Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

The GitLab way: Kindness, transparency, and short toes | David DeSanto (CPO)

Apr 14, 2024

David DeSanto, Chief Product Officer at GitLab, shares insights from the world's largest remote-only company. He explores the unique culture of transparency, emphasizing recording team meetings and the extensive public employee handbook. The discussion includes GitLab's 'short toes' philosophy, encouraging collaboration over ego, and the importance of kindness in remote work. Hilariously, he highlights using humor in high-stakes negotiations and offers valuable career advice for product managers navigating remote challenges.

01:21:34

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David DeSanto

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Quick takeaways

The importance of transparency at GitLab is demonstrated through sharing team meetings, handbooks, and fostering open communication for clarity and efficiency.

In a remote work setting, GitLab emphasizes defining clear outcomes, over-communicating, and leveraging tools like Zoom for effective communication.

GitLab uses its own product for streamlined collaboration, integrates Zoom for immediate interactions, and prioritizes asynchronous communication to accommodate global teams.

Product decisions at GitLab are customer-centric, focusing on outcomes, continuous improvement, and fostering a culture of constant learning to ensure operational efficiency.

Deep dives

Transparency and Handbook Workflow at GitLab

At GitLab, transparency is paramount, evident in how they conduct their team meetings, share handbooks, and operate with open communication. The handbook presents essential information on onboarding, policies, and workflows, fostering a culture of transparency. Employees are encouraged to contribute to the handbook, submitting PR requests to implement changes in how the company functions. This practice ensures clarity, efficiency, and aligns the team towards common goals.

Focus on Results, Transparency and Over-communication in Remote Work Culture

00:52

Importance of Communication and Feedback in Remote Work Environments

01:42

Enabling Various Teams with AI Transparency and Privacy

00:31

Empowerment through Analogies

00:33

Intro

4min

The Power of Transparency at GitLab

17min

Embracing Kindness in Remote Work

18min

Navigating Career Transitions in Product Management

4min

Navigating Remote Product Management

4min

Promoting Kindness and Communication in Remote Work

2min

Streamlining Communication and Collaboration through the Handbook

3min

Navigating Time Zones and Strategic Focus at GitLab

17min

Humor and Leadership in High-Stakes Conversations

6min

10.

Effective Interview Techniques and Personal Leadership Insights

3min

11.

Engaging with GitLab: Community Contributions and Feedback

2min

David DeSanto is the chief product officer of GitLab, which is the largest remote-only company in the world. They share many of their team meetings on YouTube, and they’ve grown from being an open-source code management product competing with GitHub to a multi-product platform that covers security, compliance, continuous integration, project management, and deployment tools, many of which are infused with AI magic. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How GitLab operationalizes transparency

• The philosophy behind recording and sharing team meetings on YouTube

• Their extensive public employee handbook

• GitLab’s core value of having “short toes”

• Challenges and advice for doing remote work well

• Strategies for ensuring effective communication in a remote work environment

• GitLab’s breadth-over-depth strategy

• The company’s unique approach to AI

• The value of using humor in high-stakes conversations

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