Working at Mattermost

A guide for Mattermost's distributed staff

Work Across the Globe

We're headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and like many open source companies a large portion of Mattermost, Inc. works across the globe.

This gives us tremendous advantages

1. Access to top talent across the globe.

2. More comfort. People have 100% control of their surroundings.

3. No commute. Removing a 30-60 minute commute saves 250-500 hours a year.

4. Time zone coverage. We can more easily support global customers.

5. Results-focused culture. Output matters more than hours at a desk.

Also, we have Meetups around the world to deepen and broaden our relationships and build the future of our products together.

• Check out MatterCon 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal.

• Watch highlights of our Community Meetup in Toronto, Canada.

• See our Core Committer Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

We run as a distributed, high performance team using a few principles

1) Work across the globe with good internet

Working on a distributed team means more time with loved ones, no commute, and controlling everything about your workspace.

The one requirement is having the ability to occasionally join video calls using Zoom between 8am and 1pm California time, which requires a reliable internet connection.

Recommended download/upload speeds should be 8 Mbps/512 kbps for smooth group calling and screen sharing, with a bare minimum of 4 Mbps/128 kbps. The CRS Video Conference Bandwidth Speed Tool can be used to check your internet speed.

There are exceptions to this requirement, for example: part-time roles that don’t need to take meetings, or roles providing support outside core meeting hours.

2) Be explicit

Working in a distributed organization means it may take time before a person reads your message and responds, so make sure you are clear.

Communicate relevant information in the first message:

• Avoid “Are you free to talk?” and “Can we talk about something at 3pm?”, instead use “Can we speak about ulimit issue Customer X is having?”

Write unambiguously:

• Avoid “I think the answer is Yes”, instead use “Yes”, “No”, or “I think the answer is Yes, I’ll confirm with Steve and let you know.”

Likewise, we emphasize written communication. Reading is faster than listening and it reaches more people, which means more happens in less time.

3) Follow through

When working on problems, make sure to be clear about next steps, and either follow through or create a ticket to track the work.

4) Hang out

We have warm-ups in some meetings to learn more about each other. It’s part of a culture where we get to know each other.

Find time after meetings and video conferences to get to know your teammates. Ask them about their weekends and how their life is outside of work.

When you meet in person at off-sites and events, build on those relationships.

5) Be the change you want to see

When something’s not clearly documented, take the initiative to figure out what’s going on and update the documentation for the people who come after you.

Learn, Master, Teach is a model we use to pass on training after you’ve been trained to help grow everyone at the company. This model also allows staff and teams to be “vacation-ready” and rely on documentation than single points of contacts.