How GitHub Works (v2)

This is the updated version of my "How GitHub Works" talk.

Read more: http://zachholman.com/posts/how-github-works/

Transcript

1. github
   works
   how
   

   View Slide

2. we all work
   in the finest
   industry of
   all time
   

   View Slide

3. dream it
   that morning
   

   View Slide

4. build it
   that afternoon
   

   View Slide

5. that’s remarkable.
   

   View Slide

6. can we do better?
   

   View Slide

7. we’ve been on the
   same path for
   years
   

   View Slide

8. can we
   improve how
   product is built?
   

   View Slide

9. working asynchronously
   optimizing
   happiness
   for
   five years later
   github
   

   View Slide

10. @holman
    

    View Slide

11. github, inc.
    

    View Slide

12. ASYNCHRONOUSLY
    WORKing
    the philosophy
    

    View Slide

13. when github was founded they:
    worked on what they wanted
    worked where they wanted
    worked when they wanted
    

    View Slide

14. when github was founded they:
    were happy
    

    View Slide

15. why change this?
    

    View Slide

16. developer happiness
    is central to our workflow
    

    View Slide

17. no managers · NO DEADLINES
    NO MEETINGS · NO WORK HOURS
    this:
    reflects that workflow
    

    View Slide

18. in hindsight,
    we work like
    a big open source
    project
    

    View Slide

19. WORK LIKE
    OPEN SOURCE
    

    View Slide

20. the open source
    model works
    

    View Slide

21. distributed
    collaboration
    

    View Slide

22. GEOGRAPHY
    

    View Slide

23. open source
    happens everywhere
    smart people are everywhere
    

    View Slide

24. build a company that
    can work anywhere
    

    View Slide

25. tools are our office
    planning, discussing, building
    

    View Slide

26. all information
    should be accessible
    

    View Slide

27. HOURS
    

    View Slide

28. open source
    happens at any time
    people are creative at all hours
    

    View Slide

29. code is a
    creative endeavor
    let your people stay fresh
    

    View Slide

30. night owls
    ain’t morning people
    

    View Slide

31. morning people
    ain’t night owls
    

    View Slide

32. you can’t
    enforce creativity
    

    View Slide

33. minimal
    process
    

    View Slide

34. every step you add
    increases complexity
    

    View Slide

35. every step you add
    increases onboarding
    

    View Slide

36. every step you add
    increases inefficiency
    

    View Slide

37. minimize human
    processes
    

    View Slide

38. code branching & release (WRONG)
    V2
    BRANCH
    QA
    MANAGER
    STABLE merged
    FEATURE
    BRANCH
    TUESDAY
    CODE REVIEW
    

    View Slide

39. code branching & release (WRONG)
    V2
    BRANCH
    QA
    MANAGER
    STABLE merged
    FEATURE
    BRANCH
    X TUESDAY
    CODE REVIEW
    

    View Slide

40. minimize human
    processes
    code branching & release
    

    View Slide

41. code branching & release
    branch pull request
    master merged
    

    View Slide

42. code branching & release
    merged
    run tests
    auto-deploy
    

    View Slide

43. sometimes it’s not
    about automation
    sometimes you have to
    remove barriers
    

    View Slide

44. ship code quicker
    

    View Slide

45. less metawork,
    more actual work
    

    View Slide

46. ASYNCHRONOUSLY
    WORKing
    with tools
    

    View Slide

47. pull requests
    a request
    to merge
    your code
    

    View Slide

48. pull requests
    3,108 github/github pull requests
    399 in the last month
    63 in the last month - 1 year
    

    View Slide

49. pull requests
    3.1
    1.4 pull requests PER employee
    per month, 2011
    pull requests PER employee
    per month, 2012
    

    View Slide

50. pull requests
    we use pulls for
    any new code
    

    View Slide

51. pull requests
    asynchronous
    ask for feedback at their leisure
    

    View Slide

52. pull requests
    mentions
    ping users, teams
    

    View Slide

53. pull requests
    avoid meetings
    & in-person code review
    

    View Slide

54. chat
    

    View Slide

55. chat
    chat is inherently
    asynchronous
    

    View Slide

56. chat
    tapping me on my
    shoulder is inherently
    being a jerk
    

    View Slide

57. chat
    scheduling a meeting is
    inherently probably a
    hate crime
    

    View Slide

58. chat
    83 chat rooms
    

    View Slide

59. chat
    ping someone
    

    View Slide

60. chat
    ping someone
    native OS X + ios notifications
    

    View Slide

61. chat
    get someone’s attention
    without bothering them
    

    View Slide

62. OPTIMIZing
    HAPPINESS
    for
    

    View Slide

63. WHY BE
    HAPPY?
    

    View Slide

64. if you’re asking,
    you’re probably
    a horrible person
    but...
    

