COMPANY PLAYBOOK
Mattermost
Mattermost organizes remote coordination through a shared handbook, explicit areas of responsibility, and language that signals strength of conviction.
System principles
- Write knowledge so it can be reused.
- Make the boundary of accountability explicit.
- Make confidence in an opinion visible.
Tensions and trade-offs
- Written openness creates memory but adds maintenance and reading load.
- Clear ownership increases speed but can create silos when boundaries are poorly designed.
PRACTICES
How Mattermost builds its operating system
01
Decision making
Signal conviction on a 0/5–5/5 scale
A contributor expresses how strongly they hold an opinion from 0/5 to 5/5.
- How it works
- A numerical confidence signal accompanies the opinion; the decision maker weighs it against the issue.
- Why it is used
- Prevents tentative ideas and strong objections from looking identical.
- Trade-off
- Numbers can oversimplify discussion if they replace reasoning.
- Best fit
- Teams that deliberate in writing and have a clear decision owner.
02
Ownership
Ownership through areas and DRIs
An AOR defines the responsibility area for which a DRI is accountable.
- How it works
- Company-wide AORs are defined and connected to the directly responsible individual.
- Why it is used
- Clarifies whom to approach and who is accountable for a topic.
- Trade-off
- Outdated boundaries can cause handoff failures or ownership gaps.
- Best fit
- Organizations with changing scope but a need for explicit decision accountability.
03
Documentation
Preserve retired terms with tombstones
Changed or deprecated terms are retained as tombstones to preserve the meaning of old links.
- How it works
- When a term changes, its old definition is kept in a tombstoned-terms list rather than erased.
- Why it is used
- Reduces context loss for document history and old links.
- Trade-off
- The glossary grows, requiring care over which term is current.
- Best fit
- Long-lived operational documentation with many authors.
04
Feedback
Use 1%/50% drafts for early feedback
Completeness is signalled with 1%, 50%, and 99% draft language; early versions are shared for feedback.
- How it works
- Handbook sections below 50% are labelled with draft status and published early.
- Why it is used
- Gets feedback earlier and makes discussion easier for non-technical people.
- Trade-off
- Early sharing can confuse people who treat drafts as final.
- Best fit
- Organizations with a written, open-feedback culture.
05
Decision making
RAPID roles for complex projects
Complex projects separate decision participation through Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, and Decide roles.
- How it works
- The Mindsets guide defines RAPID as shared role language for complex-project decisions.
- Why it is used
- Separates who inputs, who performs, and who makes the final decision.
- Trade-off
- It can add needless role ceremony to small or reversible decisions.
- Best fit
- Complex multi-stakeholder work with unclear decision rights.
06
Release management
Ship risky change behind a feature flag
New features and riskier code changes ship behind feature flags; release issues close with retrospectives and customer/community bug monitoring.
- How it works
- Release Principles join feature flags, automation, early stakeholder involvement, retrospectives, and post-release bug monitoring in one system.
- Why it is used
- Limits blast radius while enabling learning and fast reversal.
- Trade-off
- Flag debt and divergent user experiences add operational complexity.
- Best fit
- Product teams capable of reversible rollout and release observation.
Primary sources
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No reuse licence displayed; treat page prose as copyrighted/all rights reserved.Archive: Public handbook page with a stable route; eligible for an external web snapshot (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No reuse licence displayed; treat page prose as copyrighted/all rights reserved.Archive: Public handbook page with a stable route; eligible for an external web snapshot (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No reuse licence displayed; treat page prose as copyrighted/all rights reserved.Archive: Public handbook page with a stable route; eligible for an external web snapshot (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public handbook page with a stable route; eligible for an external web snapshot (no snapshot is claimed).
Source details
Company publication: YesAccessed: 2026-09-05Visible update: Not displayedLicence: No licence stated in the reviewed source.Archive: Public handbook page with a stable route; eligible for an external web snapshot (no snapshot is claimed).