Preferences for communicating with me
This was a section on my homepage, as part of a How to work with me manual / User Guide. I ended up extracting it here to reduce clutter there, and make it easier to reference directly.
Note: Don't worry too much about following these exactly! Details here are mostly relevant for people I work with a lot or AI virtual collaborators.
From you to me
- Bias towards overcommunicating. Leave pauses so I can interrupt you if you're telling me stuff I don't think is relevant.
- State your uncertainties and where you've made assumptions.
- Give me feedback. Prefer unpolished timely feedback to no or late feedback. Bonus points if you can be specific or provide examples.
- If you're asking me to review something, see my review guide.
- Generally prefers async communication (email, Slack, docs) over unplanned calls, and appreciate clear action items and timelines.
- Exception: if we are colleagues and something is blocking you.
- Asynchronous communications
- Slack if we have a workspace in common relevant to the topic, you know I check that workspace, and it's something short.
- WhatsApp, Messenger or Telegram for personal stuff (no formal work comms).
- Exception: If we're working somewhere that doesn't have a communication tool, you can send work comms here.
- Google Docs or similar for anything longer or that needs collaboration.
- Email for everything else, or where you're not sure.
- It's fine for you to send me asynchronous communications while sitting next to me.
- If you need me to do or answer something, make it obvious. For example:
- Add '[Action required]' to the subject.
- Prefix tasks with 'Action required:' and bold them.
- State any relevant timelines upfront.
- If I need to read it, use the email 'to' line or tag my Slack handle.
- Don't inline reply to emails. It's hard to see what's been added, muddies email history, and causes difficult-to-resolve forks.
- Don't just say hello.
- Prefer to communicate widely (e.g. Slack channels/email distros, not DMs) so others can learn from our conversation later.
- Exception: discussions about personal or sensitive matters
- Synchronous communications
- Likes: In person, or Google Meet.
From me to you
- I don't usually send acknowledgement messages unless asked.
- Assume misunderstanding, not malice in my comms. In particular:
- If I'm going in the wrong direction, tell me early.
- I tend to overcommunicate to ensure we're aligned. Interrupt me if I'm telling you something you know!
- If I am slow to respond, I'm likely a bit overloaded with other stuff.
- I will send you asynchronous communications while sitting next to you, unless you ask me not to. This is to avoid interrupting you, and so that you can instead address comments at a time that is convenient to you.
- Emoji meanings: 👀 is 'looking', ✅ is 'done', 👍 is 'acknowledged' (not meant passive aggressively), ➕ is 'agreed', 🙌 or 🎉 is 'yay'