How GitHub Works

How GitHub Works.

Hint: it's pretty cool.

Transcript

1. HoW
   WORKS
   GITHUB
   

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2. the
   story
   begins
   with
   

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3. 4 FOUNDERS
   IN A coffee shop
   

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4. 4 FOUNDERS
   IN A BAR
   

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5. 4 FOUNDERS
   IN A restaurant
   

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6. 4 FOUNDERS
   IN A plane
   

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7. 4 FOUNDERS
   IN A JAIL CELL
   

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8. 4 FOUNDERS
   IN A SOMEWHERE
   

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10. no office
    had other jobs
    

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12. this was the start of
    

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13. distributed happy
    flexible
    github was forced to be
    

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14. turns out,
    great way to work
    

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15. this talk
    is kind of about
    github
    

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16. but it’s really about
    improving your company
    

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17. @holman
    

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19. works
    howgithub
    zachholman.com/posts/how-github-works
    

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20. BULLSHIT
    HOURS Are
    

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21. 9 to
    5
    DOES not wORK
    W O R K I N G
    

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22. crafting code is a
    hugely creative endeavor
    

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23. you can’t force
    creativity to happen
    between 9 and 5.
    

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24. the best solutions happen when
    you’re in the zone
    

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25. our
    early birds
    night owls
    nine-to-fivers
    traveling employees
    international employees
    office
    

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26. embraceflexiBility
    

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27. 90
    hours/week
    and loving it!
    x
    

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28. working long hours
    isn’t a badge of honor
    ...it’s a badge
    of foolishness
    

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29. all-nighters are a recipe for
    redoing everything again later
    

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30. marathon code sessions
    drain you mentally
    lead to poor code quality
    impact future code
    

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31. WE LET GITHUbbers work
    WHEREver AND WHENever
    THEY WANT TO WORK
    

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32. we want to get
    the best work
    from our employees
    that happens when they are
    happy, fresh, and creative
    

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33. FAMILIES
    

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34. @MADDOX
    NEW DAD, May 26
    @MOJOMBO
    NEW DAD, SOON
    @xpaulbettsx
    NEW DAD LATE 2012
    @bethnewland
    NEW MOM 2012ish
    

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35. family
    github
    

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36. BE A FAMILY COMPANY
    

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37. being less hour-centric =
    more family-friendly
    

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38. happy families,
    happy coworkers
    productive companies
    happy coworkers,
    

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39. trust
    your employees
    

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40. you hired them, after all
    

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41. trust employees,
    help them out,
    then verify they’re doing the work.
    

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42. this requires communication
    are they committing?
    are they participating?
    what’s their code look like?
    

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43. bullshit
    hours
    w o r r y a b o u t g o o d w o r k
    are
    

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44. BE
    ASYNCHRONOUS
    

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45. asynchronous
    a distributed way of getting things done
    

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46. attention-aware
    J
    geographically-distributed
    G
    team-oriented
    g
    minimal process
    \
    

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47. G
    @
    sanfrancisco
    S
    githubhq
    

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48. G
    turns out,
    the world is larger than
    just san francisco.
    

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49. G
    we want to hire the best
    S
    S S
    S S
    S
    S
    S
    S
    S
    

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50. G
    distributed work
    needs to be a priority for us
    

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51. G
    flexible hours
    help with flexible location
    T
    

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52. chat
    G
    limit required in-person
    contact
    beer:30
    facetime
    recorded talks
    

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53. summit 2010 G
    encourage
    structured team building
    summit 2011
    get people
    meeting in
    real-life!
    github summit 2012
    

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54. attention-aware
    J
    team-oriented
    g
    minimal process
    \
    geographically-distributed
    G
    

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55. J
    we want developers
    in the zonetm
    

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56. J
    minimize distractions
    the zone is difficult to re-enter
    

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57. J
    no technical meetings
    no standup, daily, or planning meetings
    

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58. J
    no in-person distractions
    instead, ping over chat
    

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59. J
    no managers
    they just distract
    

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60. J
    we can work this way because:
    

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61. J
    dogfood
    product
    company
    full
    ownership
    profitable
    

