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Learner Reviews & Feedback for How to Manage a Remote Team by GitLab

4.8
stars
922 ratings

About the Course

Remote management is much more than just implementing a work-from-home policy. In this course, you’ll learn and apply remote work best practices, build your remote work policy, and prepare your team for success. This course is ideal for current managers, executives, and human resources professionals who want to learn how to lead and support a high-functioning, scalable remote team. GitLab is one of the world’s largest all-remote organizations; experts from throughout the company will guide you through in-depth lessons for leaders, people managers, and HR professionals to build, manage, and scale. By the end of this course, you will be able to: - Lead in a remote environment - Build a remote organizational culture and practices - Assess teams’ and managers’ readiness and preparation for remote work - Create a foundational strategy for executing a remote transformation For the final project in this course, you will create a real or hypothetical strategic plan to transition a team to remote operation. You will assess your organization's remote maturity and infrastructure, and identify the best team structure for remote operation — including determining whether to use an all-remote or remote-friendly model. You'll outline plans for documentation, education, leadership, and equipment or resource needs for your unique organization. This is an intermediate-level course, intended for learners who have previous experience managing or leading people. To succeed in this course, you should have at least one year of management experience. No remote experience is required....

Top reviews

JB

Jun 15, 2021

Amazing! I am happy to see how it is possible to obtain good results by sharing with plurality and concern for inclusion. I learned a lot, with direct practical use in my current roles in my company.

MS

Jan 18, 2021

Thank you for this opportunity. I learned a lot from this Course.This is very relevant. I will definitely recommend this course to my workmates and peers who are currently working from their homes.

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1 - 25 of 328 Reviews for How to Manage a Remote Team

By Lucie P

•

May 30, 2021

- The course is short.

- The precise and very well structured content.

- The course is opened for all the learning weeks.

- The assessment is clear, practical, and uncomplicated.

- I appreciate that there were several instructors: this is more lively.

- I liked to read the peer assessments and their own experience with remote work.

- I would have wished for more practical content regarding teamwork in a remote environment.

- The course is often more about managing remote organizations than about managing teams in a remote environment.

See my full review on https://www.luciepoisson.org/post/managing-remote-teams-gitlab-course-review

Happy course!

By Monira S

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Jan 19, 2021

Thank you for this opportunity. I learned a lot from this Course.This is very relevant. I will definitely recommend this course to my workmates and peers who are currently working from their homes.

By Meghan M

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Nov 16, 2020

As a newly remote manager, this course was amazing. I actually work for GitLab, so it was really awesome to see the stuff explained in a way that was relevant to my company and role.

By Christian R

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Oct 20, 2020

The course provides access to some very helpful information and ideas for remote team management. I had a good time and learned a lot. The linked resources are incredible value in itself.

However, I have some critique.

1) The activity of the course provider in the forum is very low. I had some questions about (I would say) false answers in the quizzes but there was never a reply from the teaching team.

2) Some video clips are just adding no value at all. In general, I felt like the clips could have a better connection and structured as a whole.

3) The course, to me, emphasis more on a transition of the organization to (ideally) an all-remote company than what it says in the title: Managing a Remote Team.

By Krzysztof R

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Jan 23, 2023

The course didn't show exactly how to manage remote team, which is essentially the name/topic of the course. It focused mainly on how to transition the team to remote instead.

By pravin p

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Dec 11, 2020

Total verbal diarrhea. Complete waste of time. Save yourselves. Instead, read the Gitlab handbook https://learn.gitlab.com/coursera-remote-work/

The course structure is all over the place. Doesn't contain any demonstrations or visualizations. Most of the presentation is textual information. If attendees have to read the content then why the heck include videos of people reading their prompters without even modulating their tone a bit. Large images and repetitive information. Also, it is very high-level. One can easily clear their practice tests. For this you expect us to pay you money for the certificate??? Upload it on YouTube and put 100 ads. At least that'll break the monotony.

By Michelle P

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Aug 14, 2023

I work at a remote-first company and GitLab shared advice in terms of documentation, culture and practices that are going to help us become even more effective. This course was worth the time!

