How to chat and not make your folks mad
We chat all day. Every single day. We tell, we listen, and we are often insane in conversation. I were. But then — I learned some good tricks, shared them with my teammates, and getting insane in discussions has become a rare case
I hope this helps your teams save some brain cells as well.
Honestly, it worth sharing.
#1 Don’t waste a whole message just to say “Hello”.
Sending a message just to say “Hi” and then waiting for a reply until you ask your question, wastes time.
Don’t:
A: Hi!
B: *Waiting for A for 2 mins…*
B: *Still waiting, nothing’s happening*
B: Hi!
A: Send me the link to the document you mentioned in the meeting, please.
Do:
A: Hey! Send me the link to the document you mentioned in the meeting, please.
B: Hey, sure. docs.google.com/d/1dajjkk10_qewe
#2 Ask right away
Don’t
A: Hey, can I ask you a question?
A: Hi, can you help me out?
Do
A: Hi, Robinhood wants us to add two new signals and want to have a PoC. Here is the ticket. Could you please take a look and let me know what you think?
#3 Indicate urgency
What seems like an obvious urgency to you, might not seem one to someone else. Make sure to indicate the urgency of your request.
Don’t
A: Our servers are down.
Do
A: API v2 is down. We need to fix this ASAP!
A: API v1 is down. But we migrated our last client to API v2 so it’s not a big problem. Just take it down completely when you have the time.
#4 No meta-questions
A meta-question is a question about another question.
Don’t
“Can I ask a question?”
“Is there someone who speaks German?”
“Guys, I have a question about account sharing prevention.”
Do
“I have a big customer from Berlin who sent her feedback in German. Any German speakers here? Message me, pls.”
“Guys, where is the documentation on account sharing prevention?”
#5 Provide context
You probably have recently updated your knowledge of the problem and have the full context. But the person you’re messaging might have already shifted their focus on other things and is foggy on the problem you are working on. Don’t forget to share relevant information.
Don’t
A: Hey. So what do you think about Cisco’s request?
B: What did they want?
Do
A: Hey. Last week we discussed adding Cisco to our beta-test of the new account sharing prevention feature. Here is the document with their account information, just in case. Is there any news?
Don’t
A: Deployment to production isn’t working on my side. Any ideas?
B: What were you trying to deploy? Do you see an error message? How were you trying to deploy?
Do
A: Hey. I was trying to deploy the latest master branch of apiv2 to use1 from my personal ec2 instance in Stockholm but got a permission error. Here’s the screenshot. Do you have any ideas about what could go wrong?
#6 Send me a screenshot, drop me a link
When explaining a problem, share the relevant link and/or screenshot. This way your colleagues don’t have to waste time getting to the problem and can just click on the link / open the screenshot.
Don’t
A: Hey guys, our CPU usage is up by 50%. Why do you think this happened?
Do
A: Hey guys, our CPU usage is up by 50%. *Link* *Screenshot*.
#7 Who? What? Where?
We communicate via many chats on Slack and sometimes via emails. So sometimes when you get a “I sent you the link / doc ” you might be confused and start going through all your chats, slack threads and emails. So sometimes it might be important to indicate the location to which you sent something.
Don’t
A: I sent you the doc.
A: I wrote about it in the Cisco thread.
Do
A: Emailed you the API_v2.doc.
A: I wrote it in the Cisco thread, here’s the link / I tagged you.
A: Send me your passport pls
B: I uploaded it to the “Organizational” folder. You can use the keywords “unfortunate photo” to find it.
#8 Explain
- When sharing a big document or a difficult text, provide a short explanation (TL;DR). Also don’t forget to mention what you expect from the person and when.
- When adding someone to a chat or an email chain, make it clear to them what are your expectations: what they need to do, what they should read, etc.
Don’t
A: clients_131121_k_v1.rtf
B: I don’t understand. What is this and how can I help you?
Do
A: Hey! This is the list of accounts that were affected by the 10-minute down-time we had yesterday. Could you email all of them today and provide them with instructions for updating their settings?
B: Sure, I’ll get right on it.
Don’t
A: *Adds B to an email chain that has been going on for weeks, has over a dozed forwarded messages*. Hey, what do you think?
B: *Spends an hour trying to piece everything together and understand what is it that they have to think about*
Do
A: Hey! CC’d you on this chain so you know about our Greenhouse plans. Take a look at Amanda’s email dating 10 Nov and let me know by tomorrow if you have any suggestions.
#9 Slack threads are cool
Use threads in Slack chats. This way all conversations will be structured and the main chat will serve as an index page with all conversations at your fingertips.
#10 I like big texts and I cannot lie
But big texts require a bit more preparation before being sent out.
- divide it into paragraphs
- provide a TL;DR so your readers know what they will be reading about.
#11 Got a few questions? List them.
This way your conversation will be more structured and comprehensive.
Don’t
A: How was the meeting? When is the next one? When do you think Netflix will join us as a customer?
Do
A: Hey! I’ve got a few questions:
1. How was the meeting?
2. When is the next one?
3. When do you think Netflix will join us as a customer?
#12 Appreciate for the help
It feels nice. Be thankful
So do I. Thank you Madina and Ilya for bringing this text to English
I would appreciate if you share A LINK (BIG LINK NOT TO MISS IT) with your teams and would really be thankful for your thoughts on how to improve daily communication, daily life
https://medium.com/@andrew.novoselsky/how-to-chat-and-not-make-your-folks-mad-be48f9b3de1e