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62. J
    each company is different
    find out what works best for yours
    

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63. G geographically-distributed
    attention-aware
    J
    team-oriented
    g
    minimal process
    \
    G
    

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64. g
    G
    [
    redacted
    ]
    [
    redacted
    ]
    teams
    

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65. g
    G
    small teams let you move
    quickly&independently
    

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66. g
    G
    the danger room
    the serious room
    the enterprise room
    the design room
    the support room
    the internal room
    the native room
    the (redacted) roo
    the mobile room
    the ops room
    e notices room
    o
    30+rooms:
    

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67. g
    G
    small teams let you
    focus
    

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68. G geographically-distributed
    attention-aware
    J
    team-oriented
    g
    minimal process
    \
    G
    

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69. \
    how do we actually do all this?
    

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70. \
    plan·build·ship
    

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71. \
    show It as soon as possible
    chat
    pull requests
    wikis, internal apps
    make it okay to say “no”
    plan
    

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72. \
    ideas&projects
    everyone contributes
    avoid abandonment
    see status updates
    plan
    

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73. \
    build
    simplebranching
    master
    branch
    pull request
    

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74. \
    simplebranching
    designer friendly
    (”Non-technical”)
    build
    

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75. \
    simplebranching
    simple rollback
    partial deploysstaff-only
    specific servers
    specific processes
    build
    

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76. \
    pull requests are
    discussions
    that improve
    code quality
    build
    

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77. \
    push branch
    get feedback
    make improvements
    merge branch
    build
    

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78. \
    asynchronous, non-invasive
    extremely visible for your org
    one-click merge button
    replaces traditional code review
    build
    

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79. \
    ,
    superfasttests
    SHIP
    

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80. \
    ,
    14000 assertions in
    200 seconds
    build
    (still not fast enough)
    

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81. \
    ,
    a slow test is
    a regression
    build
    

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82. you don’t need distractions
    you don’t need to be
    in the same country
    you really don’t
    need a lot of
    process
    

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83. FOR
    OPTIMIZE
    HAPPINESS
    

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84. 2008 2009
    2010
    2011
    May 2012
    

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85. employees
    83
    employees who have left
    0
    

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86. a happiness-oriented workplace
    this requires
    

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87. LEADS TO UNHAPPINESS AND TO LEAVING
    EMPLOYEE BURNOUT
    

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88. EXPLORATION x
    

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89. FREEDOM
    )
    

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90. SELF-DIRECTION
    X
    

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91. shared side projects
    hubot
    internal apps
    hardware
    hacking
    EXPLORATION x
    PLAY
    

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92. spanish tutoring
    arduino lessons
    kindles&ebooks
    KEEP EVERYONE LEARNING
    EXPLORATION x
    

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93. ACCEPTED TO SPEAK AT A CONFERENCE?
    GITHUB PAYS FOR YOU AND A TRAVEL BUDDY
    NETWORKING
    EXPLORATION x
    MARKETING FOR GITHUB
    DRINKUPS, YOUR TALK
    MEET PEOPLE
    POTENTIAL HIRES, SOCIALIZING IS FUN
    

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94. BURNOUT HAPPENS WHEN YOU’RE NOT
    EXPLORATION x
    PERSONALLY GROWING
    

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95. NO SET HOURS
    )
    FREEDOM
    

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96. NO MANAGERS
    )
    FREEDOM
    

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97. NO MEETINGS
    )
    FREEDOM
    

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98. NO NEED TO BE IN OFFICE
    )
    FREEDOM
    

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99. NO VACATION TRACKING
    )
    FREEDOM
    

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100. SELF-DIRECTION
     X
     WORK ON
     THINGS THAT INTEREST YOU
     

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101. SELF-DIRECTION
     X
     WE HAVE TEAMS, BUT TEAMS SHOULD BE
     EASY TO MOVE BEtweEN
     

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102. KEEP YOUR EMPLOYEES
     HAPPY
     REALLY
     REALLY
     REALLY
     

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103. flexible
     be
     

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104. build a company
     you want to work for
     

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105. happiness
     push for
     

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106. thanks.
     

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107. zachholman
     @holman
     zachholman.com/talks
     

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