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How to Write an Email

blog.dannycastonguay.com

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Re: How to Write an Email

#21

Post by zhengyi13 »

sdevonoes wrote: post #17
jaffa2 wrote: post #6

in his email he says : Please reply by 3 pm today so we can confirm with the client. in my experience when an action relies on somebody 'coming back' ESPECIALLY if it's a client. (do you want this, or that?) It's best to tell them what you are going to do, unless they confirm otherwise. e.g. We will proceed with removing feature Y to meet deadline of Mar 19, unless otherwise directed by 3pm today. This avoids the lim…

Certainly I have never been in such a situation, but just for me to understand: if the sender has enough decision power to move forward with a default action without confirmation, then the email is simply a polite notice to someone above in the command chain, isn’t it? Why the email then? Wouldn’t a record of the decision (not via email , but in some confluence-like space) be enough? If the confirmation is really nee…

You've probably got a certain level of trust or delegated authority, but you want input and you're giving your leadership the opportunity to steer the decision if they feel they need to, and you're balancing that against the urgency of action.

By very direct analogy, I think there's a dictum in the US military to the effect that a bad plan executed quickly can be better than a perfect plan that's executed too late.

ETA: ... and you're potentially speeding the decision/action by giving leadership the opportunity to confirm/redirect on receipt of the email.

Re: How to Write an Email

#22

Post by Insimwytim »

As I was reading, I mostly thought "well, it might make sense sometimes; well, it's an opinion"

And then I reached:

> 10. AI is fine. Generic language is not.

> It is fine to use AI to draft or review an email.

> But edit it until it sounds specific and human.

Ok, maybe we shouldn't take advice from someone, who authoritatively states it is fine to put slop in the email?

Re: How to Write an Email

#23

Post by Insimwytim »

robinsonb5 wrote: post #18
apparent wrote: post #16

I find that making the very last sentence a question makes it much more likely that I'll get a response than if the question is anywhere else in the email. The person needs to finish reading the email with the question, which prompts them to hit reply and answer it. The immediate-response-rate goes down even more if the input being sought is not framed as a question ("I've been trying to figure out how to handle this…

Also, strictly one question per email - otherwise only the first will be answered and any others ignored!

There should be some process that punishes those, who does that.

Re: How to Write an Email

#24

Post by apparent »

robinsonb5 wrote: post #18
apparent wrote: post #16

I find that making the very last sentence a question makes it much more likely that I'll get a response than if the question is anywhere else in the email. The person needs to finish reading the email with the question, which prompts them to hit reply and answer it. The immediate-response-rate goes down even more if the input being sought is not framed as a question ("I've been trying to figure out how to handle this…

Also, strictly one question per email - otherwise only the first will be answered and any others ignored!

Yeah, if there are multiple items to address, I tend to use bulleted lists and then end the email with "What do you think?"

Re: How to Write an Email

#25

Post by loloquwowndueo »

Default structure

Subject: [Action, Decision, Update, Risk]: [topic]

[First sentence: the ask or punchline.]

[Two to five lines of facts, with names, numbers, and dates.]

[Recommendation or next step.]

[Owner and deadline.]

Dollars to donuts the next generation of AI models will use this template as is, humans will forget to replace the placeholders and you’ll start getting a ton of emails with some of the placeholders verbatim.

Re: How to Write an Email

#26

Post by jaffa2 »

sdevonoes wrote: post #17
jaffa2 wrote: post #6

in his email he says : Please reply by 3 pm today so we can confirm with the client. in my experience when an action relies on somebody 'coming back' ESPECIALLY if it's a client. (do you want this, or that?) It's best to tell them what you are going to do, unless they confirm otherwise. e.g. We will proceed with removing feature Y to meet deadline of Mar 19, unless otherwise directed by 3pm today. This avoids the lim…

Certainly I have never been in such a situation, but just for me to understand: if the sender has enough decision power to move forward with a default action without confirmation, then the email is simply a polite notice to someone above in the command chain, isn’t it? Why the email then? Wouldn’t a record of the decision (not via email , but in some confluence-like space) be enough? If the confirmation is really nee…

Heres an somewhat contrived example scenario.

I’m going to McDonalds what do you want— a big mac meal sure no problem.

Get there. Oh wait what did he want for a drink? Coke? Coffee? Water?

Send a text what you want to drink?

No answer — what do you do?

Instead text should be saying ‘getting u a coke unless you let me know’

No answer in time, so you just get a coke for your friend and if he doesn’t like it tough.

So in that sense i guess yes its a polite notice. But it points to failures in the process .

You should have known what he wanted to drink before going.

You have or now create a policy that states in cases of unknown drink or default is coke.

If your guys ‘don’t’ know whether they can drop feature X or ship late they have been failed by the level above that should state shipping is priority. Therefore dropping a feature is the only action that they can take.

But in take the other point that you do need some authority . Without it progress will stall, and this becomes management issue again. They didn’t ensure you had the info or resource to do the thing.

Edit to add after thinking about it a bit more, that when dealing with customers a slow customer can stall your whole op if you make waiting on a decision from them. Just tell then what you are doing and it lets you proceed. If they come back later with opposite decision then you just do that as well,typically.

Outputting files to a customer :

Do you want them named like this or like that?

No— tell them how you are naming them and if they dont like it theybwil let you know.

Its about removing decisions from customer as most of the time they dont even know what they want

Re: How to Write an Email

#27

Post by [deleted] »

realityfactchex wrote: post #9

All emails should be 2 lines only, is something I learned when I started working in an office. For example, WHAT YOU ARE SAYING WHAT YOU NEED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE (RESPONSE OR DECISION OR ACTION ETC) My boss taught me this. Because people just don't read long emails. Simple as. Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails? As time goes on, often I say (to myself) "forget that", and write all the det…

[deleted]

Re: How to Write an Email

#28

Post by bartread »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #25

Default structure Subject: [Action, Decision, Update, Risk]: [topic] [First sentence: the ask or punchline.] [Two to five lines of facts, with names, numbers, and dates.] [Recommendation or next step.] [Owner and deadline.] Dollars to donuts the next generation of AI models will use this template as is, humans will forget to replace the placeholders and you’ll start getting a ton of emails with some of the placeholde…

> humans will forget to replace the placeholders

I think you're right.

Or people screw up the placeholder content and call you by the wrong name, wrong job title, wrong company, whatever (off by 1 errors in some columns in their automation sheet?).

It's already happening with outreach messages on LinkedIn. Gets an instant block.

Re: How to Write an Email

#29

Post by BeetleB »

> We write emails so the reader can understand the point in seconds, decide quickly, and forward the message without extra explanation.

I stopped reading right there. He's plain wrong about much (the majority?) of the world.

Re: How to Write an Email

#30

Post by BeetleB »

realityfactchex wrote: post #9

All emails should be 2 lines only, is something I learned when I started working in an office. For example, WHAT YOU ARE SAYING WHAT YOU NEED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE (RESPONSE OR DECISION OR ACTION ETC) My boss taught me this. Because people just don't read long emails. Simple as. Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails? As time goes on, often I say (to myself) "forget that", and write all the det…

> Do YOU (want to or have time to) read someone else's long emails?

Always - as long as it makes proper use of paragraphs and doesn't have too many spelling/grammatical errors.

If I ever have to respond to an email asking clarification questions because they wanted to write a concise email, then my time is being wasted.

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