By Yuval G

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Aug 23, 2021

This is a good course to learn the basics of remote work management. I think that what makes this course a "must" to take for everyone who is interested in going remote is that it is provided by GitLab management, means a personal that is actually doing this everyday and are one of the only organizations in the world that is doing it 100% and proud of if enough to be 100% transparent with their procedures. Other than that, the course is well structures with high quality videos.

I gave 4 stars as I'm a little bit disappointed from the professional content. I expected to learn best practices, challenges and solutions from Gitlab management that I'm sure they have a lot what to say about it, but instead the content was very abstract, every talk is just a summary of a dry documentation and most of the content is pretty obvious without any special insights.

I think it would be much better if the team would present and discuss about case studies, real challenges they had faced, what is not going well now and they work to improve? any crisis? about real risks and so on. The videos are very short, and I suggest to add this content and even turn this course to be paid if that's what is needed.

Also, the home assignments was very easy - too much easy. I think that without going over any lecture I would get to grade 90 at least. I expected it to be more complex and more challenging.

The bottom line is that this course is a "worth to take" course and I recommend it to anyone that is managing a remote team or plan to do so.

By Omar S

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May 22, 2022

The course does an excellent job of educating about the substantial benefits and challenges of a fully remote organization. Since GitLab is a fully remote company they, understandably, frame the whole course as if this should be the ultimate goal. In reality, most companies that are not in a software-related business will have to adopt a hybrid remote approach. While they recognize that this is probably the most challenging approach, not much is provided to address those challenges. Not much is given in terms of how to adapt to a temporary remote situation like the one triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic either.

A lot of emphasis on communication, asynchronous work, and extensive documentation as key components of a successful remote company.

The steps needed to achieve fully remote "nirvana" are clearly and effectively presented.

By Olga

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Oct 28, 2021

This is my first completed course on Coursera and I'm totally satisfied with the knowledge gained and experience in general. The materials of the course were given in a structured, well thought-out manner. It was easy to understand the concept. Also, it's very inspiring to have additional sources available about the way GitLab documents all the information. It helps to broaden the outlook. The tests at the end of each week helped to summarize the knowledge gained. And the final assignment was great as the way to practice all the knowledge accumulated, as well as a great change to review other peers' assignments and learn how they see the application to practice of the knowledge gained.

By Allie B

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Mar 16, 2021

If you're working towards transitioning your company into any form of remote work, or you're leading a remote/distributed team, this course is a must. The information is incredibly valuable — I've applied so much of it to my work already —and the final assessment will prove to be an asset to your planning. My only issue was with the videos: the text on the video, while a summary of what the speaker was presenting, was never said aloud. This made it incredibly difficult to take notes. I found myself stopping and starting the videos often to capture the "takeaway" and align it with what the speaker was presenting. A small annoyance, but overall, a great course.

By Andre Z

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Aug 11, 2023

Thanks GitLab and Coursera for the distance training. If you're running a remote team or serious about starting one, this is the course for you. In other words, my practice convinced me yet again that GitLab is an open source, powerful, secure, efficient, feature-rich and robust application for handling software development and operations lifecycle. Thank you for the opportunity to have a meeting to discuss the interaction between members of remote team. I think this is an excellent course of study for students who want to improve their proficiency while also learning about manage to remote team!

By Maren K

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Jun 8, 2022

This course was well designed and well organized. The rubric was clear, as were the weekly lessons. I appreciated the mix of video and written content, and the estimated time the course would take each week was accurate (which was really helpful).

It was also great to take this class from the biggest all-remote company in the world. It was great to see their practices and learn from their experience and expertise. I recommend this to anyone who is building an all-remote company, or any company that is hiring remote team members or transitioning to a remote model.

By Javier R

•

Apr 23, 2021

It has been a great course to understand how GitLab is the largest fully-remote company in the world. And while not everything they do is easily transferible to my company because of size, business, etc I have taken note of quite a few insights that are really interesting as my comppany is transitioning to a post-pandemic hybrid mode. Recommended for everyone who has never worked remote or don't think it's possible, or learn where the issues might arise. Really good stuff that no one teaches you around.

