How gitlab uses a bot to help its remote team bond
"My teams work remotely. And most of them have never met each other. Despite my experience, the setup was creating unique challenges that I found hard to overcome. Thankfully, Geekbot rescued me."
Jean du Plessis, Engineering manager
GitLab is a remote-first company that bases most of its processes and tools on asynchronous communication. GitLab’s Remote Playbook is the ultimate guide for all aspiring and existing remote teams and companies. We thank them for their contribution to the community ?
Jean manages several remote engineers in his team. The team members are dispersed across the world, from Sydney to the West Coast. And most team members have never actually seen each other in person. While he was used to managing remotely before COVID-19, Jean became more acutely aware of a couple of challenges, unique to this particular kind of management:
- When teammates don’t see each other in person, it’s tough to maintain or strengthen internal team bonds. People start to feel isolated and, consequently, their motivation can wane (even more so during a pandemic).
- It’s hard for managers to keep a pulse on their team’s wellbeing in a remote setting. If someone is experiencing a personal issue that’s affecting their work, it can easily go unnoticed. And managers can’t step in and help if they aren’t aware there’s an issue.
Geekbot helps strengthen team bonds
To address these problems, Jean configured Geekbot to send several check-in questions to teammates at the start of each week via Slack. One question Geekbot asked was:
— “Anything interesting/fun happen over the weekend?”
…to which one engineer once answered, “I built a video game!” Jean and the rest of the team didn’t know this particular teammate was a gamer. And so, through Geekbot it was uncovered a different side to a colleague whom no-one had ever met in-person.
Naturally, when armed with more personal knowledge, teammates can reach out to each other to begin a conversation in Slack and use shared interests as a starting point: in this case, video games.
These types of interactions strengthen team bonds, making for a more enjoyable work environment. While check-in questions, like those used by Jean, help personalize virtual work settings — simulating the ‘water cooler moments’ that would otherwise build such connections.
Identifying if someone is feeling the strain through Geekbot
Jean also asked Geekbot to send out a second check-in question at the start of each week,
— “What’s your RAG status? (Red, Amber, Green). Feel free to share some more context with the team”.
RAG status is similar to a traffic light: green is positive, red is negative, with amber somewhere in between. And Jean could quickly scan the colors to see if a teammate was feeling the strain or close to hitting their limits.
He now uses this information to take action whenever needed, jumping in to help before a situation gets worse. Jean’s team loves this check-in question as it lets them express their feelings, knowing their manager is there to offer support.
A human is on the other end, reading each answer, and ready to respond: it only takes a few words of encouragement to turn someone’s day around or energize a team.
Personal check-ins improve work-life for all
Jean couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Just a few simple questions have turned his remote colleagues into a close-knit team, with focused conversations interspersed with more personal interaction, all in Slack.
Every team member feels heard — while Jean feels confident he can support his team, even when conditions are particularly challenging.
Key Takeaways:
- Anyone can build a close-knit remote team with the right tools and techniques
- Weekly check-in questions help build relationships and rapport
- Techniques like RAG status updates highlight areas needing focus
- Finding common ground turns remote colleagues into teammates and friends
- Builds camaraderie across its remote teams using Geekbot
How does GitLab use Geekbot to help remote engineers bond?
Jean du Plessis, Engineering Manager at GitLab, manages engineers spread from Sydney to the US West Coast, most of whom have never met in person. He set up a weekly Geekbot check-in in Slack with a question like “Anything interesting or fun happen over the weekend?” The answers surfaced shared interests (one engineer builds video games, and so did others), which sparked organic Slack conversations and turned a group of remote colleagues into a close-knit team.
Can Geekbot track team wellbeing or morale?
Yes. GitLab’s team answers a weekly “RAG status” question, Red, Amber, or Green, with optional context. The traffic-light format makes it easy for a manager to spot someone who is struggling and step in early. Geekbot also offers built-in sentiment analysis for questions like “How do you feel today?”, which is useful for spotting trends across a team over time.
Is Geekbot suitable for a remote-first company that already works asynchronously?
Yes. GitLab is a remote-first, async-by-default company and uses Geekbot precisely because it fits that way of working: prompts arrive in Slack, people answer on their own schedule, and everything is recorded in a channel for anyone to read later. Geekbot adds structure and consistency to async communication rather than replacing it with meetings.
How does a manager monitor a remote team’s wellbeing without micromanaging?
A short, recurring check-in question in Slack does the job. GitLab’s engineers answer one personal question and one RAG status question a week; it takes a minute, and the answers are shared openly, so it feels like a team ritual rather than surveillance. Because Geekbot posts answers to a channel, teammates can respond to each other, not just to the manager.
What check-in questions work well for remote team bonding?
GitLab’s two work well: “Anything interesting or fun happen over the weekend?” and “What is your RAG status this week, and why?” Other popular options in Geekbot include “What are you looking forward to this week?”, “Share one thing you learned recently”, and “Recommend a book, podcast, or show.” All questions in Geekbot are editable, so you can rotate them to keep the check-in fresh.