    View Slide

65. investing in employees
    makes fiscal sense
    (I can’t believe I had to say that)
    

    View Slide

66. happy people
    produce better work
    

    View Slide

67. happy people
    help you recruit
    

    View Slide

68. happy people
    keep you happier
    

    View Slide

69. so how?
    

    View Slide

70. BREAK
    CONVENTION
    from
    

    View Slide

71. work style
    asynchronous, distributed
    

    View Slide

72. side project culture
    let people build cool things
    hubot · CI testing · deploy infrastructure
    door me · music server · support tools
    dev environment management · more
    

    View Slide

73. travel
    

    View Slide

74. company summit 2x/year
    company-wide brainstorm
    travel
    

    View Slide

75. mini-summit 1x/year
    team-based brainstorm
    travel
    

    View Slide

76. any talk, anywhere
    your talk or as a travel buddy
    travel
    

    View Slide

77. github destinations
    hack house for a dozen for a month
    travel
    

    View Slide

78. github destinations
    hack house for a dozen for a month
    travel
    berlin · hawaii · Uruguay · Beijing · rome · etc.
    

    View Slide

79. travel
    why?
    

    View Slide

80. travel
    travel is eye-opening
    new perspectives, new approaches
    

    View Slide

81. travel
    face time
    bond with your coworkers
    

    View Slide

82. travel
    stay fresh
    

    View Slide

83. FAMILY
    focus
    

    View Slide

84. people have
    kids and stuff
    

    View Slide

85. flexible hours &
    locations are great
    

    View Slide

86. 120 hour
    work weeks are silly
    

    View Slide

87. family-friendly
    company events
    

    View Slide

88. existence of families
    reflects success
    

    View Slide

89. f i v e
    YEARS
    LATER
    

    View Slide

90. four years in,
    github’s the same
    

    View Slide

91. four years in,
    github’s changed
    

    View Slide

92. changes and constants
    are fascinating
    

    View Slide

93. MORE
    HUMANS
    

    View Slide

94. View Slide

95. View Slide

96. View Slide

97. View Slide

98. 132 employees today
    

    View Slide

99. 2.5 million users today
    

    View Slide

100. death of the
     hero developer
     

     View Slide

101. work moves across
     ops, design, backend,
     & frontend more
     frequently
     

     View Slide

102. rely on other teams
     for sanity checks
     

     View Slide

103. pull requests
     bottleneck prevention:
     

     View Slide

104. we average 10-20 per day
     

     View Slide

105. means fast development
     without sacrificing quality
     

     View Slide

106. INTERNAL
     TOOLING
     

     View Slide

107. the bigger we get, the
     more time we spend on
     internal tools
     

     View Slide

108. our dev tools are
     prettier than most
     for-profit products
     

     View Slide

109. SUPPORT
     

     View Slide

110. Chat
     

     View Slide

111. TEAM
     

     View Slide

112. it becomes
     mathematically
     improbable that this
     time was wasted
     

     View Slide

113. teams
     

     View Slide

114. teams let you focus
     

     View Slide

115. but teams shouldn’t
     be about lock-in
     

     View Slide

116. permissive repositories
     permit people to float
     

     View Slide

117. self-selecting teams
     hugely important in crisis
     

     View Slide

118. we still suck at teams
     it’s important
     to get right though
     

     View Slide

119. how you work
     is as important to me as
     what your work is
     

     View Slide

120. can this work for your
     company?
     maybe, maybe not.
     

     View Slide

121. the point is to
     reevaluate what is
     important to you.
     

     View Slide

122. thanks.
     

     View Slide

123. @holman
     

     View Slide