Axelerant is a remote organization, and we must be deliberate about communicating. This guide is our attempt to normalize our communication types at Axelerant.
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How do I use this document?
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As a remote organization, Axelerant prefers to err on the side of over-communicationovercommunication. Moreover, all public and group conversations falling under Axelerant’s within Axelerant's scope of reach must be in English.
When communicating, aim first for clarity and then for brevity. All these These principles aim to ensure the entire Axelerant team’s team's inclusion in all conversations that affect them, even if in the slightest way.
Spirit of the principles
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A message is most useful when it is sent at the right time. Strive for prompt communication in all matters so that the message's value of the message is not diminished.
English language
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When you respond for the third time or more, consider changing the communication type to allow more clarity between stakeholders. For example, like shifting shift from email or Slack threads to a quick Zoom call to speed up alignment.
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Axelerant utilizes various communication tools on the spectrum of synchronous and asynchronous communication to asynchronous. Here is a non-exhaustive list of tools we use along this spectrum.
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Regardless of the frequency of usage, standard conventions apply to the email, language, and format structure. As with letter writing, structure your email into paragraphs not exceeding three. When your email is longer than three paragraphs, rethink whether it should be a document or some other form of a post.
Confluence
Confluence is Axelerant’s Axelerant's platform for broad communication with the whole of Axelerant. This is the home of our handbook, which includes guidelines and policies (such as this one) and meeting notes for various projects. Follow the spirit of knowledge sharing and use your judgment to determine how to structure your content in any Confluence Space.
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Important considerations
In the case of Google Docs or Confluence, be careful how you edit other documents. In most cases, highlight what you want to change and make suggestions rather than direct edits. The standard exception would be when the author already understands the changes you are about to make. Don’t Don't make the author go to “differences between versions” "differences between versions"” to understand what you changed in their document.
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This communication style is characterized by being able to converse with immediate responses. Because of this nature, the choice of tools doesn’t doesn't matter as much, and we will describe our practices irrespective regardless of the tool you use (Zoom, telephone, Google Meet, etc.).
Watch the mute button. No one likes reminding you that you “are are on mute,” and you wouldn’t wouldn't like repeating everything you said. We know stuff happens, but do try to keep this in mind. The flip side is also proper. Keep yourself mute when you have to begin a side conversation or just a lot of background noise.
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Turn on the video unless you are not comfortable with the situation.
Minimize distractions
Clean the camera lens
Declutter your background
Disable notifications
Use Zoom in full-screen mode
Engage attendees
Lightly smile
Look at the person you are talking to by placing their video window near the camera lens.
Physically lean towards the camera, and when reclining, move the camera forward to keep your presence fuller in the video window.
Use non-verbal cues and responses with your hands and head.
Check Zoom’s Zoom's https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/4407537406093-Using-gesture-recognition.
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This falls somewhere between synchronous and asynchronous communication styles. These are the challenging areas of communication because it they can be confusing based , depending on how you use these tools at any given time.
Jira
Jira is Axelerant’s Axelerant's issue tracker of choice. We expect frequent and regular updates on Jira on specific issues; hence, it falls in under the section of hybrid communication tools category. Update issues frequently with the correct assignee, description, workflow state, and other relevant details (log your chargeable time). Making sure this information is complete and appropriate is essential from both a historical and real-time perspective.
Slack
Slack is Axelerant’s Axelerant's primary communication platform. Almost all conversations are initiated on Slack, and most end there. Apart from discussions, Slack is also used for #announcements, updates, and other notifications, making it asynchronous. Given the wide variety of uses and capabilities, it is unsurprising that Slack is easily misused or not optimally used.
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Even though we could use Slack for real-time conversations, always begin your messages as if you were writing a letter (or an email). You should not send “Hi” "Hi"” to start a conversation and wait for a reply. Write down the entire message and give all the necessary context.