By Niels H

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Nov 2, 2020

Really excellent material you are providing. It is clear that you have given remote working a lot of thought and it shines through. The progression towards all-remote takes a bit too much space - space that could have been used for learning how to become an even better manger at all the other stages of remote work. But I will totally recommend this course to anyone in touch with a "remote" organization - and which is not these days.

Thank you for your time bringing this together. :-)

All the best.

By Nginda N

•

Dec 3, 2021

I have learned so much about remote work and the transitioning from colocated environments, hybrid to a full-remote team. As most are aware, distributed teams are the future and the future is now. Thank you so much GitLab for sharing this fortune of information with us, we highly appreciate it. I highly recommend this course to remote workers, HR managers, and individual contributors.

I wish the certificate wasn't so expensive though. I'll purchase it when I can afford it:(

Nginda Nganga

By Muhammad M R

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Sep 23, 2020

It is an excellent course and just in time in view of large number of employees working from home or from remote sites. It is up-to-date and current and provide links to knowledge and tools that are current and evolving. The course provides an excellent resources library which you can use to further pursue topics of your interest in greater depth. The course is very well structured, written and presented and very easily to relate to. You can finish it in a week if you so wish.

By Nguyen T K

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Mar 26, 2021

A course offered for free but done with a high level of professionalism by the Gitlab team. Very well structured, it covers all the different angles of remote team management / distributed teams in different geographies and time zones. While Covid19 pushed most companies in a remote configuration, very few have really looked at transforming their way of working accordingly. Those who decide to do so will have a competitive advantage on others, this course is really a gift!

By Matija H

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May 24, 2022

A valuable resource for anyone currently working at a company which is - or might - adopt some or all aspects of remote work. I was particularly surprised by the high quality of peer review work by participants - both when answering questions themselves and when reviewing their peers' answers. The material is well structured, clearly presented and there's lots of pointers to dig deeper in various directions that you personally find useful.

By Diego G C

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Oct 10, 2021

It was totally amazing. I've learned a lot about remote work, which is my goal when I have to go out and find my first job. I didn't even do it to obtain a mere certificate and forget all the lessons I've learned. Actually, even if I didn't get the certificate, I feel confident enough to be part of the change and help companies transition into remote work types. At the end of the day, remote work has come to stay. Be part of the change!

By Nasajon S

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May 24, 2021

Very well designed course, it didactically addresses the essential tools for us to make decisions, adopt best practices, passes on useful information on how to manage a remote team and make itself available, how to create processes and document valuable information for the company to have as reference material, determine the values to be followed. Congratulations, I feel more prepared than when I started the course.

By Jurystova L

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Apr 13, 2022

Great course for a deep insight and guidance for remote work settings, remote teams types and transition from no-remote to all-remote type of work. Next to the course there is a robust supporting material created by GitLab where you can find extra information on any mentioned topic. Even though I know remote work from my experience, I appreciate the structured way of knowledge transition. Valuably spent time.

By Adalberto C L S

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Jul 8, 2023

This course had a perfect balance between videos and readings and very well supported by third parties articles and contents. It really changed my mind on all related Remote work. From now on I see that the colocated work should be applied really when the people´s presence is mandatory for the processes. Well done GitLab. Thank you very much for these lectures. Congratulations for all of us!!!

By Monique O

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Jan 29, 2022

This is a great course. It is nice to see that remote working is getting more acceptance worldwide and people have been adapting to it. There is much work still to be done, but I like what the future looks like in this matter.

Gitlab has truly captured the essence of the whole process, and it's great that they are providing this course, amongst others, to help facilitate the process.

By SUBRAMANIAM C

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Jul 29, 2021

Git Lab course has been a truly inspiring compilation of 5 weeks of creative and practical filled insights to make a remote model an equally effective one. The course is extremely balanced and gives a flexible view to learners based on different working context. Enriching practices and some valuable remote thought leadership by Gitlab that learners would gain from. Cheers;