COMPANY PLAYBOOK
Sourcegraph
Sourcegraph builds speed in remote engineering through high agency, ownership of customer problems and small validation steps rather than chains of instruction.
System principles
- Make the person doing the work the default decision owner.
- Cut scope, not quality.
- Own customer value, not just output.
Tensions and trade-offs
- High agency shortens decision distance but can pull teams apart without shared context.
- Early shipping accelerates learning but temporary solutions can become permanent debt.
PRACTICES
How Sourcegraph builds its operating system
01
Ownership
The doer owns the decision
The default owner of a technical decision is the person or team that owns the work it implies.
- How it works
- Decision authority starts with the person doing the work; unresolved disagreement uses a clean escalation.
- Why it is used
- Keeps decisions close to information and reduces waiting.
- Trade-off
- An owner who gathers too little context can optimize locally.
- Best fit
- Teams with explicit accountability and company goals.
02
Product
Smallest useful release
A product is made useful first, then made smooth, fast and scalable.
- How it works
- Under uncertainty, a narrow scope that can generate feedback ships first.
- Why it is used
- Validates the solution before making a large investment in the wrong direction.
- Trade-off
- Temporary shortcuts need visible follow-up and cleanup.
- Best fit
- Reversible product decisions and early discovery.
03
Async
Move async context into writing
Decision and work context stays written and accessible for time-zone-independent participation.
- How it works
- Processes, principles and decisions are made durable in shared handbook surfaces.
- Why it is used
- Reduces oral-history and visibility inequality in a remote team.
- Trade-off
- Reading load and document freshness become operational work of their own.
- Best fit
- Teams with strong writing across multiple time zones.