Summary

More of us are working remotely than ever before, many with no prior experience with a remote work environment. In this episode Quinn Slack discusses his thoughts and experience of running Sourcegraph as a fully distributed company. He covers the lessons that he has learned in moving from partially to fully remote, the practices that have worked well in managing a distributed workforce, and the challenges that he has faced in the process. If you are struggling with your remote work situation then this conversation has some useful tips and references for further reading to help you be successful in the current environment.

Announcements

• Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
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• Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Quinn Slack about his experience managing a fully remote company and useful tips for remote work

Interview

• Introductions
• How did you get introduced to Python?
• Can you start by giving an overview of the team structure at Sourcegraph?
• You recently moved to being fully remote. What was the motivating factor and how has it changed your personal workflow?
  • What is your prior history with working remote?
• team practices for visibility of progress
• impact of remote teams on how code is written and organized
  • reducing review burden by writing clearer code
• structuring meetings when remote
• points of friction for remote developer teams
• benefits of being fully remote
• incentivizing documentation
• compensation structure

Keep In Touch

• LinkedIn
• @sqs on Twitter
• sqs on GitHub

Picks

• Tobias
  • Joplin App
• Quinn
  • Skunkworks by Ben Rich

Closing Announcements

• Thank you for listening! Don’t forget to check out our other show, the Data Engineering Podcast for the latest on modern data management.
• Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.
• If you’ve learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@podcastinit.com) with your story.
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• Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat

Links

• Sourcegraph
• Quinn’s Python Search Engine
• Sourcegraph Employee Handbook
• Gitlab
• Gitlab Handbook
• Zapier
• Zapier Guide To Remote Work
• Automattic
• Automattic Blog On Distributed Work
• Comments Showing Intent

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA