Depending on how many chickens and the size of the run, nature may or may not take care of the poop without help, generally not though unless you have a very large run and low number of chickens...
Deep litter is turning the floor of the coop or the run into what is deemed a 'cold compost' it's similar to hot composting but much much slower... Essentially you have a deep enough 'litter' bed that is made up of organic things providing carbon, while the chicken poop provides water and nitrates and the chicken scratching provides the turn over, all the while the natural composting bacteria will break down the poop into organic compost...
This has pretty much become the industry standard for many commercial animal farms, not only chickens but for other animals as well...
I started with a 50/50 mix of straw and wood flakes at a depth of about 18" and I continue to add leaves, pulled weeds and grass clippings all year long to maintain a depth of at least 10-12" in my case... There is no poop smell just a sweet earthy smell, very similar to what you smell when open up a new bag of potting soil... You need proper drainage though for this method to work in a run, if it gets too wet it will smell and cease to function property, it simply needs to be moist, again almost exactly like a fresh bag of potting soil, with just a little clumping action if you try to make a ball from it...
Here is what the floor of my coop looks like...
If at anytime you see poop caking up, piling up or layering up the deep litter is not working property, except for very recent poops there should be no visible poop in the litter or poop smell...
Google it up, there is a ton of info to be found on the method...
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