41–50 of 86 posts
I work with many people who are against writing; they never write anything and they only want to do sync meetings (phone/in person); I am on the tech team usually which makes that even more painful as 'talking through tech' is a horrible thing. Nothing sticks as everyone needs time to think about things. Inevitably, after a while, you get people losing track of things that were actually said, that were actually agree…
Written communications have tremendous advantage in that you can take an unlimited amount of time to document intricate structures and processes in such a way that they could be consumed easily by other parties. But, writing takes a lot of time in order to achieve the highest value and can sometimes become a bottleneck.
Verbal communications are useful in those cases where the written communications have faltered in their ability to convey meaning, and also in cases where you need to quickly iterate through a dynamic situation. But, verbal communications are prone to rambling and argumentative paths which begin to reverse business value.
IMO, the best is a dual-stack approach. Have a daily standup call, but require that everyone email out to the participants all of their discussion points prior to the call. All participants should be expected to read the discussion points of others prior to joining the call. This means that everyone should be more-or-less discussing just the aspects of the written communications that have gaps or otherwise raised new concerns. I find this can eliminate most of the frustration that can emerge with both techniques. For us, this isnt even an explicit email process. We just have a special label in Github we apply to those issues which we'd like to review each morning. Over the course of each day, written communications in these issues would determine if a subsequent review is required.
Whenever you compose an email, put your ask in the first sentence. Do you want information from them? Do you want them to do something for you? Put it in the first sentence. Then put the explanation and details in the rest of the email.
This. Even if you are emailing an old friend for a favor, put your request up front then put the cordial stuff after, its much more sincere that way. > Joe, we are looking for advisors to sit on our board. This is a non-paying position so I'm emailing all my old friends and asking for favors. Hey, how are you? How is your wife and son? Either way lets get together soon! --Aaron
In my new job I do a lot of writing; documentation, architecture (ADR's), and lots of details in the user stories themselves - although those are mainly for myself. But I have a fear. What if nobody bothers to read it? What if they start reading it but just glaze over because of the sheer volume of it? I mean the ADR's for example are a lot of 'internal' musings that I've considered. I am a solo developer on this pro…
Write concisely and in order of importance. The Inverted Pyramid model [1] is helpful. Key points answering questions Why, What, When, How, Where go up front. Then, important details. Finally, internal musings and background info go to the bottom. This way, the reader can stop at any time and they won't miss anything crucial.
Another important tip is to refine the documents you've already written. Think of it as refactoring. Rewerite unclear, long sentences. Be consistent in describing the same procedures. Delete parts that aren't necessary anymore.
Just like maintating the old code, it takes time and may seem as a waste of efforts. But it's well worth it.
> I've got nobody to check my work either.
Are there any other stakeholders that may be interested in what you're doing? Interns? Vendors? Ideally, your documents should be written so anyone can understand the main points and follow them. They don't have to gork the gory details and that's fine. Ask your collegues anyway, even if it's a first few paragraphs.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)
I work with many people who are against writing; they never write anything and they only want to do sync meetings (phone/in person); I am on the tech team usually which makes that even more painful as 'talking through tech' is a horrible thing. Nothing sticks as everyone needs time to think about things. Inevitably, after a while, you get people losing track of things that were actually said, that were actually agree…
After a sync meeting, I find that it can be useful to note down your key takeaways in an email sent to the other party for confirmation. ("For posterity, this is what we just discussed: ...".)
There are sizable open source projects which do all coordination asynchronously. There are no synchronous meetings, even online. The military takes writing seriously.[1] People write things which are acted upon by others. The reader needs to understand clearly what is intended. Especially when they are out of communication with the sender. It's worth understanding the military five-paragraph order format.[2] Not beca…
> Vanilla flavoring shall be pure or artificial vanilla in such quantities that its presence shall be organoleptically detected, but not to a pronounced degree.
> Candied cherries shall be made from pitted cherries. They shall be thoroughly processed with sugars to a soluble solids content of not less than 72 percent and artificially colored with a red dye. They shall be cut to yield 1/4- to 1/2-inch (6.4 to 12.88 mm.) cherry pieces on the average.
> One of the changes dictated by the Defense Department, Nunn said, shifts "the tolerance of candied cherries from 12.8 mm. to 12.7 mm. Always onward and upward."
> The flavor of the finished product shall be typical of the type indicated. There shall be no off-flavors or off- odors.
In case you haven't caught on, this spec is describing a fucking fruitcake.
[0] https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-12-25-850329...
It's important to my role. I'd happily pay someone to set me (and hold me accountable to) relevant assignments and give feedback on my work.
I understand there are writing courses, it's the 1:1 timely feedback I'm seeking.
I work with many people who are against writing; they never write anything and they only want to do sync meetings (phone/in person); I am on the tech team usually which makes that even more painful as 'talking through tech' is a horrible thing. Nothing sticks as everyone needs time to think about things. Inevitably, after a while, you get people losing track of things that were actually said, that were actually agree…
For most companies, the process is not the product. Having immaculate meeting notes from sync meetings 3 years ago doesn't keep the lights on.
Where do you think the product comes from? A bunch of people randomly doing whatever they want? The process absolutely impacts the product. Does SCM keep the lights on? It's the same thing, except for code.
I work with many people who are against writing; they never write anything and they only want to do sync meetings (phone/in person); I am on the tech team usually which makes that even more painful as 'talking through tech' is a horrible thing. Nothing sticks as everyone needs time to think about things. Inevitably, after a while, you get people losing track of things that were actually said, that were actually agree…
I've been fighting the flip side of that coin in my team - people who make an idle comment on a phone call, and come back at you months down the line with, "This was already discussed and decided in earlier meetings."
It is possibly the most frustrating thing about my job these days, so I'm hoping as more people get used to working remotely, writing will start to take precedence.