No hello

When we worked in the office, it was almost rude to get to the point. You couldn’t just walk up to a teammate and ask a question. Invariably, you’d start with a greeting. For example, “Hey Tina, how’re you doing? Do you have a minute? I need your help with…” That whole interaction pattern works perfectly in a synchronous setup. When you’re distributed, you can’t expect the other person to be looking at their chat app right at the moment that you are typing. This happens when you apply a synchronous interaction pattern to asynchronous instant messaging.  

Coworker 10:20. Hey Sumeet

Sumeet 10:45. Hi!

Coworker 11:01. Do you have a minute?

Sumeet 11:12. Sure mate, what’s up?

Coworker 11:14. So, I was just looking at our backlog and…

 See what happened right there? Between the two of us, we created five messages for what could have been one message. I know it may feel awkward to just get to the point. And that’s ok. Go ahead with the pleasantries, but just include it in a single message. Think of how you’d write the note if you were writing an email. Here’s an example. 

Coworker 10:20. Hey Sumeet. Whenever you have a minute, can you tag the epics and Confluence pages that relate to the search feature? I’m putting together our roadmap, and the tag will automatically pull related artefacts into the document. Thanks a bunch mate!👍🏽

 For another, related perspective, check out NoHello.