
140. THINK ON WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE