Since we work remotely, it’s especially important for us to practice clear and precise communication. To accomplish this, we use asynchronous communication, and we have a bias towards writing things down.
Our communication principlesInstant MessagingSlack etiquetteOn 1:1 conversationsRedirect people to public conversationsLong-form documentationVideo calls
Our communication principles
- Assume positive intent
- Be objective and constructive
- Share feedback early
Here are some tools we use for various everyday use cases.
Instant Messaging
Slack is our primary mode of internal day-to-day communication. Most of the clients we work with also use Slack. Quick ad-hoc meetings between individuals in teams also happen via Slack huddles.
Slack etiquette
- Use channels for their specific purpose only. All Slack channels in One2N have readable names, topics, and descriptions. Please post messages that are only relevant to that channel. E.g., don’t post a random meme in the #leaves channel.
- Make use of threads when responding to a post. Tag relevant people if you want them to be notified.
- Summarise your thoughts into a single long-form message instead of sending multiple single-line messages sequentially.
- Ensure important long-form posts such as - meeting summaries, architectural decisions, and action items are also captured at relevant project-level documentation. Often these important messages are lost in Slack. Remember to capture these in Notion or other documentation tools in your project/client.
On 1:1 conversations
Transparency is one of One2N’s core values, and it applies to communication. You should have most of your conversations on public channels instead of DMs. Why?
- Software engineering is all about communication. It’s a team sport. As a football coach, you wouldn’t discuss the strategy and execution with individual members of your team in isolation, right? The same applies here.
- This allows other members to contribute even if you didn’t think of them as potential contributors.
- This allows faster feedback and keeps everyone involved in the loop.
There are instances where some conversations have to be via DMs, but this should be mostly an exception than a norm.
Redirect people to public conversations
Sometimes, others might start a 1:1 conversation with you. In that case, it’s essential to remind them of the importance of transparency and to politely ask them to move the conversation to public channels. You can do this by following the template.
Thanks for reaching out about this. Instead of answering on DM, I think this conversation will be helpful for the whole team. This way, others can also contribute their point of view to this conversation. Let me repost your message on our team group and continue the conversation there.
You should then copy and paste the message to the appropriate public channel, tag the original sender, and add your answer or comment.
Long-form documentation
We started using Notion in 2022. We plan to capture all company information in Notion. We also plan to be public by default and make all company policies, ways of working, bootcamp content, etc., available publicly. This is currently a work in progress. Expect updates to this playbook as we release more and more content.
Video calls
- Slack huddles for quick ad-hoc calls.
- Google Meet for most scheduled meetings where no recording is needed. e.g., 1:1 conversations, team standups, retrospectives, etc. Google Meet is also used for scheduling most external calls (e.g., monthly client feedback sessions, discovery and sales calls, etc.)
- Zoom for scheduled meetings that are recorded. e.g., weekly tech sessions, quarterly all hands, etc. We upload all these recordings in Google Drive for future access.
If a client we work with has their own preference for the tools they are using internally, we adopt them for that particular client.
We also use email for more formal/official communication, company announcements, etc.
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Next to Part 3: Employee Policies