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At Axelerant, we value openness as one of our core values and strive to begin open in many aspects of our work. For this reason, most of our channels are available for anyone to join anyone in Axelerant (public). We recommend sharing in open channels rather than private channels or direct messages. For example, our policy discussions are available, and channels begin with “disc"disc-."” Use private channels for sensitive discussions only, which could not something that could be useful helpful to the rest of the team. We should use direct messages only for dialogue that is strictly 1-on-1. Project communication is not a 1-on-1 discussion, even if there is only one other person on the project.
Mind the notifications
Let’s Let's get this out of the way, as this is unimportant. Every message you send might potentially notify someone. However, we see notifications as the responsibility of the receiver. This means we choose over-communication even though it might mean there could be a lot of notifications. Slack provides various tools to manage notifications; we expect everyone to set them based on their preferences.
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Please send your message to the channel which is most relevant to it. Sometimes, there might be two or more relevant channels that could be relevant, in which case you can cross-post. Many channels are intended for a specific use case, and you should strive to use the channel for its intended purpose. For example, we have an #internal-support channel for seeking support (which you should use whenever you’re you're stuck). We also have various “guild” "guild"” channels for discussions and sharing links related to a specific topic. Our project channels generally begin with the word “eng"eng-"” indicating that only project-specific discussion happens in the channel (apart from any notifications). There are many other miscellaneous channels, such as # humor, #cool-stuff, #happy-hours, etc., and you are encouraged to find those.
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Especially in channels, reply to a message by threading it rather than in the channel. This makes it easy to find all relevant past conversations for a particular topic and feasible to have parallel conversations in a channel without cluttering it. You may or may not choose to thread in direct messages, as there is little chance of similar discussions.
Use CATTE
It’s It's handy to remember a catchy acronym to communicate better using asynchronous modes of communication, but especially hybrid. The acronym is CATTE, and this is from an Alice Ko podcast.
C - Context: Did you give the context?
A - Answer: Did you answer the question?
T - Timeline: Did you give the request a timeline or turnaround time?
T - Transparent: Were you transparent?
E - Emoji: Did you add an emoji for emotion? (See Poe’s Poe's law on why this is important.)
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Channel | Primary Use | Norm |
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Slack (all channels) | Day-to-day communication | Response within working hours in 1-2 business days. |
For non-urgent requests (such as non-urgent support from the people-ops team) | Response within the SLA of the requestee. | |
Phone | For emergencies | |
SMS | For emergencies, if not reachable by phone | Respond ASAP. |
Project channels on Slack | Day-to-day project-related communication | Project channels typically begin with the prefix |
Guild Channels on Slack | Conversations related to a specific topic | Guild channels typically begin with the prefix |
Service Area Channels on Slack | Announcements, async meetings, and service area updates | Avoid using these channels for conversations and prefer guilds. They typically begin with the prefix |
Other channels on Slack | Conversations not related to any topic but following a context | Find a relevant channel such as #internal-support, # humor, and #cool-stuff to post your thoughts. If you can’t can't find anything relevant, post in #general. See #we-have-a-channel-for-that for a list. |
Jira | Project or initiative conversation | Use a relevant issue within your projects’ projects' Jira to update meeting decisions, discussions from calls, and Slack conversations. |
Confluence | Documentation, project notes | Use a relevant Confluence space to document meeting notes, conversations, project documentation, etc. Use the Axelerant Handbook for organizational documentation. |
Zoom | Audio/Video calls | Use this to quickly resolve conversations when text conversation isn’t isn't enough (or when Slack is down; see next section on Emergency Chat). |
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In the Zoom desktop app, go to the Contacts tab
Click
+Click “Join "Join a Channel”Channel"
Search “Slack "Slack down!”"
Click “Join”"Join"
Once the service is restored, go back to Slack.
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Navigate to the appropriate Slack channel or direct message.
Use
/callto trigger a call.You may need to permit if it’s it's your first time using Slack calls.
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